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S A F E - S T R O N G
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F R E E |
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What is CAP? The Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Project of South Florida is the only not for profit early childhood violence reduction and abuse prevention education agency of its kind in Miami. Started in 1978, The National Center for Assault Prevention (NCAP) is parent to over 250 international CAP chapters. The original program developed in 1978 pre-dated the sensational child abuse cases of the early 1980's making CAP a pioneer in the field of child abuse prevention and early intervention. Since 1984, CAP of South Florida funded by Miami-Dade Public School system has trained over 248,500 children, classroom by classroom, and given abuse prevention workshops to their parents and school personnel in over 260 Miami-Dade Public Schools. All programming is Miami-Dade County School Board approved. How CAP of South Florida got started In June 1984, Drs. Marsha and Paul Haber watched a television program entitled "Safe, Strong and Free". The program was an abbreviated version of the CAP elementary school level classroom workshop. Both doctors, having a strong background in training and education, appreciated the quality of the training program shown and decided to donate some of their time working in their South Florida community by performing CAP classroom workshops during their free time. After speaking with Columbus, they put together a group of 45 local people and brought a trainer in from Columbus to train everyone. Between the June airing of "Safe, Strong and Free" and the first CAP training in Miami in August, 1984, the infamous Country Walk Day Care Center child abuse case broke in the local and national news. The CAP Project of South Florida was born in this chaotic time. What was originally going to be a part-time effort in the community by the doctors, rapidly became an 80-hour week, week-in, week-out job for each of them, ultimately eclipsing their other professional activities. The Project incorporated not-for-profit in the State of Florida in August, 1984, and filed documentation to become federally tax-exempt entity. CAP achieved its tax-exempt status under federal statutes 501.c.3 in October of the same year. The Habers had approached Dade County Public School System in the early Summer months of 1984 with the curriculum for the elementary school workshop in order to gets its approval for CAP to work in the public schools of Dade County. By September of that year, the D.C.P.S. system had issued its approval to The Project to work in any Dade County public elementary school that requested the training. History of CAP CAP began in the late 70's in Columbus, Ohio, as a project of Women Against Rape. Its impetus was the result of the rape of a second grader in a parochial school. Other children had heard about the rape and were exhibiting some of the typical signs children exhibit when they are fearful - bedwetting, nightmares, a fear of being left alone. Their very sensitive parents contacted the school and spoke with the teachers, who felt these children should be receiving some kind of strengthening information. They contacted Women Against Rape for guidance. In the late 70's that kind of thinking was revolutionary! The women designed the program, you are here to learn about struggled against some of the same myths we are still fighting today - one of those being that if you talk to kids about this kind of thing, you'll scare them. That, of course, is simply untrue. So, the program as we know it today had its ancestry in that parochial school, and the changes that have been made in the program over the years have largely taken place as the result of suggestions of children. From that small beginning, CAP spread to 8 other schools as a result of a Ms. Foundation Challenge Grant. From there, CAP began to reach more and more children with its positive, strengthening message. The myth that parents and teachers didn't want this kind of information for their children began to go right out the window. In 1981, Sally Cooper went to California to introduce the Child Assault Prevention Project to the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, in Northern California, there are 51 active CAP projects. Working with Yvonne Lutter and Cathy Phelps, Sally co-authored Strategies for Free Children, the manual we use to implement CAP in the schools. Today, materials are available in English, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Serbian, Romanian, Cantonese, Japanese, Croatian, Estonian, Russian, Italian and American Sign. Since the original K-6 curriculum's inception, several spin-offs have developed. One of the most successful is the Preschool CAP program for 3 to 5 year olds. It was designed by the Northern California CAP Training Center in conjunction with the National Office. Other available CAP curricula are geared to junior and senior high school students and to children with developmental disabilities. So CAP has come a long way from that parochial school. People from 22 states and 16 countries have received its valuable prevention message. Today, CAP is headquartered in Sewell, New Jersey, under the auspices of the 30 year old educational information agency known as EIRC. Aligning with a strong, nationally recognized center gives CAP entry into the arena a of public education and also offers more services and assistance to its member projects. Through trainings like this, and national training seminars, CAP's message of positive prevention strategies is becoming one of the most well known, well recognized and well received prevention programs in the world. You are becoming a part of a wonderful international network of concerned and caring individuals. |
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