The Monique Burr Foundation for Children, Inc. (MBF), invites parents to visit the ‘Back-to-School’ series on its blog site, ‘Speak Up Be Safe Florida,’ which contains safety information and tips regarding bullying and child abuse prevention. The ‘Back-to-School’ series specifically contains information on “Identifying, Intervening, Surviving, Thriving and Preventing Bullying.”

The ‘Back-to-School’ series is authored by Stacy Pendarvis, MSW, MA, of Pendarvis Consulting & Training and Trainer for MBF, who has more than 17 years experience working for a variety of agencies in child and family services and child abuse prevention. Written with parents and school personnel in mind, the ‘Back-to-school’ blog series presents some of the same information that is captured in Speak Up Be Safe^TM (SUBS), a national bullying and child abuse prevention program currently implemented in 29 counties across the state. To view the blog site, visit http://speakupbesafeflorida.blogspot.com/. Speak Up Be Safe Florida will contain a series of topics such as Bullying 101; How is Bullying Different in Younger vs. Older Grades; Cyberbullying; Why Children are Targeted; Why Adults Need to Intervene; Signs Your Child May Be a Victim; and other bullying programs and resources.

Speak Up Be Safe was developed by the Monique Burr Foundation, Arizona State University and Childhelp® in conjunction with the Office of the Governor of the State of Florida, the State Department of Education, the State Department of Health, the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Department of Juvenile Justice, Ounce of Prevention and Prevent Child Abuse Florida. Under the review of the Office of the Governor and the Education Cooperative Planning Team, the program was created in response to a five-year plan to address prevention efforts for Florida.

Speak Up Be Safe focuses on enhancing a child’s overall sense of confidence with regard to safety, creating a responsive safety network with peers, teachers, parents, caregivers and other adults a child typically identifies as safe, and promotes respect for self and peers. The curriculum addresses all forms of child abuse, bullying and  internet safety and satisfies the educational requirements outlined in Florida Statute 39,  which are proceedings relating to child abuse prevention education for children, their parents/caregivers and school personnel, and set forth by the Department of Education for health education included in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

To learn more about bringing this program to your city or school, contact Lynn Layton at (904) 642-0210. More information about child abuse statistics and prevention education can be found at www.moniqueburrfoundation.org/SUBS.