Resource of the week: healthy relationships project programs
https://www.pcavt.org/healthy-relationships-project
Did you know that age is a risk factor for experiencing sexual violence? The age of 10. It’s not uncommon for a survivor to experience multiple victimization during their lifetime.
Thankfully, violence can be prevented. Even for our youngest community members. For many years and with the partnership and support of local organizations like the Schuylkill United Way and Lebanon United Way, the Dixon foundation, the foundation for enhancing communities, as well as state victim, service organizations, SARCC offers prevention, education programs for children and teens.
These programs include one time awareness, raising sessions that help to facility disclosures of victimization, and help kids find safety. They also include multisession programs that build skills for long-term prevention. For the past six years we have been using and tracking the effectiveness of three curricula produced by prevent child abuse, Vermont. Under the umbrella of the healthy relationships project these include care for kids, we care elementary, and safety. We’ve also recently added project selfie, which is, a curriculum specifically dedicated to preventing digital abuse.
The programs we use our age specific and tailored to help young people build their skills for body autonomy, safe connections with adults and peers, and better understanding, emotional reactions, and responses to every day things. As young people get older and enter the age where they’re beginning to explore dating relationships, we introduce information on joking, flirting, and how to know when something is harassing behavior or unsafe behavior.
We can offer these programs in classroom settings, afterschool programs, church, groups, and community groups. Do you help with a scout troop that you think could benefit from this information? Give us a call! We’d love to help find ways to introduce this information to young people in our community and help to build their skills for preventing child sexual abuse. These programs can also be implemented in a one on one setting. We call this prevention education counseling our Director of prevention, Clarissa Geary, was recently invited to submit a workshop that shows the effectiveness of using these programs in counseling setting at the national child advocacy center conference.
