Our Story
The idea of Darkness to Light was born and carefully cultivated long before its registration as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Over 25 years ago, a child sexual abuse crisis came to light and stirred up Charleston, SC. A small but passionate group of citizens came together and wondered why services were only available after a child was abused. They asked themselves a courageous question: “What can we do to prevent abuse and keep children safe?” Soon, they mobilized other community members to create an initiative around educating adults to protect children.
Holding yearly conferences called, “From Darkness to Light,” they began to elevate the voices and stories of adult survivors of child sexual abuse. This initial community advocacy laid the foundation for a new organization.
In 2000, Darkness to Light was officially born.
OUR VISION IS A WORLD WHERE ADULTS PROACTIVELY KEEP ALL CHILDREN SAFE FROM SEXUAL ABUSE.
2000
2001
Darkness to Light was born out of a vision to change the landscape of child protection.
We produced Telly-award winning media campaigns that raised national awareness and encouraged adult survivors to break free of shame and blame.
We also published our first resource for prevention, “7 Steps to Protecting Our Children: A Guide for Responsible Adults.”
2003
We launched our sexual abuse hotline (1-888-FOR-LIGHT) and distributed over one million copies of the 7 Steps.
2004
We launched the first edition of Stewards of Children®, our flagship training program. This marked a pivotal moment, providing a framework for prevention education that resonates with communities everywhere.
2007
2008
We were chosen by The National Crime Prevention Council as the “Crime Prevention Program of the Year,”
We launched the first Spanish version of Stewards of Children®.
2013
We updated Stewards of Children® to reflect more current issues facing children and communities. The online version of Stewards of Children® also received a complete makeover. The 7 Steps to Protecting our Children was also revised to become the 5 Steps to Protecting our Children™.
2014
In 2014, Darkness to Light worked with the Texas Education Agency to provide over 100,000 educators with Stewards of Children®. This was the largest child sexual abuse training program ever undertaken.
We also created our first additional training to supplement and support Stewards of Children®.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention named Stewards of Children® a Promising Program.
2015
2017
We reached 1 Million adults trained in Stewards of Children®.
That year the United Nations Foundation named our training a Top 5 Child Rights Programme.
We held our first national abuse prevention conference, IGNITE 2017 in Atlanta, GA.
2018
2019
We partnered with Champion Gymnast and Advocate, Aly Raisman. Together we created the Flip the Switch campaign, which provided
Stewards of Children® at no cost to adults involved with youth sports.
We developed Prevent 360° in partnership with the Monique Burr Foundation for Children. Prevent 360° offers comprehensive prevention programming for adults and children.
2020
2023
We adapted to the challenges of the pandemic, offering virtual facilitated training sessions and expanding our online resources to continue our mission without interruption.
We also hit a new milestone: 2 Million adults trained.
We released our most up-to-date edition of Stewards of Children®, providing the same proven framework that has created millions of safe adults but with significant updates to introduce new survivors and experts, the latest statistics and technology, and enhanced learning methods and tools.
2025
We've trained 2.46 Million people to protect children across 102 countries.
Our founders realized the need to combat the popular perspective that the way to stop sexual abuse is to teach children to protect themselves. When abuse is defined simply as a power dynamic in which a more powerful person forces themselves upon a less powerful person, educating children to protect themselves is insufficient on its own. The burden of prevention and protection must sit on the shoulders of adults who are legally and morally responsible for the health and safety of children.
For the first few years, Darkness to Light focused on producing award-winning media campaigns that raised national awareness and encouraged adult survivors to break free of shame and blame. In 2005, after refining the mission to include adult education, Darkness to Light released the first iteration of our flagship training, Stewards of Children®.
Stewards of Children® teaches adults practical actions they can take to reduce instances of child sexual abuse in their organizations, families, and communities. This two-and-a-half-hour course is one of the only award-winning, evidence-informed, adult-focused child sexual abuse prevention trainings in the United States proven to increase knowledge and change behavior. Updated with state-of-the-art data and content in 2023, it received the awards ‘Best in Non-Broadcast – Charitable’ and ‘Best in Non-Broadcast – Education & Training’ during the record-breaking 44th Annual Telly Awards. Stewards of Children® can be taken as a self-paced online course or as an in-person group training offered by an Authorized Facilitator, one of Darkness to Light’s grassroots network of 14,000 volunteers.
Today, through a combination of research, education, and community advocacy, Darkness to Light uses a social behavior change approach to pioneer new training initiatives that bring child sexual abuse prevention to the attention of the broader cultural conversation.
2024 Impact Report
Fiscal year 2024 was packed with exciting initiatives and growth. Your support went a long way last year, and we're excited to show you all we accomplished together:
OUR MISSION
is to equip and empower adults to build safe environments that protect children from sexual abuse.
