empoWERING gOD'S cHILDREN PROGRAM
Overview
The job of ensuring children's safety is a challenging undertaking. The prevention of child sexual abuse requires more than adult awareness, education, and training about the nature and scope of the problem. We must also give our children the tools they need to overcome the advances of someone who intends to do them harm. The Teaching Safety program guide is a tool designed to assist parents and teachers in this important task. The Teaching Safety program is a vehicle through which parents, teachers, catechists, and youth ministers give children and young people the tools they need to protect themselves from those who might harm them.
The Teaching Safety Program Lessons were Created for Four Specific Age Groups:
- Grades K through 2
- Grades 3 through 5
- Grades 6 through 8
- Grades 9 through 12
Each year, the program provides a theme that introduces and builds on the basic concepts of the Teaching Safety Guide. The material is developmentally appropriate for each age group and includes content and activities that reinforce the message.
The materials for teachers include everything needed to prepare for and present each lesson-including additional information to help teachers better understand the context of the materials they are about to present. For example, teachers have access to a glossary of terms for all of the lessons. They also have handouts and other reference materials-such as information on how to respond to disclosures, how to report suspected abuse, and other supplemental materials.
The lessons are organized in a three-year cycle so each child experiences a totally different lesson plan each time the materials are presented and so each child receives the full range of information from the Teaching Safety Guide in small, "digestible" bites, over a three-year period. Then, as a child advances to the next age group, there are a whole new set of age-appropriate lessons that explore the major topics in increasingly greater detail. Your diocese may choose to present one lesson in the fall and one in the spring or to present both lessons at the same time.
Three year cycle and repeat
Year 1
- Lesson 3: Boundaries - You Have Rights! Children must understand they have a right to be safe, and they are allowed to create boundaries to protect themselves in situations where they feel uncomfortable, or where they could be harmed.
- Lesson 4: Secrets, Surprises and Promises - Children must learn how to respect their own health and safety, and that of others, by understanding the safety rules about secrets. They have a right to be safe, and they are allowed to create boundaries to protect themselves in situations that cause discomfort or violate the safety rules.
Year 2
- Lesson 5 Being a Safe Friend - Children must know that being a friend means that we "do the right thing" when it comes to healthy friendships with their peers: meaning we recognize unsafe situations, intervene (when possible) and get the information to a safe adult.
- Lesson 6 Boundaries: Feelings and Facts - Through this lesson, the adult lesson leader teaches students specifically about boundaries, what unsafe situations could potentially feel like, and what to do in response if they feel uncomfortable or are in an unsafe situation.
Year 3
- Lesson 1: Physical Boundaries: Safe and Unsafe Touching Rules - Students learn simple rules about what to do and how to react when someone's touch is confusing, scary, or makes the child or young person feel uncomfortable. Young people start to deal with the real risks they face when they are out in the world and on their own, and they begin to learn where to draw boundary lines in relationships.
- Lesson 2: Safe Adults, Safe Touches and Special Safe Adults - Children, young people, and their parents establish basic guidelines for working together to make certain which friends and other adults in their environment can be trusted to act safely and in the best interest of each child or young person.
For more information visit the Archdioceses of Newark Website
For Questions or Concerns
Call Blanca, Director of Religious Education at 201-339-2070 or send an email at reledstjp2@gmail.com.
PARENTAL CONSENT FORM REQUIRED
THIS PROGRAM IS AN ARCHDIOCESES REQUIREMENT
AT PARISH LEVEL.
GROUP LEADERS
Marta Brzostek, Kamilla Domanski, Janice Wernock, & Blanca Cisneros
STJP II RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PARISH WILL OFFER THE PROGRAM AT THE PARISH CENTER:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3 AT 5PM-7PM (GRADES 3-5)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 AT 5PM-7PM (GRADES K-2)
FRIDAY, MARCH 10 AT 5PM-7PM (GRADES 6-8)
TUESDAY, MARCH 28 AT 6PM-8PM (CONFIRMATION CANDIDATES)