Escape Now

Youth Services

Prevention

The Prevention Services Department provides school-based, violence prevention programming in Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties. Our team of Prevention Educators provides classroom presentations to students from pre-kindergarten through college. We serve daycares, elementary, middle, and high schools, churches, and young adult groups. From July 2008 through May 2009, we served over 15,000 individual students with 2,200 presentations for a combined 32,000 student contacts.

Our department began with a single program in 1983 - Keeping My Body Safe, a child sexual abuse prevention program teaching children pre-K through 6th grade basic body safety rules to protect themselves from unwanted touches. Since then, our department has grown to include: Second Step, a social-emotional training curriculum; Steps to Respect, a bullying prevention program; Inside The Classroom, a sexual assault prevention program for high school students; HARTS: Helping All Relationships To be Safe, a group-oriented approach to preventing violent relationships for girls; and Mind Over Muscle, a group for boys teaching self-control, responsibility, and accountability.

In addition to programs for youth, the Prevention Department also provides educational workshops for teachers/school staff on social-emotional teaching techniques, addressing bullying in schools, and mandated reporting training, among others. Similarly, we provide programming to parents on child abuse prevention, effects of media/internet violence on children, and talking with your teen about dating violence. Our Keeping Kids Safe Panel bring the entire Prevention Team to the table to talk about all of these issues and more, as we work with you to keep our youth safe in our community. To view a listing of our prevention programming, click here.

Children's Services

The Children's Services Department offers individualized and group activities for children who have been exposed to domestic violence. We provide these services in a variety of ways, including: talking and mentoring; homework or recreation; social skills; healthy living; before/after school latchkey options; and Kids Kamp in the summer, just to name a few. In any activity, our goal is to assess your child and see how s/he is doing. We will constantly promote safety, good social skills, and healthy expression.

Our services are not just for the children. We want to support you as a parent. If you want to talk about concerns for your child, we're available. If there is something that we are not able to assist you with, we will help you find the services that you want.

The effects of childhood trauma last long after the event has ended. The Center for Prevention of Abuse believes, simply, that everyone deserves peace every day, everywhere. Because The Center has a focus on prevention, we want to help your child to learn appropriate ways of expressing hurt, anger, or fear. We can work on the things that you, the parent, are concerned about, whether it's finding time to give individual attention to a child, asking questions about your child, or giving them something special to do. We want to help your child enjoy life in a safe world.