Abuse Prevention and Response

At IMB, we believe that all people are made in the image of God, and all people deserve our unrelenting commitment to protection and compassionate care. We take the issue of sexual assault and abuse seriously and have taken significant steps to address this issue in our organization.

We work closely with third-party experts to review our policies and procedures and to help us appropriately investigate allegations. We continuously review and update our prevention and response policies and processes as needed.

Message from Leadership

The release of our denomination’s Sexual Abuse Task Force report on Sunday, May 22, 2022, marks an opportunity for our denominational family to lament the pain and devastation of abuse. Scripture teaches us to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Within the Task Force report, Guidepost has made recommendations to the denomination’s executive committee that will help the overall denomination forge a pathway forward to best practices in abuse prevention and response. We provide the following information and links regarding our organization’s posture to the report, and to abuse and response issues addressed in the report.

The seriousness of the work regarding the prevention of child abuse and sexual harassment (including sexual assault) is what prompts our organization to require every employee, both overseas and stateside, to complete comprehensive training on these topics each April. Since our organization’s external examination on these topics in 2018–2019, the value of this work has undergirded our addition of the role of IMB’s Prevention and Response Administrator, and Somer Nowak provides compassionate, trauma-informed care to each victim. If you have information about a personal situation and would like to connect with Somer directly, please email her at snowak@imb.org.

Let me remind you that we encourage anyone who has been a victim of abuse by our organization’s personnel or others affiliated with our organization to report it to authorities. In addition, we invite any victims to contact us on our confidential hotline at (855) 420-0003 or email advocate@imb.org so that we can provide compassionate care to that victim and take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of others.

We commit to continuing our prayers for the victims of child abuse and sexual harassment (including sexual assault), and we continue our commitment to diligently demand the highest standards to respond to incidents of child abuse and sexual harassment (including sexual assault), including seeking trauma-informed care for victims.

— IMB President Paul Chitwood

Make a Report

If anyone has personally experienced or observed abuse, child abuse/sexual abuse or sexual harassment among IMB personnel, you can make a report as a victim, friend or family member. It is our policy to investigate all cases regardless of when they occurred, and to encourage victims to report their cases to the authorities.

See our help page for all the available options to make a report.

News