| What is Protective Behaviours? |
| Protective Behaviours is a living skills and personal safety program. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of children as they grow and develop. It focuses on giving students life skills to protect themselves from abusive situations and on teaching children to avoid a wide range of potentially unsafe situations. |
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| Why do we need Protective Behaviours? |
- Because 85% of abused children are abused by someone known and trusted by them.
- To help protect children as we simply cannot be with them every minute of the day.
- To empower people with the right to feel safe and act to keep themselves safe.
- To give children and adults permission to talk about problems they face.
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| What does the Protective Behaviours program aim to do? |
Statistical data shows that children are more likely to be harmed by someone they know rather than someone they do not know. There are many personal safety issues that our children are exposed to. We are now more aware of the physical and emotional trauma of bullying, cyber bullying, exclusions, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and living with domestic violence.
Our children are potentially exposed to a wide range of situations that put them at risk that could cause them short and long term physical and emotional harm and violate their basic rights.
Teaching preventative strategies is a proactive way to strengthen our children’s ability to keep themselves safe and minimise risk. It is important children develop personal safety and resilience skills from a well presented and structured program.
For child abuse prevention programs to be of value they need to be taught over time and constantly reinforced.
Protective behaviours can be used by students and adults to keep themselves safe and works towards reducing violence in the community. It provides the basis for helping children be safe and stay safe from the risks that surround us in everyday lives. |
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| The Protective Behaviours beliefs and skills |
- are lifelong;
- are for a range of places where we might be unsafe- at home, at school, in the community; and
- can be applied to a range of unsafe situations including physical abuse, family violence, sexual abuse, bullying, emotional abuse and verbal abuse.
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| What is Protective Behaviours about? |
- Recognising when we are not feeling safe.
- Making good decisions when taking risks.
- Thinking about who you would ask for help if you needed it.
- Knowing our rights about feeling safe and our responsibilities about helping others to feel safe.
- Good communication- Being able to make ourselves understood and understanding others.
- Identifying the people who support us.
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| Protective Behaviours Themes |
- We all have the right to feel safe at all times.
- We can talk with someone about anything no matter what it is.
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| Core Concepts |
- Early Warning Signs
- Safety continuum
- Networks
- Secrets versus surprises
- Rights and responsibilities
- Inviting people
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| Protective Behaviour Strategies |
- Theme Reinforcement
- Protective Interrupting
- One Step removed
- Network review
- Persistence
- Assertiveness
- Safe and unsafe touching
- Risking on purpose
- The language of safety
- Shared meaning
- Quality
- Body ownership and personal space
- Clarity
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