How Safe Sitter® Teaches Kids To Be Safe
In Parks

Safe Sitter® Is About More Than Safe Babysitting 

“Safe Sitter® is a training program for babysitters,” you think. It’s that, but it’s so much more. Safe Sitter® can help keep kids safe when they’re visiting your park.

The life and safety skills that kids in grades 6-8 learn from Safe Sitter® help them in many ways, not just when they’re home alone, watching younger siblings, or babysitting. These same skills can also help kids when they’re away from home, say, in your parks.  Wouldn’t it be great to know that you’re teaching young teens to be safe both at home and in their community? (And you can bet parents would think that’s awesome too.)

It’s About Safety – Indoors & Out

As a park, you’re all about making your communities healthier and safer. Safe Sitter® can help you do that. In addition to child care skills, rescue skills, indoor safety, online safety, and personal safety, our curriculum also teaches outdoor safety.

We include a lesson in outdoor safety in our curriculum because even when kids are home alone, sibling sitting, or babysitting, they’re not always inside the home. But it can be particularly challenging to stay safe outdoors, where traffic, playground equipment, and animals can create unsafe situations.

Helping Kids Handle Outside Dangers

We think it’s important that kids be taught how to handle potentially unsafe situations, whether indoors or out. We know you do too. That’s why Safe Sitter® teaches:

• what to do if someone they don’t know approaches them when they’re playing outside.
• how to call 9-1-1 if they see anything suspicious in the area.
• the importance of watching younger children at all times on playground equipment.
• how to react if approached by an unfamiliar animal.
• how to keep themselves and young children safe around pools or other bodies of water.

Spending time outdoors is great but it can pose other dangers, such as splinters, scrapes, and bee stings. So, if an accident or injury does occur, kids who’ve taken Safe Sitter® know how to assess the situation and either handle a minor problem themselves, ask a back-up adult for help, or call 9-1-1 (and exactly how to make that call and what to say).

Creating Smarter Outdoor Citizens

When parks teach Safe Sitter® to young teens in their community, they’re helping them to be more than safe, indoor babysitters. They’re also helping them to be smarter, safer outdoor citizens. And they’re doing it in a fun way with an engaging curriculum that really speaks to young teens.

When you become a park that teaches Safe Sitter®, parents will thank you for offering a program that helps keep their kids safe—no matter where they are. (We know; our current park Registered Providers tell us!) And as a park professional, you will feel good about offering a program that provides such a wide range of benefits. 

Find out how to bring Safe Sitter® to your park. Visit our Get Started page for provider options!