Ep. 132 Dianne Keech S.A.F.E. Child Protection Consulting

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Shows Main Idea – Dianne Keech is the owner and lead consultant of S.A.F.E., Child Protective Consulting. Rick Thomas interviews her about child protection and the church’s role in taking care of the children.

Show Notes

You may want to read:

• Foster Children – The Forgotten Victims Of Abuse
• Eight Signs Of Spiritual Abuse
• A Cry For the Victims Of Abuse

Website – www.safeconsulting.org

Mission – To promote the S.A.F.E. Child Protection Review Model (Safety, Analysis, Follow-up, and Empowerment) and to encourage community-based solutions.

Values – Child Focused, Family-Centered, Community Based, Professionally Excellent

Dianne Keech Bio

Dianne has 30 years’ experience advocating for at-risk children. In the last 20 years, she has worked extensively in the state of Kansas. As a Wyandotte County Court Services Officer, she completed over two thousand Child In Need of Care Assessments.

As a former Deputy Director for Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Prevention and Protection Services, Dianne was in charge of overseeing the Kansas Protection Report Center (child abuse and neglect hotline), Investigation and Assessment, Family Services, and Family Preservation Services.  

She was a member of the KS State Child Death Review Board and appointed to the Governor’s Subcommittee on Children’s Mental Health. She was also the Federal Child Justice Act, State Liaison Officer.

Dianne Keech Interview

Please tell me a little about yourself and how you decided to go into child welfare work

• My foster care and adoption story
• Wanted to be a missionary
• Child Welfare recruitment

What is S.A.F.E. Child Protection Consulting, LLC and what services do you provide?

• S.A.F.E. is an acronym or Safety, Analysis, Follow-up, and Empowerment, the keys to child protection work
• Mission
• Past and Current Projects

Does the church have a role in child protection?

• God calls the church to take care of the orphan, the widow, the poor, the prisoner, the sojourner and the outcast. God calls the government to protect citizens
• There is no place in the Bible for departments of “health and human services”
• Very brief history of social security enactment and how the church’s job to care for the fatherless, widows and the poor moved to governmental agencies
• How governmental control over orphan care, pushed Christians out and this is the root of all social problems
• Children are at more risk than ever before in the USA. Children are repeatedly abused in their own homes under the watchful eye of the state. Domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health cycles have become an epidemic. Fatherlessness is an epidemic. Divorce is problematic. Children are being trafficked. Children are dying.
• Biblical child protection
• Law enforcement protects its citizens, especially the most vulnerable (not social work departments)
• The church takes care of the widow, fatherless, the poor and the needy

1. God is lovingly calling the church back to its rightful place.
2. The mark of true religion is the care of the orphan and widow
3. What a church can do right now

• Foster/adopt
• Volunteer placements
• Mentor youth
• Provide free or radically reduce daycare for women and children
• Substance abuse recovery meetings at your church
• Domestic Violence Support Group
• Batterer’s Accountability Group
• Depression and Anxiety Support Groups
• Ex-prisoner re-entry support
• (the church needs to look outward toward the needy
• Employment support

Can the church do more internally to protect the children who are members?

• Child abuse is not just happening outside of the church; it is also inside the church
• Be educated on preventing child abuse and neglect: knowing the signs and how to respond
• How to create a safe place for children in our churches
• How to be child-focused in counseling adults through addiction, mental health, domestic violence
• Churches should have policies and procedures for how to address domestic violence in their churches
• Churches should have policies and procedures in place for child sexual abuse disclosures
• The church should be a safe place for children

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Rick Thomas

Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.

In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).