Why does the program work?
If you ask a child to define a stranger, they will tell you, "someone mean", "someone who wants to hurt me", "an ugly person", or "somebody bad", when in fact the average perpetrator of crimes against children is a male who is charismatic, friendly, clean, neat, and looks just like other men on the street. Thus children need to learn the concept of danger within their surroundings, and how to react if they feel threatened or endangered.
Children learn best by seeing what you want them to learn, as opposed to just hearing what you have to say. Through a series of short vignettes, using puppets and other props, our facilitator demonstrates the concepts of safety and awareness in terms the young children can understand.
How is this done? By getting their attention using puppets and verbal interaction. Then by demonstrating what happens in certain situations which they may encounter at school, on a playground, bicycling in the neighborhood, or shopping with an adult. We introduce ideas like the definition of a safe place, about telling of their problem until an adult does something to help them, and about how to locate help in a mall or large box situation.
Children learn best by seeing what you want them to learn, as opposed to just hearing what you have to say. Through a series of short vignettes, using puppets and other props, our facilitator demonstrates the concepts of safety and awareness in terms the young children can understand.
How is this done? By getting their attention using puppets and verbal interaction. Then by demonstrating what happens in certain situations which they may encounter at school, on a playground, bicycling in the neighborhood, or shopping with an adult. We introduce ideas like the definition of a safe place, about telling of their problem until an adult does something to help them, and about how to locate help in a mall or large box situation.
