Too often, kids and adults struggle with their problems alone because they believe that their adults are too busy or will be upset if they ask for help.

The Kidpower Protection Promise grew out of our years of coaching adults to be very specific in making sure kids know they care, no matter what.

Take one minute to watch this inspiring and moving Kidpower Protection Promise video. Then, print, post, share, and discuss our FREE posters.

YES, you can teach children of any age skills to help them be safe from harm including abuse, abduction, and assault – without scaring them or giving them upsetting information about possible danger.

Start with these 3 Child Protection Lessons from our best-selling book Doing Right by Our Kids, which uses a “safety at all levels” approach showing how to apply Kidpower skills, strategies, and values as well as other best practices to protect young people at home, with friends and family, at school, in sports and recreational activities, at college, and from harmful social issues such as prejudice.

The topics addressed in the 3 Child Protection Lessons are:

• “How can I keep my baby safe?” – including 5 behaviors that should instantly raise red flags for you
• “My child is being steamrolled by the system!”
• Let Us Listen: A powerful message from a spiritual leader about child safety

For more skills to use yourself and practice with kids, see our Kidpower Emotional Safety Skills for All Ages

Parents, educators, and other caring adults around the world are downloading and using the Kidpower 30-Skills Coaching Handbook, which is available in English, Spanish, and other languages. This step-by-step teaching tool provides vital ‘People Safety Skills” that prepare children and teens to take charge of their emotional and physical safety, increase their confidence, and develop healthy relationships.

Please teach these skills yourself and share the link with your personal and professional networks.

Creating Circles of Safety by staying connected with the ones you love!

Message from Kidpower Founder/ED Irene van der Zande:

Many years ago, I was teaching a child protection workshop for about 100 parents after there had been a case of abuse in their community. One mother raised her hand and said plaintively, “I am so TIRED of being afraid! WHEN I can I stop being worried about the safety of my daughter?”

I smiled sympathetically and asked, ‘How old is your child?”

The mother sighed and said, “Three!”

“Oh, dear!” I replied, “Guess what? My kids are adults, and I still worry about them. And my mother is in her eighties, and she STILL worries about me!”

Everyone in the room nodded their heads with great empathy as the mother asked, “How do you BEAR it?”

It was my turn to sigh as I admitted, “Sometimes it is hard. But constantly worrying just makes us miserable and steals our joy in life without making anyone safer.”

And then I continued, “What has worked for me is to be at peace with accepting uncertainty because some things are out of our control. Doing this frees me to find joy in what is good in my life and in our world – and allows me to focus on what I CAN do to make a positive difference. The skills that we teach in Kidpower truly can protect our kids and ourselves most of the time.” The mother thanked me and then we went on with our class.

A key child protection skill is knowing what to do if a child comes to you for help. Our article What to Do If A Child Reports Possible Abuse, Bullying, Harassment, or Anything Else That Bothers Them provides 7 practical steps that adults can take to support them.

Over and over, parents and teachers, and other caring adults tell us, “Every new tragedy in the news breaks my heart. How can I take care of my own feelings while protecting my kids?”

It is normal to have overwhelming feelings or grief in the face of news about tragedies caused by violence, natural disasters, or accidents – and we deserve support for these feelings. At the same time, we need to avoid getting immersed in despair so that we can focus on what we need to do to protect the well being of our kids and our loved ones.

When young people see their adults feeling hopeless and helpless, this can cause them tremendous panic, stress, and anxiety. How we model being powerful and resilient in the face of trouble can have a huge and positive impact on their long-term well-being.

Here are 3 ways you can get support for your feelings in the aftermath of a tragedy:

1. Stay aware of what you say within earshot of kids
2. Get help if you are feeling anxious or depressed
3. Live your life to the fullest while taking charge of what IS under your control

Read more in When Disaster Strikes: Finding Emotional Balance in Traumatic Times

No matter where we live, sometimes our sense of security can become overwhelmed by news of frightening threats of violence – and by tragic acts of violence. When this happens, it’s time to take extra steps to protect the emotional and physical safety of our children — and of ourselves.

Kidpower’s Founding Principle is that the safety and well-being of each person are more important than anyone’s embarrassment, inconvenience, or offense, including our own.

