Family, Friends, Caretakers

This page is devoted to the needs of Family, Friends and Caregivers. Below you will find advice as well as links to other pages on our web site that will be useful to you.

Helpful Links

• Responding to a Disclosure and Reporting a Disclosure
• Personal Safety and Community Awareness Program (PSCA) Workshop Curriculum - All Personal Safety and Community Awareness Program workshops are designed to introduce children to basic personal safety information and to instill self-protective skills that reduce their vulnerability to victimization, exploitation, and abuse.  
• Information for Family, Friends and Caregivers from the Personal Safety and Community Awareness Program
• Florida Abuse Hotline - to report suspected abuse, neglect or abandonment of a child
• Support for Parents from the Sexual Abuse Treatment Program
• Sexual Abuse Red Flags
• Ask a Therapist
• Child Abuse Reporting Simplified
• Parent Handbook: Supervised Visitation (is located on the Supervised Visitation Network website)

Personal Safety Tips For Parents:

1. Discuss personal safety issues with your child and tailor the message to your child’s age and development level. This is a lifelong conversation.
2. Teach your child that safety rules apply to everyone at all times. Over 90% of offenders are not strangers to their victims.
3. Don’t force your child to hug or kiss anyone. Giving children control over their bodies reinforces that they have the right to determine how and when they are touched.
4. Give your child permission to be ugly and impolite if they are uncomfortable.  Practice yelling with your child (it can be fun) – from their toes to the top of their head – when they need to get the attention of a safe adult. Do not let fear of rudeness compromise safety.
5. Be knowledgeable of your child’s surroundings and of those who spend time with your child. (This should include your child’s on-line community.)
6. Listen to your intuition and validate your child’s.
7. Help children develop confidence and assertiveness skills.  Have fun together practicing verbal and nonverbal responses – stand tall, maintain eye contact, use a firm voice. Say “No, get away." Keep yelling until you get help – and play  “what if” games to practice decision making.
8. Teach your child accurate vocabulary for body parts to ensure clear communication and decrease embarrassment.
9. Approach personal safety in the same straightforward manner that you use with other types of safety.
10. Repeat personal safety guidelines often.
11. Reach out to community resources, like CPC, for information, education and support.

Informed children are safer children.
Informed parents are proactive parents.