How to create a SAFETY NETWORK for your kids and why it's so important!

ABUSE PREVENTION TOOLKIT: A safety network is a MUST in your abuse prevention toolkit. Here are the reasons why:

- Your child needs to know that they have other adults/peers in their life that they can turn to if they need help and you (as the primary caregiver) are either unavailable or they can't turn to you for any number of reasons.

- They may be put in a position where they are bribed, threatened or

So what do you need to create a safety-network?

You need to have 3 to 5 adults (can include one peer) and one of those adults needs to be someone that is NOT family.

Your child should help you select who they feel are the trusted adults that can be included in the safety-network.

once you have your list, you need to then ask those adults/peers if they are willing to be in your family's safety- network and what that will mean if they agree.

What it will mean is that they are accessible to reach by phone or in-person and that if they can't be accessible that they can reach out to other persons on the safety network list to bring in the needed support and help the child out of an unsafe situation.

Once you have established the network, be sure to give the child the contact info for all of those persons. I recommend a printed paper that is laminated and that they have two copies always available (one at home and one in the backpacks).

Explain what the safety network strategies are (these are part of teaching exit strategies education).