6/2/11
Dear Readers,
I am pleased to inform you of a Project YES, "Keep Our Children Safe" initiative designed to raise awareness among parents in our community about the importance of speaking to your children about safety and personal space -- in order to protect them from child abuse and molestation.
The workshops will be practical in nature and will guide parents in how to have these discussions in a tzanuah manner that is congruent with our Torah values.
I will be conducting these workshops as a public service of Project YES and there will be no charge for attending. Here is a list of the venues:
Baltimore: Motzoei Shabbos, June 11th - 10:15 p.m.
Congregation Shaarei Zion
6602 Park Heights Ave.
Queens: Monday, June 13th - 8:30 p.m.
Congregation Ahavas Yisroel 147-02 73rd Ave, Kew Gardens Hills
Monsey: Tuesday evening, June 14th - 8:00 p.m.
Yeshiva Darchei Noam
259 Grandview Ave.
Brooklyn: Wednesday evening, June 15th - 9:15 p.m.(following Maariv,at 9:00 p.m.)
Young Israel of Midwood
1694 Ocean Avenue
On a personal note, I plead with each and every parent to educate yourselves regarding best practices of conveying these crucial messages to your children. You have no more sacred obligation to your children than to keep them safe from predators.
The danger is so great and the education is so simple.
L'maan Hashem, please take this matter seriously and take the steps necessary to give your children the very best chance at remaining safe and secure.
Worded differently, I ask you to be the ones to educate your children about their bodies and personal space -- so that the predator is not the one to teach them these lessons.
Yakov Horowitz
Director, Project YES
Suggested Readings:
Kindly permit me to recommend that you read these columns I published in Mishpacha Magazine on the matter of abuse, before attending the workshops.
If you only have time for one of them, please review "Safe and Secure." Although it is the second in the series, it is the one that contains practical advice for having "The Talk".
The others in the series are "The Monster Inside" which discusses the very real danger abuse poses -- even in our sheltered communities (keep in mind that these columns ran in January, 2008) and "Human Problems" which makes the case that abusers have the halachic status of a rodef and that they must be reported to the authorities.
I also encourage you to read "Spare the Potch" which discusses the damage done by corporal punishment and how hitting your children makes your efforts at abuse prevention ineffective.
The Monster Inside
Safe and Secure
Human Problems
Spare the Potch
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