What is Safe Touches©?

Safe Touches is an evidence-based, age-appropriate child sexual abuse prevention program designed for children in kindergarten through third grade. The program includes:

1) A 45-minute, interactive classroom-based workshop where trained facilitators use puppets and puppet skits to teach children the difference between safe and not safe touches.

2) An activity booklet, My Body Belongs to Me, is sent home with every child to complete with their caregivers and reinforce there are trusted adults at home.

3) A follow-up puppet skit video and discussion guide are given to teachers and school counselors to continue the conversation with children and reinforce there are trusted adults at school.

Safe Touches workshops are available in English and Spanish, in-person or virtual. In 2022, through a generous grant from the New York Community Trust, the Safe Touches program was adapted for children with autism and similar disabilities. The NYSPCC collaborated with experts from the New York University Nest Support Project to modify the curriculum to meet children’s diverse and unique learning needs.

Since 2007, the Safe Touches program has reached over 50,000 children in New York City. The NYSPCC is an approved vendor with the New York City Public Schools and the program meets the annual requirement under New York State’s Erin’s Law. Through a generous grant from The Horace Mann School, all schools in the Bronx are able to receive workshops for their students free of charge.

Email the Training Institute to learn more or request a workshop.

Safe Touches Training of Trainer (ToT) Model

The NYSPCC has partnered with other organizations to train professionals in the Safe Touches curriculum and model, allowing the program to be facilitated in communities across the United States and in the country of Greece. The Safe Touches Facilitation and Implementation Training offers schools and agencies who wish to purchase the program model and implement the Safe Touches program an in-depth training on all aspects of the program. The multi-day training will walk participants through implementation logistics, puppeteering, facilitation, fidelity monitoring and data collection. Schools and agencies will receive all of the materials needed to implement a Safe Touches program in their community, as well as training materials to train other Safe Touches facilitators at their school or agency.

Email the Training Institute to learn more or request a ToT.

Safe Touches Research

In 2014, the NYSPCC concluded a two-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to rigorously evaluate the Safe Touches program. Study data revealed that children who participated in a Safe Touches workshop demonstrated significant increases in their knowledge of sexual abuse prevention concepts after attending a workshop and retained knowledge at follow-up. More recently, data from a partnership with Pennsylvania State University (PSU) that replicated the program and brought workshops to more than 14,000 second graders in Pennsylvania from 2018 to 2020, showed that children significantly increased their knowledge, and that knowledge was maintained 12-months post intervention.

The Safe Touches program is recognized as having “promising research evidence” by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) and is approved as a youth prevention curriculum by the National Children’s Alliance (NCA).

View the NIH Evaluation