The Penn State Football child abuse case is a classic story of someone misusing his position of trust and power to abuse and coerce kids and of adults in responsible positions not taking action to stop him. The knowledge and skills we teach in Kidpower could have helped to protect these vulnerable boys from harm – and could have caused the abuse to have been discovered and stopped much, much sooner.
As part of its One Million Safer Kids project, Kidpower, a global leader in personal safety education for children, is reminding parents that the trick to having a fun, safe Halloween is to Stay Aware and to teach your children to do the same. As adults, we need to Stay Aware that:
A mother of a student in our Colorado center sent us a letter about how her daughter used Kidpower skills to avoid an assault and keep herself safe.
Kidpower is teaming up with Storytellers For Good to create a compelling and beautiful video, entitled One Million Safer Kids, telling some of the amazing stories of people who have used Kidpower skills to keep themselves and their families safe, and teaching some of those skills to anyone who watches.
Once again, the news is filled with the tragic story of a teen suicide from bullying – this time of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer who lost hope after being bullied repeatedly and took his life. How does something like this happen? And, what can we do to prevent another tragedy? Progress is being made, but the best anti-bullying laws, policies, and programs in the world won’t work if adults don’t notice and intervene in the moment when bullying occurs – and if kids don’t have skills for managing their emotional triggers, staying in charge of what they say and do, and being persistent in getting help.
“SQUAWK! SQAWK!” One afternoon last week, Poelleke, an Ameraucana hen who faithfully lays an egg a day, suddenly sounded the alarm by raising a ruckus. Her humans came running out of their house to see a bobcat that had climbed inside their six-foot wire fence, stalking Poelleke and the nine younger hens.
Bullying as True Drama, a New York Times Op-Ed article by social science researchers Danah Boyd and Alice Marwik, describes what needs to change in order to make anti-bullying programs more effective in order to prevent tragedies like the suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer.
Note: This post includes a preview excerpt from our newest edition of The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, by Kidpower founder and executive director, Irene van der Zande, which will be released October 2011. Check out the full excerpt, which is available in our free online library of […]
Dr. Amy Tiemann, Kidpower North Carolina Center Director and my co-author on our new book project, Doing Right by Our Kids, points out that the public safety message “If you see something, say something” is equally relevant for child safety.
I have felt both heartsick and inspired by the Diane Sawyer interviews with Jaycee Dugard. These interviews and Jaycee’s brave book tell the hard, courageous story about how Jaycee got assaulted with a stun gun and kidnapped from a country…
Our affordable safety comics, teaching books, handbooks, and program manuals prepare readers to bring Kidpower’s “People Safety” knowledge and skills into their daily lives.
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