About the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Advisory Council
The Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Advisory Council, co-chaired by the OCA and the Children’s Trust, convenes professionals from the public and private sectors across the state who have expertise on the prevention of child sexual abuse. The work of the Advisory Council is to provide updates on and discuss with the Child Advocate and the Executive Director of the Children’s Trust emerging issues relating to preventing child sexual abuse and approaches that they could use or advocate for to strengthen the Commonwealth’s child sexual abuse prevention efforts.
The Advisory Council meets twice a year to discuss these issues and approaches.
History of the CSAP Advisory Council
The CSAP Advisory Council was established in 2024 after the mandate of the Legislative Task Force on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse concluded. Co-chaired by the OCA and the Children’s Trust, the Task Force was established by the Massachusetts Legislature (Section 34, Chapter 431 of the Acts of 2014) to develop frameworks, guidance, and tools building on existing best practices and research to prevent child sexual abuse.
Recognizing the continued need to promote coordinated, statewide efforts to prevent child sexual abuse, the OCA and the Children’s Trust resolved to build on the work of the Task Force, including through this Advisory Council. The role of the Advisory Council is to offer policy advice, feedback, ideas, and evidence-informed input to support ongoing work aimed at preventing child sexual abuse.