The Protective Behaviors Workshop: Preparing adults to help kids

The temptation to put them in a bubble is great, but they will never develop wings there. If we are holding them too close, instead of helping them learn how to handle challenges, we stunt their ability to grow.
Natalie Aikins, Police Officer, Safety Education, Fond du Lac, WI

Rob’s Protective Behaviors workshop shows you how to teach the children in your life that they have a right to feel safe, to understand what it means to be safe and to know what to do when they are feeling unsafe.

Teachers and parents who take Rob’s workshop walk away with skills and confidence to start conversations with the children in their life: about what it means to feel safe, about which body signs tell them when they don’t feel safe, about developing a supportive network of adults they can go to if they need to talk about anything—big or small.

The Protective Behaviors program is based on reaching our children with two simple but empowering messages:

1. We all have the right to feel safe all of the time…and others have the right to feel safe with us.

and

2. We can talk with someone we trust about anything, no matter how awful or small.

These two themes, combined with a five-step process for talking to kids, help you, the adult, practice skills that open the door to better communication—with the children you care about and with each other.

In a non-threatening workshop setting, you’ll experience exactly what they will be teaching your kids: how to recognize unsafe situations and how to get help from a trusted person if they need it. The information is fun to learn, easy-to-understand and immediately applicable.

The Protective Behaviors Workshop

The goal of the Protective Behaviors workshop is to give you the skills to immediately apply these simple but powerful strategies with the children in your life. In an interactive, experiential setting, you’ll practice exactly what you’ll be doing in your classroom or at home with your own children.

Learning Objectives

By the end of Rob’s Protective Behaviors workshop, you will be able to:

• Help kids understand that everyone has the right to feel safe
• Define what it means to be safe
• Explain the difference between risking on purpose and unwanted danger
• Identify the body’s messages that are early warning signs of possible danger
• Start and lead conversations with children about their feelings
• Show kids how to develop a personal network of trusted friends and adults
• Teach kids to persist until early warning signs go away
• Walk children through possible “What if…” scenarios to problem solve unsafe situations
• Use the complete set of proven Protective Behaviors strategies and interactive role playing with the children in your life.

The simple, 5-step Protective Behaviors process

The Protective Behaviors program is anti-victimization education at its best. It shows you how to teach safety without fear—in easy-to-manage steps:

Step One: Understanding that everyone has the right to feel safe all the time.

Learn how to talk to kids about the difference between feeling safe, feeling a healthy sense of adventure and feeling unsafe or in danger.

Step Two: Identifying early warning signs.

Learn how to help kids identify and trust their feelings about a situation. How to recognize—and pay attention to—their bodies’ warning systems that tell them that they might not be safe.

Step Three: Encouraging talk about feelings.

Watch Rob model starting conversations with children about how important it is to talk about how they feel, so you’ll know just how to do it with kids. Learn how to show kids that it’s okay to share their feelings. And how that can make them feel less scared and more safe.

Step Four: Creating a personal support network and knowing who to trust.

Learn how to walk kids through identifying and developing their own list of “trusted people,” as well as how to ask them if they will be there if they ever want to talk about their feelings with someone.

Step Five: Persisting until the early warning signs go away.

In this step, it all comes together as Rob models how to talk to kids about the importance of not giving up just because one or two people didn’t listen to them. You’ll learn how to tell children that they should keep trying, until they find an adult in their network who will listen, until they feel safe—until the warning signs go away.

What Rob promises to bring to the workshop:

• Honesty tempered with humor
• A guaranteed safe space to grow and learn in
• A background in social work and an advanced understanding of child development
• The practical grounding that comes from being a loving parent to two little ones of his own
• Construction paper, scissors, glue, assorted other art supplies, balloons and a selection of empowering children’s books

What Rob invites you to bring to the workshop:

• An openness to learning
• An attitude of lifelong learning
• The belief that it is never too late to start something new
• A sense of fun and adventure
• Your love of teaching, parenting and living

Call Rob at 503-663-7525 today to schedule a workshop in your school, church or community facility.