The overarching goal of this curriculum is to provide students the skills to identify and approach a safe adult about unsafe situations.
Speak Up Be Safe
Evidence-based comprehensive child abuse prevention education curriculum.
Core Curriculum
Grades Pre-K – 2
A primary focus for the earliest age groups is emphasizing that adults are responsible to keep children safe. Students learn basic concepts of personal safety and how to identify safe adults in their lives.
Grades 3 – 5
Lessons underscore adult responsibility for child safety. Children, equipped with key safety rules, actively contribute to their own safety. They identify safe adults, recognize potential risks, and practice safety rules.
Grades 6 – 8
Adults remain responsible for child safety, yet lessons recognize students’ increasing responsibilities and privileges. Acknowledging potential risks, students learn to recognize them and practice resistance strategies until they can talk to a safe adult.
Grades 9 – 12
Lessons for adolescents highlight growing independence, stressing the recognition of unhealthy relationships and unsafe situations. Students learn to prevent abuse, seek help, and broaden their understanding of abusive behavior. Identifying safe adults and peers reinforces a strong safety network.
Reviewed and listed with a Level 2 Scientific Rating for all grades PK-12
Aligned to Common Core and ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors Standards
Featured on the National Children’s Alliance approved curriculum list
Endorsed by the Jenna Quinn Law & meets the parameters of Erin’s Law
Why choose Childhelp
Speak Up Be Safe?
Childhelp’s Speak Up Be Safe program is the only evidence-based comprehensive child abuse prevention education curriculum that covers various types of abuse, with age-appropriate lessons for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. It is used with confidence by schools, districts, advocacy centers, faith-based organizations, and other groups throughout the United States and over a dozen other nations.
Comprehensive self-paced training is provided for the facilitators who will deliver the age-appropriate lessons twice a year.
Facilitators who complete the training can print/download a completion certificate and may be eligible for continuing education credits.
A human trafficking prevention curriculum has been added for grades 6–12.
Take-home materials reinforce learning and engage parents and caregivers.
The online LMS has many resources for facilitators, students, and parents/caregivers.
A course in the LMS helps facilitators create virtual lessons by grade level.
Human Trafficking Prevention (HTP) Curriculum
Education is key to prevention. As children and teens face ever-changing areas of risk, Childhelp will continue to answer needs for information and prevention education.
We help by teaching prevention.
The new module can stand on its own as independent lessons, yet it works best when combined with the critical lessons taught in the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe core curriculum. The HTP module also closely mirrors the successful learning model of the core curriculum, with facilitator training, fully scripted lessons with classroom presentations, and engagement materials for each level.
Among the engagement materials is a series of informative animated videos. Topics of these 90-second videos include healthy relationships, grooming, personal boundaries, and red flag moments. The animations also serve as public service announcements, positioning Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe as a partner for any community working to prevent human trafficking.
All of the videos can be viewed on the Childhelp Helping Kids Speak Up & Be Safe channel. Most also are suitable for general abuse prevention education.
In addition, the four-minute live-action signature video called A Dream Job stunningly portrays a typical way in which youth are lured online by predators pretending to be someone trustworthy. A Dream Job is also proud to be the recent winner of two Telly Awards!
Measuring the Impact of Prevention Education
The innovative Childhelp Speak Up Be safe program has evolved over many years into the holistic curriculum it is today.
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Research Library
The content and delivery of all Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe lessons are based on best practices from research in child development, learning styles, social psychology, and child abuse prevention.
Child Welfare Research
Human Trafficking Research
2019 Data Report: The US National Human Trafficking Hotline – Polaris Project, 2020
Global Report on Trafficking in Persons – United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2020
Trafficking in Persons Report, 20th Edition – US Department of State, June 2020
Who Buys Sex – Demand Abolition, November 2018
Youth involvement in the sex trade: A national study – Swaner, R., et al., 2016
Outcome Research
Child and Adult Outcomes of Chronic Child Maltreatment – Jonson-Reid, M. et al., May 2012
Child Maltreatment and the Transition to Adult-Based Medical and Mental-Health Care – January 2011
Developmental Victimology: The Comprehensive Study of Childhood Victimizations – Finkelhor, D., 2007
National Survey of Adolescents in the United States – Kilpatrick, D. G., and B. E. Saunders, 1995
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Abused and Neglected Children Grown Up – Widom, C. S., August 1999
The Long-Term Consequences of Maltreatment in the Early Years – Egeland, B., et al., 2002
Why Have Child Maltreatment and Child Victimization Declined? – Finkelhor, D., and Jones, L., 2006
Program Research
Get a Personalized Quote!
To order Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe or get a personalized quote for your school or organization, call 480.922.8212 or click the link below to fill out our online form.
Every Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe order for the grade level(s) you require includes the following:
- Access to the CH SUBS learning management system (LMS) 24/7
- Self-paced online facilitator training
- Facilitator guides and checklists
- Fully scripted lessons with age-appropriate, interactive lessons
- Engaging classroom presentations
- Teacher reinforcement activities
- Lesson handouts, forms, and parent/caregiver materials
- Additional resources for facilitators, youth, parents, and more