The FACE IT Movement Releases the SPLASH Body Safety Guide

With summertime in full swing and as children spend more time at the pool, friends’ houses, and with new caregivers, partners in the Kosair Charities® Face It Movement have released a new tool, SPLASH Body Safety Guide.

The new tool offers a guide for parents and caregivers to review important information with children about their bodies, body safety, and personal boundaries.

“As an organization that hosts thousands of families at our pools, camps, and recreational centers each summer, we are eager to share this vital information for preventing abuse. The SPLASH resource is featured in YMCA pools across the greater Louisville area, and I encourage pools and family-friendly centers to do the same because keeping children safe is up to all of us,” said Steve Tarver, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Louisville.

SPLASH also includes information on how parents and caregivers can take steps to surround children with safe caregivers in safe environments.

“Child safety is an adult responsibility, and parents and caregivers need the tools to talk to their children about body safety and safe touch. This new resource is a great way to start a hard, but important, conversation with your child,” said Dr. Melissa Currie, MD, FAAP, and Professor, Medical Director, and Chief of the Kosair Charities® Division of Pediatric Forensic Medicine at the University of Louisville.

Estimates suggest that about 1 in 10 children will experience sexual abuse before their 18^thbirthday, and one child is too many. Face It and its partners are proud to offer this new tool for parents, pool and recreational centers, libraries, health practitioners, child care providers, and others working with youth across Kentucky to prevent and end child abuse.

The Face It Movement launched in 2013 as an initiative led by Kosair Charities in response to the number of child abuse deaths in the Commonwealth. Face It focuses on a three-pronged approach to addressing child abuse and neglect: promote best practices in child abuse prevention and intervention, build awareness and engage the community, and advocate for effective policies to improve the child welfare system. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @faceitabuse.