What is the prevention project about?
The project's target group is all educational staff at day care centers in the city.
Through training and information material, the project partners want to give these professionals the confidence to introduce or continue the process of preventing sexual violence against children in their facilities and schools in a professionally sound manner.
According to the project partners, staff need regular training to keep their knowledge on the topic of sexual violence up to date. They want to convey to the professionals which actions are permitted in pedagogical dealings with the children concerned and which are not. The partners are convinced that more prevention, awareness-raising and social education are needed to better protect children.
"I am delighted about the excellent cooperation with our police department and the advice center," said city councillor Dr. Dirk Härdrich from the city of Salzgitter. "This is an issue that can only be solved together," he added. Daycare professionals are often unsure how to approach the perpetrators or other adults in the family if they suspect sexual violence against children.
"I can't imagine anything worse than sexualized violence against children," emphasized Volker Warnecke, head of the Salzgitter-Peine-Wolfenbüttel police station. "If there is suspicion of sexual violence against children, there is often a lack of knowledge about who to turn to," reported Claudia Kramer - the Salzgitter/Peine/Wolfenbüttel police department's youth affairs officer. At the moment, the target group of the joint project is still nursery school professionals. The next step will be to offer workshops for schools.
Why is there this joint project?
The project partners have noticed in their areas of work that sexual violence has also increased in Salzgitter, as it has throughout Germany. They are concerned about the renewed sharp increase in registered cases of child pornography being distributed via the internet and child sexual abuse, which they can also confirm for Salzgitter. In 2021, the statistics recorded a record high in this area.
However, the number of unreported cases in this area is much higher. Dark field research from recent years assumes that one in seven to one in eight people in Germany suffered sexual violence in childhood and adolescence.
How are the specialists informed?
In order to inform the professionals, information bags are distributed to all daycare centers. They contain information and contact details of the relevant institutions in Salzgitter where they can get help and advice if a case arises in their daycare center. Among other things, the bag contains a picture book and information material that is used as part of the "Strong Children" project of the "Counseling Center against Sexual Violence". The municipal specialist service for children, young people and families and the police inspectorate also provide various information material on the topic in the bag.
The police have produced a short video for kindergartens for the initial on-site child protection consultation with the aim of presenting the police investigations in cases of sexual violence against children and thus building trust in the measures taken by the police. The video serves as preparation for a possible contact with the police.