Children's Trust Fund Sponsors Child Personal Safety Programs in Communities Throughout Massachusetts

Talking to children about touching and personal safety can be difficult for teachers and parents. Talking About Touching creates a comfortable context for discussing this sensitive topic. The research-based program teaches children basic skills to help keep them safe from dangerous or abusive situations. Instructor-friendly materials place personal safety in context with traffic, fire, and environmental safety. Touching is discussed in terms of safety, rather than sexuality. The curricula includes fifteen, 30-minute lessons, and is age-appropriate for preschool/kindergarten and grades one through four.

The Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund is the lead coordinator and training agency bringing Talking About Touching to Massachusetts under an agreement with the Committee for Children, which developed the curricula. The program is taught in thousands of schools throughout North America.

Curriculum Contents

• Teacher’s Guide containing background information, letters to parents, and other helpful program tools
• 15 photo-lesson cards for preschool and kindergarten
• 40 photo-lesson cards in the primary curriculum, to be divided among grades one through four
• "Joey Learns the Touching Rule" classroom video (preschool and kindergarten only)
• "What Do I Say Now?" parent education video
• "Sam’s Story" big book, booklet and audiotape
• Safety-steps posters

Training

The Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund offers five options:

• Information Session: A brief introduction to Talking About Touching for groups or individuals considering bringing the curriculum to their classrooms.
• Parent Information Nights:Participants will learn how they can take an active role in protecting their children from sexual abuse. Topics covered in the two hour session include how to establish a safe environment, how to teach and discuss personal safety and how to respond to a disclosure of abuse.
• Staff Training: Participants will receive hands-on experience and practice with the curricula, learn to effectively teach skills and handle students’ questions about sexual abuse, learn to facilitate an effective parent education meeting using the video "What Do I say Now?", understand the responsibility of mandated reporting, and discuss program implementation strategies with colleagues.
• Training for Trainers: Participants are trained to conduct staff trainings in the use of Talking About Touching at their school or agency. This provides the advantage of local expertise. Participants receive a Trainer’s Manual and a set of staff training videos.
• On-site Training: Our professional trainers travel to your community to train up to 40 participants. On-site Training is conducted exclusively for your school, agency or district staff, giving you the opportunity to address local issues and network with colleagues.

Results

• Continued work with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to implement Talking About Touching in its school system. This project – the largest implementation in the program’s history – resulted in over 156,000 children, staff, and volunteers of the Archdiocese receiving this training. Committee for Children cites this project as a national model for systematic implementation of the program. In addition, CTF trained 17 members of the Archdiocese lay organization, Voice of the Faithful, in the program
• Trained 25 other community-based agencies in Talking About Touching
• Completed two staff and one train-the-trainer trainings, educating 53 professionals who work with children
• Facilitated seven Parent Nights, training 100 parents 

For More Information:

See the brief fact sheet on the Talking about Touching program, available here.

Or contact Marybeth Dwyer at Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund for more information about the Talking About Touching program. Phone: (888) 775-4KID ext. 333 (toll free in Massachusetts) or (617) 727-8957 ext. 333. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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