MBF Making News Nationally!

No news may be good news, but some news is really great news! And MBF got great news this past week. As Lynn Layton, Executive Director and Eliese Keith, Speak Up be Safe™ facilitator will be featured nationally on CNN today, we’d also like to share that Lynn and I got word this week that we will be presenting at the national Prevent Child Abuse America conference being held here in Jacksonville October 12^th through 15^th. 

In just over two years, the Monique Burr Foundation for Children has dramatically changed the landscape of child abuse prevention education in the state of Florida. As you may or may not know, following research guidelines and best practice standards and working with Childhelp, a national child abuse prevention organization and Arizona State University, a top research university, we developed and are now using Speak Up Be Safe™, a comprehensive prevention curriculum. 

As of this school year, over 400,000 Florida students will be educated and empowered with this curriculum. Children CAN help adults keep them safe and adults can use this information to educate and empower children. Everyone can learn from this program and together we can better protect children from all forms of child abuse and bullying, cyberbullying and digital abuse.

At the conference, Lynn and I will teach conference attendees from across the nation about the curriculum development and history, the philosophical and research basis for the use of a program in schools with children, what the program targets for behavior change and why, and how it impacts and involves parents and communities.  We hope to share with others how our model can be used in other states to protect children and how it can be implemented in a quick and efficient manner as we have done in Florida.

If you plan on attending the conference in October, remember to join us for our session, “Speak Up Be Safe™ - Florida’s Inspiring Efforts to Educate and Empower Children and Adults to Prevent Abuse and Bullying through a Unique School and Community Model.”  Hope to see you at the Prevent Child Abuse America Conference.

Author: Stacy Pendarvis, MSW, MA – Consulting Trainer and Prevention Specialist

The Digital World is Working to Keep Kids Safe Online

Recently Childhelp blogged about "Keeping Your Kids Safe on Facebook" and reported of Facebook’s current 900 million users, an estimated 7.5 million are under the age of 13, and 5 million are under the age of 10. The blog went on to give great tips to keep your kids safe on Facebook such as:

• Know their password,
• Be their friend,
• Monitor their friend list,
• Keep up with new Facebook features

One thing they didn’t discuss however, was what to do if your child is being bullied on Facebook. Sadly, we know tweens and teens aren’t just being bullied at school these days, they’re also being bullied online. Some call it social terrorism, and with nearly half of all tweens and teens experiencing some sort of online harassment or cyberbullying, it’s time to learn more about it and how to respond to it.

Learning how to stop cyberbullying is essential, but getting teens to talk about online safety may prove challenging. Fortunately, the one place many tweens and teens seem to feel comfortable having conversations and expressing themselves is helping everyone learn to navigate the net a little safer. The Facebook Family Safety Center is now helping teens and parents everywhere by teaching digital safety and responsibility.

Teens, parents, teachers and even law enforcement officers can benefit from the Facebook Family Safety Center. While many are familiar with terms like social networking and online privacy settings, others may need a refresher in concepts like digital citizenship, social reporting and secure browsing.

The Safety Center addresses many topics including: 

• Account safety and security
• Facebook privacy settings
• Online bullying and harassment reporting

Even tweens and teens, who know much more than most parents about the online world of social networking, can learn a thing or two on the page dedicated to them. And if it gets them thinking or talking about online and digital safety, it’s definitely worth a look. 

Have you ever visited the Facebook Family Safety Center? Share what you’ve learned or how it got you thinking about online safety in the comments below.  

Written by Guest Blogger Stacy Pendarvis, MSW, MA of Pendarvis Consulting & Training and former Program Manager for MBF with over 16 years in the child safety and child abuse prevention field.