Crime Prevention Tips - Protecting Children
- Listen- REALLY LISTEN-to what your child tells you about friends,
the neighborhood, worries, and fears. Thoughtful listening builds communication
and trust, which are keys to helping your kids grow up safe.
- Talk with your kids about drugs, violence and other problems. Make
your family values clear, and provide a good example.
- Make sure you know your child's friends and the friend's parents.
- Before your children
go to another home, ask the adults there whether they have guns or alcohol
and if so whether these are securely
and safely stored.
- Check
out the neighborhood with your child. Find our where he or she
feels safe and unsafe. Work with neighbors to address
problems such
as unsafe "shortcuts",
dangerous intersections, areas where shrubbery
needs trimming back, lack of safe places to
seek help.
- Set
up clear rules for play after school, on weekends, and during "time
off" in the summer or at holidays. Help your child review them regularly.
- Urge kids to play in groups, which are far less susceptible
to an approach by strangers.
- Be a helping adult. Let kids know that they can
tell you anything and that you will listen
caringly. Mentor
a child
who needs
adult support.