Am I Safe?. Tim Huff

teams, police, faith communities and extended family.)

      It’s important to remember these caring adults so we know who we can talk to when we feel worried or unsafe.

       FYI

      The term “safe adult” can be hard to define, so here are five descriptive traits to help. (For older children, consider sharing these traits before asking them to name one or two “safe” adults.)

      THOUGHTFUL: the person works at listening to you and believes you when you tell them something.

      TRUSTWORTHY: the person can be depended upon to guard what you say and is someone you feel comfortable talking to.

      RESPECTFUL: the person is mindful and considerate of your feelings and of your boundaries.

      HELPFUL: the person provides guidance and helps you find solutions to problems.

      CARING: the person does what’s best for you, puts you first and cares about your mental and emotional well-being and physical safety.

      (Adapted from kidshelpphone.ca)

       SHARE

      Talking to others about our fears can help us to feel less alone. It can also help us gain information or understanding about the thing we are afraid of. Sometimes that information helps us realize that our fear was based in not knowing all the facts, rather than based in true danger. Talking about fears can take courage because we aren’t sure if others will understand or laugh at us, but we might be surprised how many people share the same fears we have.

       activity idea: fears in a jar

      1. Label a number of containers (e.g., jars, bowls) with the name of a common childhood fear on each.

      2. Leave one container blank and tell the children that the container represents fears that aren’t written on the other containers.

      3. Pass out 15 to 20 tokens (e.g., Lego pieces, bingo chips, puzzle pieces or buttons) to each child and invite them to join you in distributing their tokens among the containers based on which things they feel fear about and how much fear they feel about each. If one container represents a big fear for them, they can put most of their tokens in that container, or they can choose to divide their tokens between multiple containers.