Kidpower Safety Signals
Simple gestures, words, and drawings that make it easy to teach, learn, and remember Kidpower’s key safety skills.
Teach and Coach with Kidpower’s Safety Signals to Turn Concepts into Healthy Habits and Practical Skills
The Kidpower Safety Signals were developed as a teaching and coaching tool that can be understood around the world and used by people of all abilities.
Our 30 Safety Signals ebooks are available in English, Spanish, French, and adapted for New Zealand! The ebooks and NEW! Classroom Posters cover the key interpersonal safety strategies, concepts, and skills that we teach to children, teens, and adults, including those with special needs.
Calm Down Power
You can use our 30 Kidpower Safety Signals to teach social safety skills and concepts for how to:
- Prevent and stop trouble with people
- Take charge of our feelings, words, feelings, and bodies
- Build better relationships
- Take charge of our safety out in public
- Develop healthy boundaries with people we know
Once people have learned these ideas and skills, the Kidpower Safety Signals (with and without the words) work as reminders to coach their use in daily life.
See how the Kidpower Safety Signals work in action!
Watch videos showing adults with developmental disabilities using the Kidpower Safety Signals in making safety plans for going out; created in partnership with Hope Developmental Services.
Download ebooks for teaching 30 Kidpower Safety Signals
Available in English, Spanish, French, and New Zealand editions!
You can either use our download request form below or join our free community library to have direct downloads of this PDF of our 30 Kidpower Safety Signals with both graphics and directions for their use. (Scroll down to download our 30 Kidpower Safety Signals in Spanish, French, or adapted for New Zealand.)
Download our 30 Safety Signals PDF in Spanish!
Download Our 30 Safety Signals PDF in French!
Download our 30 Safety Signals PDF for New Zealand!
This version uses NZ spelling and Māori terms and prints on A4 paper size.
New Posters! Kidpower Boundaries for Fun and Affection Checklist
From our Consent Curriculum for All Ages
Imagine what our world would be like if every adult in a leadership position with young people would consistently communicate this Kidpower message:
Each of us has the right to be treated with safety and respect and the responsibility to act safely and respectfully towards ourselves and others.
Children can start to learn the following Kidpower boundaries and safety rules to ensure positive consent for touch, games, and affection as soon as they can talk, and these rules stay relevant throughout their lives:
Touch or games for play, teasing, and affection should be:
1. Safe so that no one gets hurt
2. OK with Each Person so that each person says “yes” (people who are scared, sick, drunk, or otherwise impaired cannot say yes; people who say yes without enthusiasm, or while turning away are not saying yes…)
3. Allowed by the adults in charge
4. Not a secret so Others Can Know, because abusive behavior thrives in secrecy
Having skills for protecting and respecting healthy boundaries in daily activities starting as a child is essential to preventing sexual abuse and assault, and ensuring consent in sexual activities as adults.
- When kids can speak up about what kind of play and affection is and is not okay with them, even under emotional pressure to please someone, they are far better prepared to handle sexual pressure or coercion as they get older.
- When kids learn to manage their emotional triggers and stay in charge of what they say and do no matter how they feel inside, they become far less likely to cross the emotional, physical, and sexual boundaries of others.
Download all Four (4) Posters as a PDF!
Watch videos of Kidpower Executive Director and Founder Irene van der Zande explaining how to teach the Kidpower Safety Signals:
Thank you to the Special Hope Foundation for the three-year pilot program funding of this ground-breaking Bridges to ‘People Safety’ Project. Thank you to the Cisco Systems Foundation for supporting the development of the project’s educational micro-videos.
For more information about Kidpower’s resources for teaching these People Safety Skills and concepts, please visit our online Library (free community membership) and our RelationSafe™ Bookstore.