Instead of letting our actions be based on fear of upset, discomfort, or disappointment, we can choose to ‘Put Safety FIRST’ for ourselves and, especially, for our children.

To protect our children and ourselves from harm, we can:

1. Create emotional safety.
2. Stay away from trouble.
3. Focus on what we CAN do.

See How to Choose Safety in Scary Times for more.

Please also read and share these articles with your friends, colleagues, and community:

•  Tragic Shootings: Kidpower Answers to Common Questions About How To Be Safe
•  Mass Shootings: Kidpower Safety Tips for Individuals and Families

Learn more about how to teach boundary and advocacy skills at our self-paced Child Protection Institute.

Advocacy and boundary-setting skills are powerful safety skills at any age. They help people be safer from bullying, abuse, intimate partner violence, and other harm – and they also strengthen relationships of all kinds.

One of the best ways to teach kids advocacy and boundary-setting skills – including how to express and withdraw consent – is to use them yourself. When you model how to use these skills every day, in all types of communication, young people in your life will see firsthand how they work.

Use these resources to get started – and see our Relationship Skills page for more!

• Kidpower Skills to Protect Personal Boundaries through 5 Levels of Intrusion
• How the “Boundary Bridge” Helps Avoid a Communication Breakdown
• Assertive Advocacy Communication Skills
• Triggers, Emotional Attacks, and Emotional Safety Techniques

Please consider helping Kidpower to provide child protection resources like the ones on this page with your donation in any amount.

Thanks to generous support from people like you, Kidpower gives scholarships for training and low cost or free educational resources so that people everywhere have access to our essential services regardless of their ability to pay.

With your help, we can continue to provide effective and empowering personal safety education to protect people of all ages and abilities from harm and to prepare them with knowledge and skills for taking charge of the well-being of themselves and their loved ones – now and for generations into the future.

Kidpower’s founding principle is that safety and well-being are more important than anyone’s embarrassment, inconvenience, or offense.

This can be easy to say – and hard to do. It means doing more than just saying that safety is important. It means showing that we put safety first with our words and actions – all the time. This is ‘safety leadership’.

The safety leadership of adults is necessary to protect children and teens, in person and online, until they have developed the skills they need to take charge of their own safety.

Use these resources to become an even more effective safety leader:

• 10 Actions for Adult Leaders to Protect and Empower Young People
• Being Worthy of Trust to Keep Kids Safe from Abuse, Bullying, and Other Harm
• Use our Safety Leadership Initiative messages with your family, friends, school, organization, workplace, and community

Take action when you notice harmful behavior:

• Say, “That’s not safe.” Or, “That seems disrespectful.” Or, “This is against our values.”

Teach and practice skills that can help prevent the harmful behavior. These resources can help:

• Kidpower’s Intervention Tools
• Practice as a Management Tool for Unsafe, Disrespectful Behavior
• Seven Positive Strategies for Managing Aggressive Behavior in Young Children
• Little Books for Literal People

Do something to make a difference.

• Reach out by asking and listening.
  Say, “What’s going on? What will help make things better?”
• When you can, step in powerfully and respectfully to stop unsafe or disrespectful behavior.
  Say, “That doesn’t look safe!”
• Get help when you don’t know what to do.

Empower young people to take charge of their safety and well being.

• Tell kids often,
  “You have the right to be treated with safety and respect – and the responsibility to act safely and respectfully towards yourself and others.”
• Teach kids how to prevent and solve problems with people. Practice with them so that they know exactly what to do.
• Guide kids to uphold these values and use these skills in daily life.

Take action to ensure safety in your home, neighborhood, school, place of business, place of worship, social groups, and community with our bestseller, Doing Right by Our Kids. 

The safety of kids is everybody’s business! In this book, you will discover how to:

• Use the powerful ‘Safety at All Levels’ model, beginning at home and then extending to neighbors, schools, sports, and beyond.
• Become a positive, powerful advocate for child safety, confidence, and respect.
• Recognize potential trouble and take charge of problems that put kids at risk.
• Persuade organizations at all levels to take action to protect the young people in their care

“Doing Right by Our Kids is a field guide for practicing courage. It will arm you with the knowledge and skills you need to know when, why, and how to act to protect your kids.”
— Dan Heath, New York Times Bestselling Author