SIOUX LOOKOUT — This Friday, organizations, communities, and region partners are asking the public to show their support for vulnerable children, youth, and families by wearing purple on Dress Purple Day.
“Dress Purple Day offers an important opportunity to raise awareness among elementary, middle, and high school students about their right to safety and well-being,” said Greg Moe, Acting Director of Services at Tikinagan. “To support this important goal, and in response to inquest recommendations, our partners have developed provincial classroom prevention resources to support teachers and education professionals to engage with their students in conversations about safety and well-being in all aspects of their lives and to help them identify their networks of support.”
This year, Tikinagan Child and Family Services will be teaming with Windsor-Essex Children Aid Society and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies to promote a series of animated videos based on the web series Beastie Valley.
The Beastie Valley series is the creation of Turtle Box Productions and Windsor-Essex Children Aid Society. The web series is designed to be a prevention program that inspires children from grades 3-6 to learn about engaging in conversations about safety and well-being including helping others in their community, and how to ask for help.
"These videos draw out these messages in an easy way for students to understand," Moe said. "For some young people, it’s a lot easier to watch a video and discuss how characters felt in a film than it is to get them to talk about personal experiences on these topics. It might help some see themselves or a friend in these Beastie characters, and think, “Oh, that’s me.”
The five videos in the Beastie Valley series tackle a wide variety of topics vulnerable children may encounter including boundaries, consent, and how community plays a role in meeting a child's needs.
Moe also stated that teachers can use the Beasties Valley series as an important resource for their classroom.
“The primary goal of the Beastie Valley Video Series is to not only engage students but appeal to educators and facilitators who appreciate the benefits of a supplemental visual medium to teach important social topics,” said Moe.
The video series extends beyond the boundaries of the classroom as children learn these videos encourage community leaders like family learning centres to engage with their digestible content.
“These videos are accompanied by curriculum resources developed by the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). The classroom resources are evidence-based, primary prevention materials, empowering students to think and act in positive ways, appropriate for their age and stage of learning and development. The goal of the materials is to help all children and youth, regardless of the situation they are in, to acquire skills and attributes that lessen their vulnerability to harm,” Moe said.
To learn more about Dress Purple Day, the Toolkit, or how you can participate, go to https://www.tikinagan.org/dresspurple
