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Safe Kids (CAP) Program
Stopping and Preventing Child Abuse
Juliette’s House was created to provide assessment, treatment and follow-up support to abused children and their families. But providing services after the fact was not enough; there was also a need to bring the community together in a collaborative effort to prevent the abuse of children.
We wanted to provide parents, educators and concerned adults with support, guidance and education in effective prevention and intervention techniques. We wanted to empower children and reduce their vulnerability to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. The goal was to intervene in child abuse and endeavor to prevent it through education of children, caregivers and teachers.
What It Is...
Safe Kids is a a program of the National Child Assault Prevention Project (CAP) which offers skill and rights based in-school prevention/intervention education for Yamhill County elementary school children in Kindergarten through Grade 5, including those with special needs or who are in alternative and life skills programs, and those whose second language is English. Safe Kids identifies how and why children are vulnerable to child abuse, then addresses this vulnerability by teaching children to recognize and avoid dangerous situations and to protect themselves when in danger. It also presents workshops for school personnel and parents/ caregivers to teach them how to recognize at-risk children and how to intervene to stop or prevent abuse.
How It Works...
Trained facilitators work in teams conducting scripted discussion in the classroom about bullying, abduction, and inappropriate touch between children and teenagers or adults. Guided discussion and role-playing by trained workshop facilitators are used to help demonstrate the safety messages by showing common mistakes in dangerous situations, followed by appropriate approaches to potential danger. Workshops teach children how their right to be safe can be taken away, and how using the correct skills can protect their rights. They help children learn how to use effective strategies for staying safe, such as self-assertion, peer support and personal defense. Safe Kids identifies for children the people to go to for help, and teaches them to talk about troubling situations until a trusted adult intervenes and they feel safe again.
Why It Matters...
When children have an expectation of being and staying safe, and the skills to help them stay safe, they are better able to learn, to grow up healthy and happy, and to thrive. The hope is that when problems are addressed early and abuse is prevented, society can expect decreases in teen alcohol/drug/tobacco use, high school dropout rates, teen pregnancy, juvenile arrests and recidivism, and youth suicide.
Education, intervention and prevention are pre-emptive responses which cost far less than treatment, repair and prosecution. Best of all, they can help prevent or stop abuse and save some of our must vulnerable children and their families.
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