Hello, and welcome to the Lauren's Kids 'Safer, Smarter Families' Family Safety Toolkit generator!

This custom, interactive tool will provide you with the language and activities necessary to have important conversations with your family about personal safety in a way that is comfortable and accessible for both you and your children.

While childhood should be a time of wonder and excitement – a time to learn and grow – not all children get to experience the carefree joy of childhood. Unfortunately, we know that child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. Ninety percent of the time a child is being harmed it’s at the hands of someone they – and their parents – know, love and trust.

Sadly:

• 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys will become victims of child sexual abuse before their 18th birthday.
• 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually through the Internet before the age of 18.
• More than 90% of individuals with a developmental delay or disability will be sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime.

The stats are staggering, but the solution is clear: 95 percent of child sexual abuse IS preventable through education and awareness. This Safety Toolkit is designed to be a resource for your family to prevent abuse and protect childhood.

After answering a few questions to customize your safety toolkit, you will be able to access a set of age-appropriate strategies you can share with your child to empower them to stay safe and access help in situations that may be, or become, unsafe. These sets of strategies are grouped by ages:

• Preschool through Grade 2
• Grades 3 through 5
• Middle School and High School

Once customized and generated, your Family Safety Toolkit will include the following:

• Steps to Safety provides you, the parent, with background information on a specific safety strategy and the steps for you to follow in sharing this strategy with your child.
• Many of the safety tools and strategies include a short explanatory video that you and your child can watch together. These videos provide important and developmentally appropriate safety information for your child, and are presented from a place of empowerment and fun – not fear.
• Your family safety toolkit will also include activities for you to complete with your child that will help reinforce these safety strategies. The more your child practices these strategies, the more they will become a permanent and automatic part of how your child reacts to potentially unsafe situations.
• You’ll also find a glossary of terms written in child-friendly language to define words that you and your child will encounter while interacting with the Family Safety Toolkit. For example – you may not know what a trusted triangle of grown up buddies is, or what we mean by a P-L-A-N…but you will!
• Also included are helpful tips to support you as you work with and learn alongside your child. You will also find information about other resources to extend and complement the safety lessons in your family safety toolkit.

If you are viewing this website, you are well on your way to raising your own awareness and helping your family to stay safe! Now – let’s get started on your Family Safety Toolkit!

Lauren Book
Founder, Lauren's Kids