January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month and KidSafe Foundation, the nation’s premiere nonprofit organization formed around the idea that children and their grown-ups should learn how to prevent childhood sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and trauma. To help raise awareness about this global crime against humanity, they’ve launched their newest program, Stay KidSafe!™ - a user-friendly online program that is available free to public elementary schools throughout Florida and the United States, to help faculty and teachers, grades K-5, comply with the State’s Rule to provide Child Trafficking Prevention Education.
Based on expertise gained from over a decade of running onsite educational programs, this groundbreaking research-based, grade-appropriate curriculum is accessible by teachers and faculty to empower students to make safe, smart decisions. Using 3-D animated videos and grade-level lesson plans and guides, the program is developed for teachers and facilitators to teach kids how to think about personal safety and what it means to them, how to listen to their own voice and know their rights, learn assertiveness and problem-solving skills, and how to access help and identify their safe circle of adults.
“KidSafe Foundation is honored to help children in Florida gain the necessary education and ability to understand and speak up when they feel uncomfortable through our new Stay KidSafe!™ program,” said KidSafe Foundation CEO Laura Askowitz. “Through education and support we can build smart, informed children who can help themselves stay safe through child-friendly programs designed to empower kids, not create fear. Our animated KidSafe Kids ‘grow up’ with children as they progress through school grades, so they become an integral part of their everyday education in personal safety.”
Florida is the first state to mandate that every student in grades K-12 receive Child Trafficking Prevention Education (Fla. Rule 6A-1.094123), and the statistics are shocking: sexually abused children are twice as likely to fall victim to human trafficking, and one in four girls and one in 13 boys report having been sexually abused by their 18th birthday. Only 38% of abused children report abuse, so the numbers are much higher. Although many tools exist to help locate kids who are being trafficked, the first defense for any childhood trauma is an empowered child who knows how to listen to their inner voice and seek a safe circle of adults.
“The Stay KidSafe!™ program is currently available free of charge to all public elementary educators in the state of Florida and is also available outside of Florida to extend this beneficial program to school-age children and educators nationwide,” said Askowitz.
For more information or to find out how to get the Stay KidSafe!™ program in your school or district, please visit www.kidsafefoundation.org.
About KidSafe:
KidSafe has been on a mission to stop childhood sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking since 2009. Their newest program, Stay KidSafe!™, teaches personal safety skills to children in grades K-5 and meets the Florida Department of Education Rule that all Florida students receive trafficking prevention education. With their programs for parents, guardians, child-serving professionals, and teachers, KidSafe also helps grown-ups protect all children and help them learn and develop free of trauma and abuse.
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