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SAFE TEEN:
A Life Skills and Violence Prevention Program

The focus of the SAFE TEEN program is empowerment through building self-esteem, contacting inner strength and developing assertiveness skills. Utilizing a very high energy, creative and experiential teaching style, SAFE TEEN facilitators address adolescents at their own level and deal with issues that are relevant to their every day lives. The SAFE TEEN program is a journey towards awareness and personal safety.

SAFE TEEN offers a girls program, a boys program and programs for adult women. SAFE TEEN facilitators have also been teaching teenagers with varying disabilities at the G.F. Strong "Teen Independence Camp". The workshops cover important topics such as bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical and emotional boundaries. Assertiveness skills are emphasized as an important part of our everyday lives, as well as being an invaluable violence prevention skill. These verbal and body language skills are explored through discussion and role-playing. The physical self-defense component looks at how to use our bodies and mobility aides as tools to physically defend ourselves. Here is what some of the participants had to say:

"I learned how to be assertive instead of aggressive and how to stand up for myself"
"I learned how to say no assertively"
"What I will remember most about camp is the self-defense session"
"I learning five different ways to defend myself using my arms"
"I feel so strong..."

SAFE TEEN workshops are available for youth and adults. For more information regarding the SAFE TEEN program, references and availability, please contact ANITA ROBERTS or LAURIE SCHUERBEKE at (604) 255-5147.