A Message to Parents

"The Adult Education to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse is a very powerful and informative program! It is a wonderful program for parents to become educated. I really learned some very sobering things reading through the program, and it is causing me to think differently about my children and their activities and adult contacts. This is a program that every parent should be using!"

Parent Safety to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

• Parent education for sexual abuse prevention is recognized as a critical component to stopping perpetrators and preventing sexual abuse before it occurs.
• Practice and teach sexual abuse prevention and safety at all times with your children and teens.
• Believe this trauma can happen to children just like yours and parents just like you thought it never could or would.
• Think beyond stranger danger and begin to recognize "family danger".
• Speak to your children about who commits this crime and how it happens so that your children will know more about this crime than any perpetrator would ever expect.
• Children will only tell about a perpetrator when it is safe to do so and children do not always feel this safety when the perpetrator is a member of the family or someone close to the family.
• Sexual perpetrators can look and act just like everyone else which is what makes it so difficult for parents who are not informed to know when there is perpetrator close to their child.

A Message to Schools

"School counselors and social workers possess the background to address sexual abuse, but often do not receive specialized training in this area so this resource can assist in furthering the education of our school personnel. Also, this information is a good supplement for school staff and counselors who use the programs that already exist such as 'good touch/bad touch' or 'body safe' but do not have the information contained in the Right to Be Safe."

"Parent education has been a missing part of preventing sexual abuse to children so to have this free program as part of our resources is vital. With this kind of comprehensive information accessible to schools and parents, we can create an essential partnership to keep children safe."

Suggestions for Schools

1. Establish a web-link to The Right to Be Safe website: http://www.theright2besafe.org/
2. Introduce the program to parents and community members through a column in your school newsletter
3. Give parents a flyer on the program during conferences and open houses.
4. Use the programs as part of an overall child abuse prevention program.
5. Provide training to staff, administrators, teachers, school nurses, coaches, counselors, and social workers on sexual abuse prevention.
6. Make sure information about sexual abuse prevention is in your school handbook.

Dear Educator,

Thank you for taking a leadership role in the education of children about child abuse. I look forward to hearing about the success you are experiencing and would welcome your ideas on programs that would help keep our children safe and free from violence. Thank you for your dedication to a child's right to be safe!

Key Components of a Successful Sexual Abuse Prevention Program:

1. Teachers, school counselors, school social workers, and principals have received training about the trauma of sexual abuse and how to implement a sexual abuse prevention program at the school level.
2. Education programs for parents are accessible, private and confidential taking into consideration that most parents want this information but need a reliable source that they can go to that is comprehensive and accurate.
3. Adult education can be especially helpful for parents who themselves were sexually abused as children and support them to recognize victimization patterns that they may not be aware of in their family today.
4. Adult education has the opportunity to encourage perpetrators to stop their abusive behavior and seek help.
5. Adult education can be provided in a forthright manner yet does not have to include explicit details of sexual abuse.