By John Thoresen, CEO of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
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More than one in six children suffer from physical abuse, and one in 10 children will be sexually abused—often by someone they know and trust. Yet, in spite of these shocking statistics, there have historically been few resources available to help afterschool providers talk with children about abuse.
That’s why we worked with nationally-recognized child advocates, educators, therapists and scholars to create the “Protect Yourself Rules” videos—a free, first-of-its-kind educational series. We engaged an executive of Nickelodeon’s Rugrats to develop the videos for children using non-threatening, animated characters similar to what they’re used to seeing outside the classroom on electronic devices, television and movie screens.
The animated videos educate school-aged children in grades K-6 about what to do when confronted with an abusive situation by emphasizing three simple rules: Shout. Run. Tell. The videos also reinforce lessons such as:
- Tell a Grown-Up
- It Doesn’t Matter Who It Is
- Hitting is Wrong
- Stranger Safety
- Internet Safe Choices
- Shout, Run, Tell
The series aims to empower children to protect themselves by helping them recognize abuse and giving them simple, memorable rules to make sure the abuse stops—or better yet, never starts.
The free videos are available for afterschool programs, summer programs, school classrooms, community organizations, religious groups, clubs, advocacy groups, Scouts, and other interested organizations. We also developed lesson plans to help afterschool program staff guide discussions with kids about the rules.
Visit fightchildabuse.org to download the free video series and accompanying lessons. Every child in an afterschool program needs this information and statistics would indicate that some of them—the faces behind the statistics—can’t wait.
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