Nonprofit’s “Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families” empowers families to stay safe
Lauren’s Kids, the Florida-based foundation dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse, proudly unveils its latest sexual abuse prevention tool – the “Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families,” a comprehensive activity pack parents can use to teach children in Kindergarten through fifth grade the basics of personal safety, as well as the strategies needed to prevent abuse, all from a place of fun, not fear. The pack is available for free to Florida families.
“As a child sexual abuse survivor, I fight every day for the one in three girls and one in five boys who will be sexually abused before they turn 18. No child should ever feel trapped in an unsafe situation, and it’s my mission to ensure all children have the tools needed to use their voice and ask a trusted adult for help,” said Senator Lauren Book, founder and CEO of Lauren’s Kids. “We know that 95 percent of child sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness, so our ‘Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families’ helps parents start an ongoing dialogue about personal safety while offering plenty of ways to practice and reinforce prevention strategies throughout a child’s daily life.”
Designed with elementary-aged children in mind, the “Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families” offers six key safety lessons, each building upon the previous one so children can develop a framework of safety knowledge. Adults receive their own “parent pack” to use with their child, while kids follow along in their own workbook complete with crossword puzzles, word searches, crafts, roleplay scenarios, games and other entertaining activities.
Lessons include ways to build:
- Safe relationships, including a “trusted triangle” of adults a child can talk to about anything, from a bad dream or fight with a friend, to a touch that makes them feel unsafe.
- Safe communication, where kids learn how to tap into their guiding voice and consider how different situations make them think, feel and act.
- Physical safety, such as identifying body boundaries and determining the difference between safe and unsafe touches.
- Personal safety, by learning about privacy, grooming tactics used by pedophiles, and what makes a secret safe or unsafe.
- Plans for safety, through creating a P.L.A.N. for every situation and being aware of surroundings.
- Safety in the digital world, knowing one in five children under 18 are solicited sexually through the internet and the increasing importance of practicing positive cyber citizenship.
The lessons in the “Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families” packet are built off Lauren’s Kids “Safer, Smarter Schools” curriculum, the first Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 school-based prevention and personal safety curriculum series in the nation. The curriculum contains content for children, parents, teachers and administrators. It was developed by Senator Book and a multidisciplinary team of educators and developmental psychologists to teach children personal safety information in a developmentally and age-appropriate way.
Florida families can order one free copy of the “Blueprint for Building Safer, Smarter Families” packets online at shop.laurenskids.org. Additional copies of the packet activities for children can be downloaded at laurenskids.org/family-activity-pack. Families outside of Florida interested in ordering a packet can do so for $24.99. For additional abuse prevention resources, visit laurenskids.org.
Lauren Book, M.S. ED, founder and CEO of Lauren’s Kids, is an internationally-recognized child protection advocate, best-selling author and Florida State Senator who works every day to protect childhood. She is also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, suffered at the hands of a trusted caretaker from the time she was 10 until the age of 16. Armed with the knowledge that 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness, Lauren has worked to turn her horrific personal experience into a vehicle to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal.
An official 501(c) (3) since 2007, Lauren’s Kids educates adults and children about sexual abuse prevention through in-school curricula, ADDY and EMMY Award-winning public awareness campaigns and speaking engagements around the country and the world. The organization provides more than 8 million direct mail education and awareness materials statewide. The foundation has helped advocate for the passage of nearly two dozen laws to support survivors and protect children from predators. For more information, please visit laurenskids.org.
