The Healthy Relationships Project ™

The Healthy Relationships Project is comprised of 4 school-based programs with These components: student lessons; parent Events; Parent Newsletters; and educator, staff, & administrator training.

The Healthy Relationships Project is recognized as a promising strategy for international communities to decrease child sexual abuse by The Eradicating Child Sexual Abuse Project.

Developmentally Targeted Curricula:

• Care for Kids (Pre-K - 2nd Grades)

• We Care Elementary (3rd - 6th grades)

• SAFE-T (Sexual Abuse Free Environment for Teens) (7th & 8th grades)

• Project SELFIE (Safe Expression Online for Internet Empowerment) (7th to 12th Grades)

All programs are developmentally-appropriate, trauma-informed and focus on both victim and problematic sexual behavior prevention.

Did you Know?

Schools can use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to purchase this curriculum, because it falls under the provision: “Implementing strategies to meet the social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs of students hit hardest by the pandemic, including through evidence-based interventions and critical services like community schools.”

Additionally, Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grants, Title IV-A funding, Every Student Succeeds Act, and Project AWARE funding can be used for the costs associated with training for educators in the Healthy Relationship Project, because it promotes “social emotional” learning for students and contributes “student resilience” and “mental health wellness” and creates a “stress free environment for children” through the “prevention of child sexual abuse”, and includes “technology safety”.

Some schools have had success funding the purchase of the HRP curricula through grants from Children’s Trust Funds; Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs, United Way Grants, and Prevent Child Abuse state chapters.

Need help with language for the grant request? Email Marcie, mhambrick@pcavt.org.

Is My Kit Up-to-date?

We update the curricula occasionally to assure that it is in line with empirical best practices that have been identified in research. If your kit is out of date, you can easily update it to assure that your prevention programming is cutting edge and top notch!

Care for Kids is in the 6th Edition

We Care Elementary is in the 4th Edition

SAFE-T is in the 3rd Edition

Project SELFIE is in the 1st Edition

Now in Spanish!

PCAVT has been hard at work translating materials into Spanish. For those who already own a kit, you can easily access all of the Spanish language components.

Care for Kids includes:

Spanish Language Parent Newsletters

Lesson Scripts in Spanish

We Care Elementary Includes:

Spanish Language Parent Newsletters

Lesson Scripts in Spanish

SAFE-T includes:

Spanish Language Parent Newsletters

Healthy Relationships Project Programs

Care for Kids

Pre-K to 2nd Grade

An early childhood sexual abuse prevention curriculum used by teachers, childcare providers, and parents. Topics include communication skills, nurturing skills (empathy), body parts, developing positive attitudes toward sexuality, and understanding of healthy boundaries.

We Care Elementary

3rd-6th Grade

An elementary school sexual abuse prevention curriculum in which teachers are trained and supported to deliver developmentally-appropriate information. We Care Elementary provides school staff training, home sheets for parents to support students learning, school newsletter articles, and opportunities to meet with PCAVT staff.

SAFE-T

7th & 8th Grade

SAFE-T is a developmentally-appropriate, trauma- informed, positive health education program. It is designed to decrease the likelihood of youth being sexually abused and/or sexually abusing others. Training for teachers, school staff, and parents is integral to the program.

Project SELFIE (Safe expression online for internet empowerment)

7th to 12th Grades

Project SELFIE is a developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed positive health education program. Topics include the distinction between consent, cooperation, and compliance in digital interactions; the laws on sexting by minors; how to cope with peer pressure; ways to respond to requests to sext; ways to respond to unsolicited sexts; and how to be an empowered bystander. Through two interactive, developmentally appropriate, and trauma informed presentations, youth learn how to prevent sexting and respond to concerning digital communications. This program also includes an adult training for parents, caregivers, and adults who work with children such as school personnel or professionals at youth serving organizations. This two-hour long, interactive, and trauma informed adult training, called Project SELFIE: Keeping Youth Safe on the Internet, prepares adults to protect youth from adolescent sexting, online grooming, online pornography, and in person acquaintances of youth who use digital communications as a grooming tactic.

Note: Project SELFIE can be used as an add on to SAFE-T or as a stand alone program.

Pilot Project in Vermont underway!

The Care Program (Child Anti-trafficking Resources and Education)

Child trafficking is a problem in the U.S. It includes labor trafficking and sex trafficking of children. The National Human Trafficking Hotline received close to 150 reports of child labor trafficking in 2014. The majority of victims are male. In 2019, there were 877 victims of child sex trafficking founded by child protective services in 29 U.S. states. The majority (89%) of these victims were female.  One half of these sex trafficking victims also had a founded case of another form of maltreatment.

Primary prevention of child trafficking is not widespread and is in the developmental phase. The first global report on a framework for primary prevention of child trafficking was published in 2022 ( Jaffee, et al.). Experts in the field suggest a public health approach, because it is very difficult to assess which child(ren) will be at risk. Also, a social ecological approach that focuses attention not only on the individual level, but also on the relationship, community, and societal level has been recommended (Alpert and Chin, 2017).  

With these precepts in mind, Prevent Child Abuse has developed the CARE Program (Child Anti-trafficking Resources and Education). The program is for 7th to 12th grade students, staff of their schools, and their caregivers. The program is based on the premise that students and the adults in their lives can learn the risk factors that relate to labor and sex trafficking of children and can learn the skills to seek protective factors shown in research to work. The program includes:

Student Lessons - two developmentally appropriate and trauma informed student lessons.

Faculty / Staff Training - the CARING Adults (Child Anti-trafficking Resources, Instruction, and Norms Growth) training

Parent Newsletters - description of the program and prevention tips

Parent Training Event - CARING Adult Training

If you are a Vermont middle or high school that would like to receive the CARE Program at your school, please email ksinz@pcavt.org.