This session, designed for professionals working in Jewish youth-serving organizations, will introduce you to the fundamentals of safeguarding youth from abuse. The session will include Q&A, practice scenarios, and meaningful discussion. You’ll learn to identify signs of abuse in youth, respond compassionately and confidently to those signs, and understand the guidelines around reporting through the proper channels. Join us for this foundational training in protecting our communities’ youth.

Speaker Bios:

Marina Awerbuch (she/her) is a Senior Consulting Services Manager at Sacred Spaces. Marina has twelve years of experience working with children and parents in community-based settings. Prior to joining Sacred Spaces, Marina served as the Manager of Advocacy Center Operations at ChildHelp Inc., a national child abuse prevention organization. She has led continuing education seminars for professionals and families on evidence-based parent education, trauma-informed care, and child development and conducted community outreach, education, and collaborative program efforts to enhance awareness of child development and child abuse prevention. Marina specializes in building program infrastructure and data management to best support the growth of non-profit organizations with a focus on children’s wellbeing. Holding a Bachelors of Psychology from York University, Toronto ON and a Master’s of Advanced Study in Infant Family Practice from Arizona State University, Marina is endorsed through the Infant Mental Health Coalition of Arizona.

Regina Wright (she/her) is the Aleinu Director of Youth Safeguarding. Regina has over 25 years of experience in child welfare; program management; and safeguarding youth, adults, and communities. Throughout her career, she has helped youth-serving organizations develop policies, programs, and monitoring systems that center youth in all their endeavors. In the last decade, while working as a senior-level advisor at Save the Children US, Regina has applied an in-depth understanding of trauma to organizational development. Through her consulting work she has built the safeguarding infrastructure for international youth-serving organizations. Her contributions entailed policy development, risk assessment, investigations of abuse allegations, and education around approaches to cultural humility. She is thrilled to join the Sacred Spaces team in continuing to support communal safety and wellbeing. Regina earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from New College of Florida, her Master’s in mental health counseling at Nova Southeastern, and completed 3 years of doctoral coursework in organizational leadership at Argosy University.