Wednesday, June 12, 2013

School’s Out - for the Summer!

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz sent me the following note: “Please consider posting relevant parts of this information on your site so we can get the message out before summer camp and keep our kids safe(er).”

I am happy to comply and not only post parts of it - I am posting all of it. It follows.

Dear Parents:

Please don't rely on anyone else to do what is your overriding and primary responsibility as a parent - to keep your children safe and secure. The greatest gift you can give them is to become well versed in the theory and practice of child safety education so that you can help keep them safe and secure at all times.

This is not something that you can outsource to others.

Educating parents about child safety and giving you the tools and language to have these conversations with your kids in an effective, research-based manner has been our highest priority for the past 4-5 years.


With the chesed of Hashem, we are pleased to inform you that as a free public service, The Karasick Child Safety Initiative of The Center for Jewish Family Life/Project YES just released three "Child Safety On-the-Fly" mini-videos which can help you learn and then convey the critical messages of child safety to your children.

Here are links to view the three videos on YouTube and below are additional links to download them from our website free of charge if your filter blocks YouTube content, or should you wish to store it on your PC or mobile device for future use.

1. Video #1 http://youtu.be/O3i9Gdlbw1g - Introduction: Brief overview of the four safety messages and some insight to why they are so effective
2. Video #2 http://youtu.be/zS7WBs_osNE - detailed explanation of safety messages 1 and 2
3. Video #3 http://youtu.be/lp0vjJolygQ - detailed explanation of safety messages 3 and 4

To Download the videos to your computer:

Although they were made as an educational supplement to our groundbreaking children's safety book,"Let's Stay Safe!",and thedownloadable read-aloud video version of the book, they are designed to be free-standing as well, meaning that one does not need to have the book to benefit from viewing these videos. We also took care to exclude any Jewish content in these videos so the broadest range of parents can benefit from them.

Please note that the 4-5 minute videos of the "On-The-Fly" series were created to reflect the shorter attention spans and faster pace of life nowadays - where most of us are far more likely to view a short clip on our tablets and/or smartphones than sit down to review a half-hour video. Having said that, the 32-minute free Child Safety Video which we released several years ago is still available here and please consider viewing that one as it contains more details and background information that you may find helpful. You can also find a host of free resources on child safety here including a 3-page introduction to our Child Safety Book by the renowned child safety expert Dr. David Pelcovitz.