Introducing a free online course on Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Combatting Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Trafficking

We are excited to announce that ICMEC's e-learning platform now hosts a fully available, free 2-part course designed to empower professionals across diverse resource settings—low, medium, and high—in enhancing their community's response to child sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. This comprehensive series, previously offered live, is now accessible for self-paced learning online.

You can find the course here: Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Combatting Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Trafficking.

Overseen by Dr. Greenbaum, ICMEC’s Medical Director, these sessions are an integral part of the HEROES project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project aims to develop solutions for prevention, investigation, and assistance for victims of child sexual abuse and trafficking crimes.

The course is accompanied by The Multidisciplinary Team Framework for Addressing Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Trafficking. This comprehensive framework assists professionals in designing and implementing a multidisciplinary protocol that summarizes the essential components of a successful collaborative team while highlighting issues that require local and national input to meet the unique needs of individual communities. It is designed to be relevant to jurisdictions in high-, medium-, and low-resource settings.

Why Multidisciplinary Collaboration Matters

Child sexual abuse and trafficking are complex issues that demand a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach. Traditional "siloed" efforts, where organizations work independently, often result in inefficiencies and missed opportunities to protect children effectively. Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs), which bring together professionals from sectors like law enforcement, child protection, healthcare, and legal services, play a vital role in reducing trauma for children and their families during investigations and assessments.

By working together, MDTs ensure that children receive the comprehensive, trauma-informed care they need. This approach not only improves outcomes for the children but also helps professionals in various sectors collaborate more effectively, share resources, and streamline processes for greater impact. This course offers an adaptable framework to assist professionals in building and refining their MDTs to address the unique needs of their communities.

Key Components of the Course

The course introduces a new, adaptable framework designed to support a wide range of community professionals in building multidisciplinary collaborative protocols and developing functional multi-agency teams. Through the series, participants will also gain access to an interactive workbook to help them create customized protocols tailored to their unique community needs.

The content highlights:

• The vital role of Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) in minimizing trauma to children and families during assessments and investigations.
• The importance of a child-centered, rights-based, and trauma-informed approach.
• Practical comparisons between standard approaches and MDTs, as well as solutions for overcoming agency isolation.

🗣️ Feedback from a participant after attending the live course hosted by ICMEC earlier this year:

“It is very important that everyone working in this line of work involving children be trained on all these wonderful aspects that have been conveyed by Dr. Jordan. No matter which country you are from and regardless of how difficult you find the bureaucracy there, please try to start doing something in this direction. Before I met Dr. Jordan, I also thought it was impossible in Romania. We haven’t made much progress, but I deeply feel that it is possible. The fact that we have this international support is wonderful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Dr. Jordan and ICMEC.”

The course and framework will soon be available in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

REGISTER FOR THE COURSE FOR FREE HERE

By enrolling in this course, you are not only advancing your professional knowledge but also playing a crucial role in ICMEC’s mission to make the world safer for children. With a commitment to combat child sexual exploitation and trafficking, ICMEC works globally to improve prevention, investigation, and assistance efforts. Together, we can create a future where every child grows up in a safe, just, and nurturing environment.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101021801. 

The content published herein is the sole responsibility of the publishers and it does not necessarily represent the views expressed by the European Commission or its services.