What is a Safe Adult?

When IMPACT teaches kids’ classes, we sometimes teach them to tell a safe adult if something makes them uncomfortable.

Here is what we tell them about what it means to be a safe adult:

• A safe adult is someone who helps you when you when you have a problem
• Who doesn’t tell you to keep secrets
• Who listens to your boundaries and doesn’t touch you in ways you don’t like
• Who never makes you feel afraid or uncomfortable

Everyone has different safe adults. One person’s teacher may be a safe adult, while another person’s is not. One person’s uncle may be a safe adult while another person’s is not. Being a parent, a teacher or a coach doesn’t make someone a safe adult. What makes someone safe is how they treat the kids and teens in their life.

Some ways to be a safe adult:

• If kids tell you their problems, thank them. If the experience of coming to you when are upset is a good one, they are more likely to come to you with a big problem.
• Ask kids if they want to be hugged, touched, or photographed and listen to them when they say “no.”
• If other adults in your life try to hug or touch your kid and they don’t like it, talk to those adults and tell them it’s not OK.