Safeline have just secured £280,723 of National Lottery funding over 3 years to help prevent child abuse by providing support in primary schools.
Research shows that providing primary school children with education on how to avoid sexual abuse, significantly reduces risk, currently there is a lack of support in primary schools and Safeline will help fill that gap.
Safeline will run child prevention projects in primary schools that will protect vulnerable children. Children will be educated on how to keep safe and who they should tell if they have been abused or are afraid. Children who require additional help to keep safe will be given 1:1 issue related support, or specialist therapeutic support, both talking and creative therapies to help them recover from sexual abuse.
This has been made possible by the Big Lottery Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
People who interact with children daily are critical to protecting those who are at risk; Safeline will make these people more aware of the early warning signs that might result in abuse and make it easy for them to refer children for support. As a specialist provider of safeguarding training, Safeline will help schools grow their child protection knowledge and skills to enable them to better recognise, report and record concerns about a child’s welfare and to make better decisions for children. Safeline will provide specialist 1:1 counselling (different modalities, talking and creative therapies) to meet the specific needs of children and parents and help them cope and recover. We will also provide access to age appropriate materials (latest policy, practice, research and news on child protection) to inform school mental health and well-being strategies and practice.
Support for children is only effective if their parents/carers are willing to receive support themselves. Safeline will support families by providing training for parents/carers on issues such as how to identify and support vulnerable children, how to safeguard their children and create a safer, more stable family environment and how to build their strengths as parents. We will also provide 1:1 counselling for people to help them cope with their own emotions so they can focus on supporting their child’s recovery.
Too many children are being abused, emotionally, physically, sexually and online. But it doesn’t have to be like this. With the support of the National Lottery we are determined to protect children from sexual abuse so children are not robbed of their childhood.
