By Sharon Daniels, Reform Judaism
The environments we work in face unique challenges in terms of safeguarding – synagogues are public spaces, our workforce is generally volunteers who are members of our communities and we all know there are rarely more than three degrees of separation between us. And of course, no one likes to think that abuse happens in their community.
So we begin by acknowledging that abuse can happen everywhere and that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We need to balance that with everyone knowing where to go and what to do if there are concerns – it is everyone’s responsibility to be aware and follow safe practices, but not to deal with it by themselves.
By working with other youth groups, via Reshet, and other communal organisations, we can support each other, learn together, address these shared challenges and most importantly, make our communities safer places.
