Safe Touches

Children in Kindergarten through 3rd grade

For children/adolescents ages: 5 - 9

Safe Touches – A Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program for Children is designed for children in kindergarten through third grade (K-3). Specially trained facilitators use puppets to talk about body safety concepts and help children learn and practice key safety skills. The workshop is classroom-based (approximately 25-30 children per workshop) and lasts 45-50 minutes, including a question-and-answer session at the end. After the workshop, children are given an age-appropriate activity booklet on body safety to complete at home with their caregivers and encourage continued conversations about sexual abuse prevention. Teachers are also provided with a link to a video of a recorded puppet skit with follow-up questions. They are encouraged to play the video for the children one week after the workshop to reemphasize the safety skills taught in the workshop.

Jessica Trudeau, MPH

• Agency/Affiliation: The NYSPCC
• Website: https://healing-ny.org/training-and-workshops/for-professionals/safe-touches/
• Email: training@healing-ny.org
• Phone: (212) 233-5500 x248

The goals of the Safe Touches program are:

• Learn how to protect self from child sexual abuse
• Be able to differentiate between safe and not safe touches
• Know what actions can be taken if feeling unsafe or confused
• Know what actions can be taken if a not safe touch is received
• Identify safe adults who can be told if a not safe touch is received

The essential components of the Safe Touches program include:

• Child sexual abuse prevention program
• 45-50 minutes, single-dose workshop with follow-up video skit
• Culturally sensitive script
• Small size interactive workshops (Maximum group size of 30 children)
• Facilitators trained on how to deliver the Safe Touches program use puppets and posters to teach body safety concepts
• Children receive an activity booklet to complete at home with caregiver to promote concept reinforcement at home(available in English and Spanish)
• Organizations or schools wanting to implement the Safe Touches program need to attend a Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training

Child/Adolescent Services

Safe Touches directly provides services to children and addresses the following:

• Possible unawareness of what not safe touches are or what to do if they receive a not safe touch

Recommended Intensity

One 45-50 minute workshop

Recommended Duration

One workshop

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)

Homework

Activity booklets are given to children at the end of the workshop to be completed at home with the caregiver. These booklets are designed to help reinforce key concepts.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

A relatively quiet space/room to conduct the workshop, two facilitators, and program materials (puppets, posters, activity booklets)

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

Facilitators should be Master’s level clinicians or interns with knowledge of child abuse and neglect or have equivalent work experience in the child welfare field. All service providers are required to have training in Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

• Healing New York. (2026). Safe Touches facilitator guide and script (Revised). Author.

This manual is not publicly available. It can be accessed by organizations or schools through the program contact when purchasing the program model and completing the Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact

Training Type/Location:

As requested, training can be provided onsite or offsite. A portion of the training can be conducted virtually.

Number of days/hours:

2 days (approximately 12-14 hours of training) of a mandatory Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training

Pre-Implementation Materials

A Safe Touches Pre-Implementation Assessment is provided to organizations or schools who have purchased the program model and will be completing the Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training. This assessment is not publicly available. The Pre-Implementation Assessment includes a description of the program and key implementation considerations that an organization or school should contemplate prior to program adoption.

Formal Support for Implementation

Technical assistance and consultation are optional for organizations or schools that have completed training and want additional support (fee applied). This support is tailored to the organization or school depending on their needs. Technical assistance and consultation can be provided by the NYSPCC either in-person or virtually.

Fidelity Measures

A workshop fidelity form is provided in the Safe Touches Implementation Manual to assist in the assessment of facilitation and workshop implementation, consistency, and fidelity. The form is completed by a trained independent rater, and functions as a tool to track fidelity to the workshop, as well as a guide to program managers about what issues may need to be changed or addressed. This form is not publicly available. It is provided to organizations or schools who have purchased the program model and completed the Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training.

Established Psychometrics

There are no established psychometrics for Safe Touches.

