During the month of August, Darkness to Light and the Tri-County Prevention Coalition held the highly successful 4th annual Prevent-a-thon. This was a month-long media-driven event that mobilized the Lowcountry tri-county area to address the issue of child sexual abuse, making the community a safer place for children to grow and thrive.

Overwhelming public support for training to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse set new records in the Lowcountry tri-county area. 9,000 people either attended one of the more than 100 free Stewards of Children child sexual abuse training sessions or pledged to take the training in September. This is more than twice the number trained by the 2008 event.

Prevent-a-thon raises awareness of the issue of child sexual abuse by blanketing the Lowcountry with news stories, events and a public awareness campaign. The publicity generated by the media prompts people and organizations to attend free Stewards of Children training sessions held throughout the area.

This year's training milestone was fueled by regional school district initiatives to train teachers and staff. Earlier in the summer, Charleston County School District agreed to training for all its 3,500 teachers. During the month of August, both Berkeley County School District and Dorchester District 2 also committed to training 100% of their teachers, making the Lowcountry tri-county area the national leader in educator child sexual abuse prevention training.

Partnership and public awareness was critical to this year's phenomenal success. Darkness to Light salutes community supporters for helping more children grow up healthy and whole.

Prevent-a-thon is a community partnership developed to bring the award winning, Stewards of Children child sexual abuse training to the tri-County area.  This August, Darkness to Light will host its 4th annual Prevent-a-thon 2009 so that trainings can be provided to thousands of Charleston-area parents and youth-serving organizations on how to prevent, recognize and respond to child sexual abuse. 

Held during “back to school” month, Prevent-a-thon™ provides daily Stewards of Children™ child sexual abuse prevention workshops that give our community the skills necessary to better protect the children they serve against child sexual abuse.  The trainings are offered in partnership with local businesses, so they can be offered to the public at no charge. 
In order to better protect the children in your community, we challenge your organization to participate in the 2009 Prevent-a-thon™ by committing to one or more of the following levels of participation:

1. Pledge to train 100% of your staff and volunteers in Stewards of Children
2. Pledge to host 1 Stewards of Children training for your parents
3. Pledge to recruit 1 additional organization to participate in your training
4. Pledge to promote your training to the parents you work with
5. Pledge to promote Prevent-a-thon™ by posting a calendar and poster