Safety Smarts: Helping Kids Protect Themselves
What is Safety Smarts?
Since 2007, our Safety Smarts program has given elementary students the tools to recognize, refuse, and report unsafe touches and behavior. Our instructors use an evidence-informed curriculum to teach students about general safety rules, owning their bodily safety, and how to recognize, refuse, and report attempts to touch them in an inappropriate or unsafe way.
Our instructors meet with individual classrooms once a week for 5 weeks. All lessons are interactive and include role playing, questions and answers, listening to stories, and singing songs.
We teach classes in both English and Spanish, and we offer a unique version of Safety Smarts for students with more concrete and visually-based learning needs, such as those on the autism spectrum.
In the 2022-23 school year, nearly 6000 students in the Fort Collins area participated in Safety Smarts.
We currently provide Safety Smarts in 26 public and charter elementary schools in Fort Collins, Wellington, Laporte, Red Feather Lakes, and Timnath, and we continue to expand.
Why Safety Smarts?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than 27,000 substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect in Colorado (Colorado Department of Human Services).
Nearly 2/3 of our cases in 2022 involved victims 12 years old or younger, and in only one case—a single case out of more than 300—was the perpetrator a stranger to the child.
Unless they are taught differently, children often will not tell anyone about their abuse due to fear of the perpetrator, possible consequences of telling, self-blame, or simple lack of knowing what to do.
National studies estimate that one in ten children are sexually abused by age 18 and only 10% of those cases are reported. Safety Smarts teaches children to understand what safe and unsafe touches are, how to recognize an unsafe touch, how to refuse by forcefully saying “No!” and how to report it by telling a trusted adult(s). Each year, children disclose their own abuse because of what they learn in Safety Smarts.
Safety Smarts and COVID-19
When the pandemic hit, our traditional in-person Safety Smarts lessons had to evolve. Now, we can provide this crucial training live online to accommodate remote/hybrid learners and classrooms.
When we deliver Safety Smarts in person, our team maintains all the recommended safety practices to protect the health of students and staff.
Our Unique Special Education Curriculum
At an even larger risk are children with cognitive or learning challenges, who are three times more likely to be sexually abused than others.
To help address this increased risk, the CCAC developed a unique curriculum for students with special learning needs. In 2019, our pilot year, we provided this curriculum to 27 students in Special Education classrooms.
Teachers, school counselors, and the students themselves have expressed their strong approval and support for this growing program.
Reactions from Classroom Teachers:
“This program was fantastic. My students really enjoyed it. I did have a student make a report, so I am thankful that the student was given the tools to ask for help.”
“Our Safety Smarts teacher was absolutely outstanding. She was excellent with children, knew exactly what to say/do/respond and handled the curriculum in an outstanding manner. We could not have been more happy with her… exceptional!”
“I think all of these lessons are important, and I am very happy that my class can participate in these lessons each year. Thank you for providing the instructors and class! “
Each year we have more demand for Safety Smarts than we can meet due to the lack of resources.
To help protect students and support this crucial work, please click here.
If you would like more information about Safety Smarts for your school, please email Ana Pasini at anap@crawfordcac.org.
