Message from the Director

Welcome to radKIDS®, a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to providing realistic choices and options to children and parents concerning their overall safety in the world today. It is our mission to provide, through education, realistic choices for children to avoid and/or escape violence or harm in their daily lives.

As we have stated elsewhere in this site, our children are growing up in a new world; one in which they receive incredible amounts of information on a daily basis without a great deal of context. I am asked on a daily basis, “Do you think our children are in more danger today than in the old days?” Or maybe even put more simply, “Is it more dangerous today than it used to be?” Sadly, my answer to both is, ”Yes”!!!

Although we have always had a problem with predatory violence, the advancements in technology have made it so much easier for predators to reach our children and therefore to prey upon them.As we stand today, the United States of America ranks around 31st in mathematics and 24th in science in the world but we are #1 in the world in the development and distribution of child pornography.

Our law enforcement professionals are pushed beyond capacity in their attempts to stop this attack on our children and they continue to fight each day against incredible odds. radKIDS®, has joined in that fight over the last 18 years and continues to fight by teaching, training and empowering children and therefore making it harder for the predators to access our children.

Although many people believe “It will never happen to my children,” we should all remember that the statistics tell a different story. In fact, it is estimated there is one predator for every square mile in our country, everywhere from big cities to small rural communities. Our children face a realistic problem, and we at radKIDS® believe every child has a RIGHT to a realistic and empowering safety education so they may, if necessary, avoid or escape the dangers in their world today.

The radKIDS® Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Program and curriculum has been developed after years of research and refinement with assistance from dedicated education professionals, research scientists, law enforcement professionals, sexual assault counselors, self-defense experts, and of course, concerned parents and their children. The radKIDS® Educational model does not tell your child what we hope they will do if they meet a predator. Instead we teach and train them to recognize, avoid, and if necessary stop anyone from trying to hurt them.

This revolutionary curriculum teaches and empowers children to develop plans, strategies and tactics through an activity-based methodology that not only prepares a child to respond to danger at their highest level but also builds resiliency within a child for those times in life when life is just not fair, especially when anyone tries to hurt you. radKIDS® are COOL Kids empowered in their own safety. radKIDS®, make plans to respond to any violence or conflict in their lives based on the three foundational principals that all radKIDS®, learn and make theirs.

As we have stated elsewhere in this site, our children are growing up in a new world; one in which they receive incredible amounts of information on a daily basis without a great deal of context. I am asked on a daily basis, “Do you think our children are in more danger today than in the old days?” Or maybe even put more simply, “Is it more dangerous today than it used to be?” Sadly, my answer to both is, “Yes”!!!

Although we have always had a problem with predatory violence, the advancements in technology have made it so much easier for predators to reach our children and therefore to prey upon them. As we stand today, the United States of America ranks around 31st in mathematics and 24th in science in the world but we are #1 in the world in the development and distribution of child pornography.

Our law enforcement professionals are pushed beyond capacity in their attempts to stop this attack on our children and they continue to fight each day against incredible odds. radKIDS®, has joined in that fight over the last 18 years and continues to fight by teaching, training, and empowering children and; therefore, making it harder for the predators to access our children.

Although many people believe “It will never happen to my children,” we should all remember that the statistics tell a different story. In fact, it is estimated there is one predator for every square mile in our country, everywhere from big cities to small rural communities. Our children face a realistic problem, and we at radKIDS® believe every child has a RIGHT to a realistic and empowering safety education so they may, if necessary, avoid or escape the dangers in their world today.

The radKIDS® Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Program and curriculum have been developed after years of research and refinement with assistance from dedicated education professionals, research scientists, law enforcement professionals, sexual assault counselors, self-defense experts, and of course, concerned parents and their children. The radKIDS® Educational model does not tell your child what we hope they will do if they meet a predator. Instead we teach and train them to recognize, avoid, and if necessary stop anyone from trying to hurt them.

This revolutionary curriculum teaches and empowers children to develop plans, strategies, and tactics through an activity-based methodology that not only prepares a child to respond to danger at their highest level but also builds resiliency within a child for those times in life when life is just not fair, especially when anyone tries to hurt you. radKIDS® are COOL Kids empowered in their own safety. radKIDS®, make plans to respond to any violence or conflict in their lives based on the three foundational principals that all radKIDS®, learn and make theirs.

radKIDS® PRINCIPLES

radKIDS® know that; “NO ONE” has the right to hurt them because they are ”special”. Not strangers, “NO ONE” which covers everyone and empowers a child with the opportunity to decide how they are treated as well as to trust their instincts.
All radKIDS® know that, since “NO ONE” has the right to hurt them, then they do not have the right to hurt “ANYONE” else (including themselves), UNLESS someone is trying to hurt them and then they have every right to “STOP” them”. In the radKIDS®, training curriculum we teach them how to physical stop, “anyone” from hurting them. This is taught through our “physical resistance to violence skills” that train and empower a child with real personal skills to defend themselves from physical harm.
The third foundational principal and maybe the most important that all radKIDS® learn and know is; “If anyone ever tries to hurt you, trick you, or make you feel bad inside or out, IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT”. Since no one has the right to hurt them (Rule #1) then if anyone ever does or has hurt them in the past radKIDS® learn it is not their fault, so they CAN tell and keep telling until someone helps.

These three radKIDS® Rules are sometimes referred to as “life skills” and what all radKIDS®, learn and take from this program. This educational program incorporates many styles of presentation and is soundly based in activity-based training or accelerated learning theory.

radKIDS®, is not taught from a grown up perspective or in a “Do’s and Don’ts” style that dictates expectations of performance, instead it is shared through “the eyes of a child”. This allows and encourages each child to develop their own plans and skills. radKIDS®, continues to show each day, that when a child is educated and empowered, not just told, what they “can do” rather than what they “can’t do”, they not only reach a parent’s expectations on safety, but in most cases exceed them.

radKIDS®, includes information and activities based on building confidence and self-esteem in the children so they truly gain the knowledge and confidence to make positive choices in their own safety. In addition, the program is presented, whenever possible, with parental participation, so a true partnership can be established between the child and their trusted grown up. All parents receive a Family Manual so they can actively participate in their children’s safety.

The radKIDS® Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Program began in 2000, and since that time we have been fortunate enough to train over 6000 Instructors in over 46 states and Canada. This dedicated alliance of Instructors has educated over 300,000 children, and it is our hope to educate thousands more.

You, too, can help. Please look through our web pages for more information on the program and how you or your community can become involved in helping provide the children in your area with a true gift and a lifetime education.

Lastly, if I can be of any help or assistance, please contact me at radKIDS® Headquarters, radkids@radkids.org. Until then, please remember our children can only make choices based on what they know and what they believe. Education and Personal Empowerment are the keys to success. As one 10 year old radKID said to me in a realistic training drill, “You will not hurt me, No one will hurt me, I won’t let them.”

Class was over, it was now her decision and her boundary, she had options. The look in her eye and feeling in her heart were her tools. In my role during the class as the “bad guy”, I knew I was in trouble. In my role as a teacher, my work was done. “What we believe, we can achieve; we can and do make a difference.”

Stephen M. Daley
CEO/Executive Director, radKIDS®

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

radKIDS® PRINCIPLES