Safe Family
For families that want to learn & practice personal & family safety skills to accompany them through their journey together
Press 'Pause' Before Violence Begins
As parents, we work so hard trying to keep our children safe: walking them across streets, insisting they use safety belts, slathering on sun block and taking them to swimming lessons. However, when it comes to increasing their PERSONAL safety, i.e. preparing them to avoid or deal with violence, bullying or harassment, we’re not sure what to do: What situations should we prepare them for? How do we talk about them with our children without frightening them? Where should we begin?
The fact is that parents and other caring adults can be their children’s most effective “self-defense instructors”. They are the people their children watch and imitate. And they are the ones their children will need if they should find themselves faced with challenges to their safety.
In our SafeFamily Course we learn and practice simple, effective Personal Safety skills that help participants identify a variety of physical and emotional threats that children encounter. The discussion and activities are tailored to the physical and emotional maturity of the child to be empowering, not frightening.
In our Safe Family Workshop, parents team up with their children in learning and practicing how:
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To sharpen their awareness and identification of warning signs
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To use their voices to call for help or say “yes” or “no”
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To “hit and run” using simple and effective self-defense techniques
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To ask for support from family members and from others in the environment
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To feel their strengths and know their capabilities
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To talk with each other about dangerous and threatening situations
Just as they learn through play, children absorb the “language of safety” naturally and without fear. At the same time, they are able to apply their learning over time as they face challenges in their daily lives, especially since parents and children go through the learning process together.
A Way of Learning That Becomes A Way of Living
All of us know some basic safety rules. However, knowing the rules is not enough to help us react effectively in the Moment of Truth that is Fear or Threat.
That is why we use scenario-based learning. In a scenario, participants experience reading a situation and responding to it. That way, should a participant find themselves in an unpleasant, stressful or threatening situation, they know what to do, not because someone TOLD them what to do, but because they have already DONE it! Simulation-based practice translates the “theory” of safety rules into action. The mind and body learn to FREEZE less and to DO more in situations that are unpleasant or stressful.
In our courses, the simulations and the instruction is geared to the age and developmental stage of the children to help them experience the challenges we present as interesting, empowering and enjoyable.
All of this unfolds one step at a time, in a sensitive, empowering and supportive way that takes into account the pace, needs and boundaries of each individual child.
We call this scenario-based method of teaching and learning Liberation Self-Defense. Its goal is to reduce fear while increasing the freedom to experience and enjoy life. By participating in scenarios with our professional staff, parents and children learn to apply their skills while interacting with mock “attackers”. The children learn through their successes in stopping both strangers and familiars from making them feel uncomfortable or threatening them physically or emotionally.
Sounds like a lot? It is. And it works. The evidence-based methodology used in our courses has been field-tested for more than 50 years in the US and adapted to the realities of Israeli life. Our instructional staff have more than a decade of experience working together: men and women, most of them parents themselves, with expertise in in the fields of education, mental health and working with children.
What is Safe Family?
When children and parents learn together, practice together and discuss what they have learned, the family becomes stronger and more resilient.
As individuals, parents and children feel more secure and relaxed because they know what to do and how to cope with unpleasant, upsetting, hostile or threatening, situations. At the same time, when families know how to talk together about personal safety and boundary-setting, they become a network of support for each other and develop strategies for responding to and dealing with stresses and difficulties together as a family.
What now? That is up to you.
Read On:
Right now, on this very site, you can read more about Liberation Self-Defense, about the effectiveness of scenario-based training, about who we are and what we do. (Of course, that is assuming that you read Hebrew…)
Get To Know Us:
Get together with some friends and invite us for a one-time talk on Parenting Safe Children in which you can become familiar with
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Our experiential methodology
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The guidance we provide
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The activities and games we use
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The techniques we teach
Most importantly, you can begin to sense how to talk with children about potential threats and personal safety without frightening or overwhelming them.
ZOOM with us:
In response to requests from families in communities that have noted that Covid-19 is not the only threat to the safety of children around the neighborhood, we now offer a online interactive workshop for parents, grandparents and other concerned adults that we adapt to the specific concerns of community members.
This one hour interactive presentation plus a 15 minute Question & Answer period gives concerned parents and other adults the tools they need to improve family safety by making interactions around personal safety part of everyday family life. And experiencing it together as part of a community creates a common language for discussion and encourages neighbors to support each other’s efforts to make personal safety a family priority.
Along with the workshop itself, each participating family also receives a SafeMoves Family-In-Motion Kit containing a variety of materials designed to make The Language of Safety part of the family’s life-long journey.
Dive Right In:
Take the plunge. Organize or join a full Safe Families Course for a group of parents or guardians and children ages 6-10 for up to 10 families. Each course consists of 5 meetings:
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Meeting One: 1.5 hours for parents and guardians only
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Meetings Two and Three: 1 hour each for children only
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Meetings Four and Five: 1.5 hours for parents/guardians and children together
Throughout the course, the children learn and practice safety skills, strategies and techniques for situations in which they receive unwanted or inappropriate attention or touch, bribes and threats or attempts to take them by force by strangers or by people they know.
The adults learn and practice:
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Protecting their children physically from threat of physical harassment or harm
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Helping their children open up to them about concerns and threats
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Guiding and supporting their children’s right to self-protection
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Remaining calm and in control to manage situations in which children come bring home stories of disturbing or frightening incidents they have experienced