The media has been abuzz lately with stories involving sports coaches taking advantage of young people under their care. At Penn State, assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been accused of molesting eight boys, charges that others in the administration are alleged to have stifled for years. And at Syracuse University, multiple stories have come forward claiming assistant basketball coach Bernie Sanders took advantage of young men. The scandals have rocked both colleges and left parents reeling nationwide. While these isolated incidents prompt dialog and more questions than answers, these problems likely occur on a much larger scale than any of us are aware.

ANDRUS, with 80 years of experience providing programs and services for traumatized children, has some advice and reminders for families shocked and troubled by similar events. We have refined an organizational model that creates and maintains a culture that promotes open communication, shared responsibility and safety for all. During crises like these, it is critical to provide real answers to the children who were unable to speak out for years and provide a blueprint for avoiding these circumstances in the future. ANDRUS’s Sanctuary model is specifically designed for coping with similarly tragic events.

This is an opportunity for athletic directors – and all youth professionals – around the country to take stock of their own programs. Training and preparation can mean the difference between a healthy model for everyone involved.

Traumatic experiences at a young age can dramatically affect one’s behavior for life. Sanctuary teaches us that a primary value of every program should be safety – emotional and physical safety – established from day one. At Penn State and Syracuse, we would have established an expectation that the staff of the program need to learn from each other, engage in constructive criticism and collaborate on promoting safety. We would hold regular meetings at which the staff could share observations and concerns about the children, the program and each other. From day one, the children would have been encouraged to work as buddies, to let others know of anything that made them afraid or uncomfortable. And parents would have been welcomed and encouraged to come anytime to observe the program. These are simple steps, but had they been followed, these problems would never have manifested to the degree they did and chances are the accused coaches would have quickly been forced to step down.

It only takes one person to break the trust and good faith that has been established over many years by an athletic program or charity such as Penn State’s “Second Mile.” Compounding the situation, the adult in question is often an influential member of the community with powerful allies. Adequate training to avoid pitfalls and serious trauma should be as mandatory as providing uniforms.

In spite of these scandals, we must remember that hundreds of thousands of children in adult-supervised programs gain valuable life skills and deserve the trust they have earned. The key is to teach children to speak up when a situation makes them uncomfortable before things become dangerous. Speaking regularly with your children and teaching them to report anything questionable to a parent or school official should be established from a young age.

There have always been stories about child sexual abuse. But the worst scandals in college athletics history involving breaches of trust, threats and cover-ups in the absence of open communication might, like all tragedies, teach us how to prevent child sexual abuse in the future. To avoid a future Penn State or Syracuse situation, schools should focus on greater communication, shared responsibility, and safety protocols for all. If Syracuse and Second Mile are serious about restoring trust to the children they serve, they must create an environment of equality between children and adults. Troubled children should feel empowered to speak up if he or she is uncomfortable. Parents should play an active role in any program. Penn State and Syracuse remind us that it often takes years of secrecy, collusion, and muted voices to result in an unspeakable tragedy.

Nancy Woodruff Ment is the president and chief executive officer of ANDRUS, a Yonkers-based agency providing programs to help children, families and communities meet their full potential.