Fidelity Measures Required

Fidelity measures are required to be used as part of program implementation.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

The Safe Touches Implementation Manual provides organizations or schools with the necessary information to implement the Safe Touches program, including program logistics, training facilitators, workshop scheduling and delivery, and data collection. The manual includes the following forms:

• Safe Touches Flyer
• Workshop Checklist
• Workshop Scheduling Form
• Facilitator Workshop Form
• Concerning Statement and Disclosure Tracking Form
• Workshop Fidelity Form
• Teacher Survey

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (2023). Safe Touches Implementation Manual (Revised). Author.

This manual is not publicly available. It can be accessed by organizations or schools through the program contact when purchasing the program model and completing the Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training.

Implementation Cost

Shipe, S. L., Guastaferro, K., Noll, J. G., Connell, C. M., Morgan, P. L., & Crowley, D. M. (2022). Taking a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program to scale: A cost analysis. Prevention Science, 23(8), 1394–1403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01401-4

Research on How to Implement the Program

Guastaferro, K., Holloway, J. L., Trudeau, J., Lipson, L. B., Sunshine, S., Noll, J. G., & Pulido, M. L. (2022). Virtual delivery of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program: A pilot study. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 31(5), 577–592. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2022.2112347

Guastaferro, K., Shipe, S. L., Connell, C. M., Zadzora, K. M., & Noll, J. G. (2023). Applying an implementation framework to the dissemination of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program. Health Promotion Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399231201537

“What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?”

• Pulido, M. L., Dauber, S., Tully, B. A., Hamilton, P., Smith, M. J., & Freeman, K. (2015). Knowledge gains following a child sexual abuse prevention program among urban students: A cluster-randomized evaluation. American Journal of Public Health, 105(7), 1344–1350. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302594

  Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial

  Number of participants: 492

  Population:

  • Age — Mean=8.26–8.41 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 70% Hispanic, 23% African American, and 7% Other
  • Gender — 56% Male and 44% Female
  • Status — Participants were second- and third-grade students.

  Location/Institution: Six public elementary schools in New York City

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to evaluate Safe Touches, in a low-socioeconomic status, racially diverse sample. Participants were cluster-randomized by classrooms to the Safe Touches intervention or waitlist control groups. Measures utilized include the Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire. Results indicate that all of the intervention group participants showed significantly greater improvement than the control group on knowledge of inappropriate touch. Children in second grade and children in schools with a greater proportion of students in general (vs special) education showed greater gains than other participants in knowledge of inappropriate touch. No significant change was observed in knowledge of appropriate touch among control or intervention groups. Limitations include lack of generalizability as all participant schools were from one city, it cannot be assumed that gains in knowledge after participating in Safe Touches led to behavioral changes and risk reduction for child sexual abuse, and lack of follow-up.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

• Holloway, J. L., & Pulido, M. L. (2018). Sexual abuse prevention concept knowledge: Low income children are learning but still lagging. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 27(6), 642–662. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1496506

  Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial

  Number of participants: 492

  Population:

  • Age — Mean=8.26–8.41 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 70% Hispanic, 23% African American, and 7% Other
  • Gender — 56% Male and 44% Female
  • Status — Participants were second- and third-grade students.

  Location/Institution: Six public elementary schools in New York City

  Summary:

  The study used the same sample as Pulido et al. (2015). The purpose of the study was to evaluate Safe Touches, in a low-socioeconomic status, racially diverse sample. Participants were cluster-randomized by classrooms to the Safe Touches intervention or control groups. Measures utilized include the Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire, the Workshop Implementation Checklist (WIC), the Data Collection Checklist (DCC) and the Teacher Follow-up Checklist (TFC). Results indicate that children learn and retain certain concepts, but vary widely in knowledge across items. This sample of low-income, minority children also show lower baseline and “learned” abuse prevention knowledge compared to published norms, which is not attributed to implementation variability. Limitations include that socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnicity data were captured at the school level, so direct comparisons between knowledge gain and these variables cannot be made, and the length of follow-up.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 4 weeks.

There are currently no references available for Safe Touches.