Children

EMERJ-SafeNow offers year-round developmentally appropriate interactive sessions in the form of programs, workshops and camps (summer only) for underserved youth and children. All sessions aim to promote healthy behaviors and choices and are designed to build on individual and community strengths. EMERJ-SafeNow incorporates an equity and trauma-informed lens to address issues related to violence and personal safety. Learn more about our Approach and Care-defense.

Schedule a free consultation today. Email us at inquiries@emerjsafenow.org or call us at 503-498-8452

Overview of Sessions

Sessions for children and youth are usually taught in 1-3 hour modules and are generally 6-8 sessions in length depending on the needs of each community or organization. Sessions are developed in collaboration with participants and their families/parents/caregivers/schools or organizations.

We offer a sliding scale for payment and scholarships, as needed by each family community or organization. Sessions can be adapted to meet Oregon Common Core Standards for child sexual abuse prevention, sexual violence prevention and promoting healthy sexuality. Read more

Guiding Theories and Framework
EMERJ-SafeNow utilizes a positive youth development approach to sexual violence prevention by emphaziing protective factors and promoting positive behaviors. By using the framework of the Social-Ecological model, we aim to maximize impact of our programs by addressing simultaneously societal, community, relationship, and individual levels. Our prevention theories include:

• Developmental assets/positive youth development
• Community development
• Social norms theory
• Peer education, mentoring and modeling
• Diffusion of innovation theory
• Social change and marketing

Teaching and Learning Theories

EMERJ-SafeNow incorporates numerous theoretical approaches to promote learning and teaching. These include but are not limited to:

A Student-Centered Approach

We start with the student’s interests, questions and idea on a topic to make sessions:

Experiential: Sessions are active and hands on. Students practice the skills that they learn
Holistic: Students learn about personal safety topics using whole ideas, events, and materials
Authentic: Use of real-life ideas, rich in complexity, along with innovative materials
Challenging: Students are given challenges and asked to make choices, enabling them to be the agents of their own learning

A Cognitive and Developmental Approach

We aim to promote learning by helping students develop a true understanding of concepts through critical and reflective thinking:

Developmental: Activities fit the developmental age and level of students
Constructivist: Students recreate and reinvent information and knowledge
Expressive: Students engage in ideas, construct meaning and remember information through media, speech, writing, drawing, drama, movement and music
Reflective: Students reflect, debrief to analyze thoughts and feelings and experiences around learning

A Social and Interpersonal Approach

EMERJ-SafeNow embraces the social and interpersonal aspects of teaching and learning:

Social: Learning is socially constructed and often interactional; facilitators create spaces that encourage interactions that “scaffold” learning.
Cooperative learning activities that tap the social power of learning
The environment is a model community; students learn what they live as citizens in a community

Read more our direction and approach to addressing and promoting healthy relationships and violence prevention.

Sessions Offering

The below suggestions are a starting point for caregivers/parents/educators and community members who want to provide personal safety skills and training for their children. Topics and skills incorporated into sessions are created in collaboration with caring adults from families, communities and organizations. We understand that every child has unqiue traits and learning styles and that every community has its own unique culture and beliefs around violence and personal safety. The topics and skills below are baseline recommendations for each age group, from a platform customized by choices of the caring adults we collaborate with.

Children, 7-9 years of age

By helping children find and use their voice and body in a fun learning environment, we aim to help them make healthy choices, and provide them with the skills they need to care, advocate and defend themselves. By focusing on strengths, we hope to build confidence and resiliency, and to help students understand the importance of self care, personal boundaries, and identifying safe adults in their lives who can advocate for them in times of need. Some possible topics that we offer:

Advocacy for Self and Others

Self-Care and feeling safe
Mindfulness and relaxation
Empathy and helping others (bystander intervention)
Safety Planning
Assertive Communication
Safe adults and allies
Upstanding bystanders
Boundaries and limits

Street and Personal Safety Smarts

Trusting your gut & being aware
Your environment is your friend
Using our words and voices
Staying calm and observing details
Stances with confidence
Escaping from holds and grabs
Blocks and covers
Basic strikes and kicks

Youth, 10-12 years of age

Topic suggstions for this age group can include all of the above as well as the following:

Advocacy

Self-Care and wellness
Mindfulness and healing after trauma
Safety planning and the importance of safe adults
Assertive communication
Supportive allies and upstanding bystanders
Community support systems
Resources (locally, statewide and nationally)

Relationship Smarts

Healthy sexuality, identity and body image
Identifying healthy relationships and communication
Setting personal limits and boundaries
Interpreting social norms through the media
Affirmative consent (verbal and nonverbal)
Gender equity and stereotypes
Equity and privilege
Assertive communication

Awareness and Street Smarts

Intuition & awareness strengthening
Identifying allies
Using the environment & objects for protection
Harassment and bullying behaviors
Internet safety (cyberbullying, sexting)

Verbal Techniques

De-escalation & conflict resolution
Negotiation & use of false compliance
Yelling and breaking silence
Being assertive vs being aggressive or passive
Self-talk and internal thoughts

Physical Techniques

Escapes
Blocking and covers
Strikes & kicks
Ground protection
Protection in enclosed environments
Protection with objects

Youth ages 14 and above

Suggestions for this group include all of the previous topics and skills as well as the following:

Additional Topics

Sexting and Sextortion
Substance use and abuse
Depression and suicide
Human Trafficking/Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Sexual Assault (harassment, stalking, rape)

- Healing, resources, confidentiality and options for reporting

Skills

Weapons Protection
Protection from Multiple attackers

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