Services available to public and private schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle, Greene, Nelson, Louisa, and Fluvanna Counties
Support and Advocacy for Children and Their Families
When a child comes to you about sexual abuse or assault that s/he has experienced, our Child Advocate, Aaron Miller Hernandez, can help both you and the child. Aaron provides children and their families with crisis intervention, medical and legal accompaniment, education about healthy relationships, safety planning, and case management. She can also answer your questions about how to respond when a child discloses, questions about sexualized behaviors, mandated reporting, and the legal process. Aaron can meet with a child at school or at the SARA office.
Protocols to Protect Children
Do you feel confident that you have the right protocols in place to protect children from sexual assault and harassment? Does every staff member know what to do when a child discloses abuse? Is every incident treated consistently? If you are not sure, SARA can help by reviewing your existing protocols, helping revise them if necessary, and training staff to follow them consistently.
Prevention Education
Sexual assault prevention education promotes the acceptance of every person as valuable and worthy of respect and equal treatment. Prevention is not just about telling young people what not to do, but about promoting a healthy model for relationships. Education topics include empathy, healthy boundaries, identifying role models for healthy relationships, skills for healthy relationships including impulse control and conflict resolution, bystander intervention, and decreasing attitudes and behaviors that assume competition between genders.
We can help schools choose curricula, develop peer mentoring programs and social marketing campaigns, and train parents and teachers. On a limited basis, we are available to provide prevention education directly to students, but we feel it is better to train teachers and counselors to deliver these programs in their own schools.
Available Prevention Education Programs:
Care for Kids Early Childhood Health Education and Abuse Prevention Program
The Care for Kids program prepares early childhood educators to be proactive in preventing child sexual abuse through education.
Care for Kids is a comprehensive approach to prevention that provides early childhood educators, parents and other professionals with information, materials and resources to communicate positive messages about healthy sexuality to young children.
It is a health-focused approach, rather than a fear-based approach to prevention. Responsibility for prevention rests on adults, not on the children themselves.
Curriculum activities and messages in the six lessons enhance the development of children’s self-esteem, respect for self and others, rewarding human relationships, and the avoidance of sexual coercion.
Care for Kids Themes
1. Bodies
- Our bodies are good, special, and deserving of care and respect, including the genitals.
- Boys and girls have some parts that are different, and many that are the same.
2. Babies
- Babies need help with most things and deserve to be looked after.
- Children, as they grow, learn to do more things by themselves, but they still seem some help.
3. Feelings
- Everyone has all kinds of feelings.
- When you’re not sure what you’re feeling, we call that “mixed up” (or confused).
4. Touching
- Sometimes we like touching and sometimes we don’t – touching is never a secret.
- A person can say NO to touching – Don’t touch a person who says, “No touching.”
5. Bedtime
- Private parts are kept special
- Small children sometimes need help washing and wiping their private parts – Older children and grownups do not need help from children with their private parts.
6. Secrets & Surprises
- Sometimes we want to keep a secret and sometimes we don’t.
- Touching is never a secret.
- When you are sad or mixed up because someone asks you to keep a secret, you can ask two or three grownups for help.
To bring Care for Kids to your school, childcare center, or organization, call 434-295-7273 and ask to speak to the Child Educator.
Middle School Programs
A variety of services, including presentations, interactive workshops, and peer education groups, geared towards the primary prevention of sexual assault and sexual harassment, are available for students in middle and high schools in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Louisa, Nelson, Fluvanna, and Greene. Topics for middle school tend to center around sexual harassment and bystander intervention – how to help friends do the right thing and stay safe. The content is flexible to meet the needs of different schools, programs, and curricula.
SARA is currently providing the ExpectRespect curriculum to all athletic teams at Buford Middle School. For more information, please contact Laurie Jean at youth@saracville.org .
SARA also provides consulting and training services for community groups, teachers, school administration, faith communities, and all groups that would like to develop their skills in helping youth prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment. Please contact us at youth@saracville.org to find out more.
High School Programs
For the STEPup high school peer education group, please click here.
SARA provides consulting and training services for community groups, teachers, school administration, faith communities, and all groups that would like to develop their skills in helping youth prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment. Please contact us at youth@saracville.org to find out more.
Some of the topics covered:
- Bystander intervention
- How to identify sexual harassment
- How to respond to problem behaviors
- How to create a community that does not tolerate sexual violence
- How to talk to teens about dating, relationships, and healthy sexuality
- Boundaries and respect
- Consent
- Empathy
- Communication
Fees may apply to some of our services (but never for services for victims). Please contact us at 434-295-7273 to discuss your needs and budget.