Protective Behaviors is a sensible, down to earth plan for personal safety in any risky situation. Protective Behaviors cover sun, road, water, poison, health and personal safety. A method of developing personal power, Protective Behaviors gives people the skills they need to protect themselves from harm. Often used to protect children, Protective Behavior programs also help the elderly, the sick, and buildings like schools or churches that are sometimes a target for damage.
American Social Worker, Peg Floundreu West, is responsible for the development of the most famous Protective Behaviour program in the world. In 1984, after working with children who feared for their safety at home, she developed a training package to protect them against sexual abuse. From Peg’s first work, a worldwide program of protection just kept growing. Known simply as “The Protective Behaviour Program’ it is now widely used in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom to teach personal safety.
The concepts, ideas, and strategies of the Protective Behaviour Program are grouped into two easy to remember themes: 
1. We all have the right to feel safe all of the time, and
2. Nothing is so awful we can’t talk to someone about it.
These themes guide the teaching of, and help us to remember the rules around, personal safety.
My experience with parents is that most already do some things that teach protective behaviours. Every time you put hat and shoes on your child, you are protecting them from harm. Every time you tell your child never to get into a car with someone they dont know you are protecting your child. Despite these examples of good parenting, my experience also tells me that many parents are too scared to talk about child sexual abuse. They don’t know what to say, how to approach the subject or are fearful that such talk will damage their child’s purity.
That’s where I can help. I am a protective behavior consultant who specializes in sexual assault protection. I love my job and I love to share my knowledge. Before I share things you may already know, please tell me what you currently do to protect your children from sexual abuse.
Doesn’t affect your family so no need to do anything? Think again. Research states that children are now more at risk from someone they know than from a stranger. With prevalence figures of one in three that’s a lot of friends or family getting to our children. I am scared for my children, and I fully trust all of my family members! However…there’s always the chance that someone is so sneaky that I will miss the predatory behavior. To guard against this, I have trained my four children in Protective Behaviours. My children know that they have the right to feel safe all of the time, and that nothing is so awful that they can’t talk to someone about it. They only know this though because I talk about it every single day.
Child sexual abuse is a scary topic for most people but by sharing information, we can all help to keep children safe. Your idea may be just the one another parent needs to begin talking about this difficult topic. Your idea may help to protect a child somewhere in the world. If child protection is a community responsibility, and families.com is a community, lets do our bit to help protect children.
Over the next few days, I’ll post some game and activity ideas that you can use at home to protect your children. For today though, I’d love to hear your comments on what you currently do at home to protect your children from sexual abuse.