FPQ wins 2 Child Protection Week Awards in 2012

Creating Conversations which supported families with children and young people with a disability in Central Queensland and the Multicultural Women's Health Education (FGM) project which works to prevent the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) were honoured with innovative Education Initiative awards at the launch of Queensland's Child Protection Week.

For more information read the media release.

Resources to help keep kids safe

There are many resources that can help parents, carers and professionals feel more confident when talking with children about child protection.

Everyone’s got a bottom is FPQ’s award winning book that helps parents and carers gently start a conversation about protecting our bodies in a respectful and age appropriate manner.

Is this normal? Understanding your child’s sexual behaviourprovides parents and carers with a traffic lights framework to help them understand and appropriately respond to children’s sexual behaviours. Knowing more about sexual behaviours is part of helping protect children from harm.

The Safe is… project brought together children and young people, artists and authors in residence, teachers, school staff and FPQ educators to explore the issue of prevention of sexual abuse in a positive and proactive way. Safe is… showcases the artworks and stories created by children from The Murri School along with support documentation and practical lesson plans. It’s an example other schools can draw on and adapt to meet the needs of their own school community.

FPQ’s Feel Safe educational CD Rom teaches young people with learning needs about self protection. The CD Rom includes 9 games that teach self protection in a fun and interactive way.

Our I have a right to be safe booklet for children and Feel Safe – promoting self protection factsheet for parents and carers are free to download – and offer important information to help teach and learn self protection skills.

Where do I start?, our early childhood development package, has strategies for early childhood staff and parents to talk to children under 5 about self protection.

FPQ’s Positive and protective workbook series for lower primary and upper primary schools includes worksheets and activities on naming body parts identifying public and private body parts, and identifying feelings and safety networks – all essential components to child protection.

FPQ worked in partnership with Department of Communities, Child Safety Services to produce resources to support foster and kinship carers to have conversations about sexuality and relationships with the children and young people in their care. They are free on the Department of Communities, Child Safety Services website http://www.communities.qld.gov.au/childsafety/foster-care/resources-and-publications/carer-info-sheets

Other Resources

Ignorance is not innocence by Holly Brennan
Speech given by Professor Freda Briggs at the Wendy Darvill forum on early childhood sexuality education held by Family Planning Queensland in Brisbane on Tuesday, 9 November 2007
‘Keep Telling Until Someone Listens’: Understanding Prevention Concepts in Children’s Picture Books Dealing with Child Sexual Abuse by Jo Lampert and Kerryann Walsh. Published in Children‘s Literature in Education
Volume 41, Number 2, 146-167.
The complete article is available for purchase at: http://www.springerlink.com.
Read the abstract.

Child protection matters

Children are never too young to learn about being safe and whom they can talk to if they need help. Parents and carers have an important role to play in helping reduce the risk of childhood sexual abuse.

Learning about self protection includes talking about feelings, bodies and privacy, assertiveness, understanding relationships, identifying the rules about touch and knowing what to do if the rules are broken.

Parents and carers can help children by making time to talk and time to listen. They can also help by reminding children that they are always there if needed. Do not worry about giving too much information; children will only take in as much information as they are able to understand. Remember to be brief, positive and factual.

We can all take time to teach children how to be safe. We can all learn to observe signs that something is wrong and listen to and believe children when they show or tell us what is going on. If you are worried about a child -- do something. This could mean actively observing a child, having gentle age appropriate discussions with a child, using evidenced based resources in your home, child care centre or school. If you suspect a child has been harmed - report it. We all have a responsibility to help keep kids safe.

Morcombes lead way for children

The Daniel Morcombe tragedy has meant that across Australia child protection is in the forefront of people's minds. Holly Brennan, Queensland’s Child Protection Week Chair, wrote this Courier-Mail editorial about how child protection is everybody’s business. [read editorial]