Success Story:
Teaching Invaluable Safety Lessons
Lori Charvet, Education Coordinator
Washington State Migrant Council
Sunnyside, WA
The TALKING ABOUT TOUCHING program "has been an excellent tool," says Lori Charvet, Education Coordinator for the Washington State Migrant Council (WSMC). The WSMC serves migrant seasonal farm workers and their families, whose children are often learning safety rules for the first time in the TALKING ABOUT TOUCHING program.
Charvet finds that the transitional nature of migrant workers' lives sometimes prevents them from really learning and practicing the safety rules in the places they live. For that reason, Charvet says, the safety lessons in the TALKING ABOUT TOUCHING program are invaluable. She and her staff have even added safety lessons on subjects like pesticides and car seats.
When they get to the touching-safety lessons, Charvet and her staff dispel any discomfort the families may feel by telling them, "We teach this curriculum because we want your children to know what to do."
As a result, the TALKING ABOUT TOUCHING program is met with little resistance: "In the five years that I've been here," says Charvet, "there's never been a parent that has said, 'I absolutely do not want my child to participate in this curriculum.'...It's definitely a curriculum that we will always use."