Child Abuse Prevention Month Toolkit

An outreach/resource toolkit to help promote child safety in your school and community.

For Child Abuse Prevention Month (CAPM), MBF has developed an outreach toolkit as a resource to promote child safety in your school and community. The toolkit (including lesson plans, resources for parents, resources for staff, and more) was developed to help you raise awareness about CAPM and assist you with your outreach to your school, staff, and parents. Please visit our RESOURCE LIBRARY for additional resources on additional topics, such as bullying, cyberbullying, exploitation, child trafficking, and more.

KNOW WHAT’S UP about child abuse and Neglect

Here are the facts:

  • 1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 5 boys will be sexually abused before they reach age 18.
  • The youngest children are the most vulnerable.
    • Children in the first year of their life are 15% of all victims. 1 in 40 infants under 1 year are victimized by abuse every year.
  • Child abuse can be fatal.
    • In 2021, an estimated 1,820 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States. Boys have a higher child fatality rate at 3.01 per 100,000 compared to girls at 2.15. (source)
  • There are four types of child abuse:
    • Physical Abuse — intentional use of physical force that can result in physical injury. Examples include hitting, kicking, shaking, burning, or other shows of force against a child.
    • Sexual Abuse — pressuring or forcing a child to engage in sexual acts. It includes behaviors such as fondling, penetration, and exposing a child to other sexual activities.
    • Emotional Abuse — behaviors that harm a child’s self-worth or emotional well-being. Examples include name-calling, shaming, rejecting, withholding love, and threatening.
    • Neglect — failure to meet a child’s basic physical and emotional needs. These needs include housing, food, clothing, education, access to medical care, and having feelings validated and appropriately responded to.
      • Nationally, neglect is the most common form of abuse. Three-fourths (76%) of victims are neglected, 16% are physically abused, 10% are sexually abused, and 0.2% are sex trafficked. (source)

MAKE A MOVE to raise awareness and prevents child abuse

Raise greater awareness about child abuse prevention in your community by spreading the word. Use the resources within this toolkit to reach out to your staff, students, and parents to encourage them to take action to prevent abuse.

Resources for Schools

LESSON PLANS

The lesson plans included in the Toolkit are available to anyone and are designed to be delivered by classroom teachers; no additional training is necessary. The supplemental lesson plans (for grades K-12) include a review of the MBF 5 Safety Rules from the MBF Child Safety Matters and MBF Teen Safety Matters prevention education programs.

If your school already uses MBF Programs, the 5 Safety Rules will be familiar and provide a review to students. If not, the 5 Safety Rules and identifying Safe Adults are important concepts that will be introduced to help keep students safe. We hope you will share them with all your teachers and encourage them to provide the lessons to students to introduce this important safety material.

K-2 LESSON PLANS |  3-5 LESSON PLANS |  6-8 LESSON PLANS  | 9-12 LESSON PLANS

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

NEW!  Coloring Sheet – MBF 5 Safety Rules

Coloring Sheet – Upstanders

Coloring Sheet – Activity Mat

NEW! Positive Thoughts Pull Tabs 

SCHOOL SAFETY SPIRIT WEEK ACTIVITY

Safety Spirit week was created to help engage students (and parents) and to bring awareness to child abuse prevention month. It gives youth an opportunity to take part in daily activities that help reinforce personal safety strategies and the MBF 5 Safety Rules.

SAFETY SPIRIT WEEK FOR PRE-K

SAFETY SPIRIT WEEK FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

SAFETY SPIRIT WEEK FOR MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOLS

WEAR BLUE DAY

Wear Blue Day Blue is the color of prevention, and everyone is encouraged to participate in the national “Wear Blue Day” on Friday, April 5th! By wearing blue, people throughout the state can demonstrate an awareness of and commitment to our shared responsibility for the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of the children and families in our communities.

Resources for Staff

Online Professional Development Courses: MBF offers FREE one-hour online courses for professional development, community awareness, and education:

  • Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse & Neglect. Learn the indicators of different types of abuse and when and how to intervene.
  • Protecting Children from Child Sexual Abuse. Learn about this epidemic that affects 1 in 10 children and how to better protect them.
  • Preventing, Recognizing, and Responding to Human Trafficking. Learn how this modern-day slavery is affecting children and teens and what can be done to stop it.
  • NEW! Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Learn what online child sexual exploitation is and how to better educate children and teens to help protect them from various types of online exploitation.

ACCESS ONLINE COURSES

SHARE COURSES WITH YOUR STAFF/COLLEAGUES

Safety Briefs: Share these printable Safety Briefs with your staff as a refresher for child abuse indicators, tips on how to respond to disclosures, and reporting abuse.

SAFETY BRIEF: Child Maltreatment

SAFETY BRIEF: Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse

Resources for Parents

Let’s Talk About Prevention is a free online learning series related to child abuse, bullying, exploitation, and other types of child victimization. The Monique Burr Foundation for Children wants to help our educators, child advocates, and other youth-serving organization staff continue their professional development with this series of nine one-hour webinars on important child protection and prevention topics, including Adverse Childhood Experiences(ACEs), Prevention and Research, Digital Safety, Exploitation, and more.

This series can benefit anyone. Parents and concerned adults will also learn about child victimization and ways to better protect children. The webinars are presented by leading experts in the child prevention field and partners of MBF. The recorded webinars can be viewed by clicking the link below.

ACCESS LEARNING SERIES

Please see lesson plans for additional parent resources.

THANK YOU for all you do to protect kids!

#ChildSafetyMatters

Paid by OAG, GR-2023-Monique Burr Foundation for Children-00020

What They're Saying...

There’s not a child in the world who can’t benefit from this program. There are so many instances where we see children who have been damaged and hurt. Things happened to them and we think, if they’d only had this program, if they’d only had the benefit of this education, that might not have happened to them. If we can prevent that from happening to a single child, then it’s worth all the effort we have put forth.

Edward Burr

MBF Founder/Chairman of the Board

The MBF Teen Safety Matters curriculum hosts an in-depth approach to important social and safety concerns relevant to youth. The program content is age-appropriate with engaging activities, jargon, and realistic situations to positively promote a relatable and impacting learning experience…Teen Safety Matters is an educational benefit to all parties involved – students, parents, facilitators, and schools.

Sharon W. Cooper, MD

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

I heard about the program through my son. He came home…and showed me the safety rules. I cannot thank the Foundation enough; to have other people who are also concerned about my child’s safety and the safety of other kids is wonderful. I especially like the program’s focus on the prevention side.

Roberta Targino, M.S.

Parent and Mental Health Counselor
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