The Lauren’s Kids foundation hosted its first ever Safer, Smarter Kids Teachers’ Institute in Tallahassee this past week. Armed with the knowledge that 95 percent of abuse is preventable with awareness and education, the foundation conducted institute to introduce and familiarize teachers with the foundation’s childhood sexual abuse curriculum — the first of its kind created and implemented on a large scale in Florida. The event and curriculum are provided free of cost to any and all public educators that seek to incorporate it into their classrooms. Two more institutes will be conducted this year: Orlando on February 17-18 and Miami, May TBD. From the Tallahassee Democrat:
“Lauren’s Kids, is conducting a two-day training workshop for teachers from the region about how to use the State of Florida’s new sexual abuse prevention curriculum for grades 1-3 – Safer, Smarter Kids.
‘We know that 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable by education and awareness,’ Book told workshop participants Tuesday. ‘This is about going into the classrooms teaching children to be empowered and to use their voice to identify something that feels uncomfortable. It is also to gives teachers the guidance to spot signs for abuse.’
Safer, Smarter Kids is an abuse prevention education curriculum designed for pre-k and elementary-aged children created by the Lauren’s Kids foundation. The education program uses developmentally appropriate information to arm children with the tools and language they need to better protect themselves from abuse.
Each grade level’s specific theme focuses on developing skills for staying safe as it relates to the expansion of a child’s world and is aligned to social studies. Teachers will be taught to use kits that include five to eight, 30-minute age-appropriate interactive lessons regarding personal safety and how to ask for help when a situation makes you uncomfortable. Each kit comes with a USB that contains all of the videos and materials for the curriculum. As a form of reinforcement, children can then practice these concepts during in-class activities, also provided in the kits.”
The full article can be found here.
