By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The leader in personal empowerment safety education
and violence prevention for children is known as radKIDS,
Inc. and it is coming to Juab County.
A national nonprofit (501c3) educational organization,
radKIDS, Inc. is committed to providing proven and effective
life saving skills to children by teaching them how to
"Resist Aggression Defensively."
"In court we deal with little victims after the abuse
has happened," said Jared Eldridge, Juab County attorney. "I
have three or four cases sitting on my desk right now where,
if this program had been in place, the kids would have been
trained and this never would have happened."
He said Perry Davis, a Juab County Deputy Attorney,
and Alaina Lofgran, Juab County Deputy Sheriff, had taken
the program to heart and wanted to run with it in Juab
County.
Recently, in the state, the radKIDS program announced
its twenty-third save from abduction when a young Provo girl
was able to get away when a man tried to kidnap her because
of the training she had received as a radKID.
For the last three years, students in the Provo School
District have had radKIDS training on how to deal with
strangers who act inappropriately.
"The start-up costs and equipment are the most
daunting," said Eldridge.
He said the county attorney's office still had about
$3,000 in its 2004 budget which might be directed toward
those start up costs. That amount, however, will not be
enough to see the program into implementation.
Lofgran has already started talking to members of the
business community to try and raise some funds.
"We will need three to four instructors at each school
and they must be trained," said Davis. "We also need an
aggressor suit, pads, a dummy, kid suits and a manual for
each family whose child participates in the program."
"We would like to start by mid-January," said
Davis.
He said, in the county in the two school districts,
and including Rocky Ridge's private school, there were
approximately 1,300 students who could receive the
training.
Through radKIDS training, children become empowered by
learning to replace the fear, confusion, and panic of
dangerous situations with confidence, personal safety skills
and self-esteem. Through this hands-on educational program
the lives of children are being saved, said Davis.
All commissioners said they favored the program and
approved allowing the funds Davis and Eldridge could scrape
together to go toward the implementation of the program.
The county budget, however, was now closed for the
2004 year.
"We would like to encourage you to move forward and we
will find a way to come up with some funds in 2005," said
Neil Cook, commissioner.
Since the organization's inception in 1998, radKIDS
has reached thousands of children across North America and
has documented hundreds of successes in the prevention of
violence and harm to children.
According to the radKID information presented, heroes,
as young as five years old, have escaped the horrible
realities of abduction, bullying, child abuse, sexual
assault and manipulation. In all these incidents the
children were able to use the tools, options and abilities
they acquired in radKIDS classes to escape their attackers
and return safely to their loved ones.
The advanced curriculum is based on accelerated
learning theories and provides realistic safety plans and
options for children in their world.
The comprehensive foundational safety education
program for children aged 5-7 and 8-10 is designed to help
children recognize potential hazards, and to provide them
with realistic options for effective response.
To this end, the course focuses on seven core areas:
Home Safety, School Safety, Out and About Safety, Vehicle
Safety, Stranger Tricks (including physical defense against
abduction), Personal Safety (including good, bad and
uncomfortable touching), Self-Realizing of Personal
Power.
"By empowering our children to make positive choices,
we hope to enable them to avoid or escape the cycle of
violence prevalent in our society," said Eldridge. "There
are young people in our area who would and could have
benefited from this training."
For more complete information on the radKIDS, Inc.
program, visit their Web Site at www.radkids.org.
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