Preparing Parents and Other Caring Adults to Keep Their Kids Safe

Knowing how to protect children helps parents to worry less and to take charge of their family’s safety.

Kidpower teaches parents, educators, and other caregivers how to use prevention, advocacy, intervention, and personal safety strategies and skills to protect their children and teens from harm and to empower the young people in their lives to take charge of their own emotional and physical safety.

These social-emotional tools help to increase confidence, reduce stress, strengthen relationships, and prevent most bullying, harassment, child abuse, abduction, and other violence. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers are in the best position to use and teach these skills with young people in their daily activities.

What does the Kidpower program provide for adults?
What educational resources are available?
What classes are available for parents and other adults?

What does the Kidpower program provide for adults?

Kidpower prepares parents and other caring adults to take leadership in addressing the issues that can affect the safety and well-being of their children and teens – and shows them how to teach ‘People Safety’ skills to young people in ways that are effective, fun, and empowering.

Our program provides answers to the questions, “How can we teach our younger children to be safe without scaring them? How can we prepare our older children to balance their need for increasing independence with their safety? How can we help create positive social climates in our families, schools, and youth-serving organizations, so that negative behaviors such as bullying have less room to grow?”

Specific topics addressed include:

• What adults need to know about keeping their kids safe from bullying, violence, and abuse
• How to use Kidpower’s Underlying Principle to make choices that Put Safety First -ahead of embarrassment, inconvenience, or offense
• The Kidpower Child Protection Promise and Put Safety First Commitment
• How to create positive social climates for the young people in your life
• How to establish a common language about safety within your family
• How to advocate for your child’s emotional and physical safety
• How to intervene powerfully and respectfully when you see unsafe or disrespectful behavior
• How to make a safety plan for everywhere children go
• How to teach your child rules and skills to keep them safe without creating fear
• How to coach children so they are successful in learning and practicing safety skills
• How to motivate children to use these skills in daily life until they become established habits

What educational resources are available?

Our Child Protection books include inspiring stories, clear examples, and step-by-step directions in how to use Kidpower’s advocacy, intervention, and personal safety strategies and skills for both the general public and professionals:

• The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults, the most comprehensive guide available about personal safety self-protection, confidence, and advocacy for young people
• How to Teach Self-Protection and Confidence Skills to Young People:Kidpower Introductory Guide for Parents and Teachers – in English and in Spanish
• Earliest Teachable Moment: Personal Safety for Babies, Toddlers, and  Preschoolers
• Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe
• Relationship Safety Skills Handbook to teach teens and adults how to be safe from interpersonal, dating, and domestic violence
• Kidpower Child Protection Advocates Training Workbook

Our cartoon-illustrated books make it easy and entertaining to discuss and practice these essential skills with children and youth:

• Safety Comics series for younger, older, and teen/young adult students – in English, Spanish, and Bi-lingual editions
• 15 People Safety Group Lessons: Teaching Children and Youth Ages 5-14 How to Be Safe With People
• 10 People Safety Assignments  – includes permission to make copies for individual classrooms, youth groups, and families – English and Bi-Lingual English-Spanish editions available

In addition, we have an extensive free online Library with articles, audio, and videos. Here are some of the most popular:

• Safety for Kids on Their Way to School handout
• Kidpower Safety Tips for Parents and Caregivers handout
• Creating Positive Social Climates to Stop Bullying; Kidpower Tools for Adult Leaders
• Kidpower Child Protection Promise
• Kidpower Put Safety First Commitment
• CollegePower for Parents: Supporting Your New College Student’s Independence, Personal Safety, and Wisdom

• 7 Kidpower Strategies for Keeping Your Child Safe – Video Series
• One Million Safer Kids video – See Kidpower In Action
• PuppetPower Videos – for Young Children with their Adults
• Protecting Youth Athletes from Abuse Videos – for Parents, Coaches, and Youth Sports Leaders
• Walk In Another’s Shoes video – Teens Speak Out About Bullying

Please consider joining us in September in celebrating International Child Protection Month to honor, inspire,and support adult leadership in keeping kids safe from harm and empowering them with skills for taking charge of their own well-being.

What classes are available for parents and other adults?

In locations where we have instructors, we provide workshops for parents and other adult family members, staff in child care centers, school teachers and playground supervisors, coaches, volunteers and staff in youth-serving organizations. Participants learn how to use and teach Kidpower skills in their everyday activities with young people so that they can help improve the safety and quality of their children’s and teen’s interactions with people.

We use Kidpower’s Positive Practice Method so that adults are successful in rehearsing how to use these skills in situations that are relevant to their concerns as well as learning how to use this method to practice safety skills with young people.

Because these are adults-only programs, participants have time and space to ask questions and discuss their concerns in a frank way without creating anxiety for their children. Some parents even take these workshops when they are still pregnant.

Most workshops are a two-hour presentation led by a Kidpower instructor, with demonstrations and practices of the skills being discussed. However, these programs can range between one hour and three days, depending on the needs of the group.

Organize a workshop in California for your family, friends, school, team, place of worship, workplace, organization, or neighborhood.

If you want an in-depth experience in how to use, promote, and teach child protection skills,  consider signing up for our three-day Kidpower Skills for Child  Protection Advocates Training Institute.

If you don’t have a Kidpower center close to your community, consider setting up a new one and training as an instructor. We also train teachers and other professionals to include People Safety Skills in their programs and schools so that people everywhere can learn how to protect their emotional and physical safety.