CHILD PROTECTION WEEK TO LAUNCH IN TASMANIA WITH BRAVHEARTS’ NATIONAL TREASURE, DITTO.

CHILD PROTECTION WEEK TO LAUNCH IN TASMANIA WITH BRAVHEARTS’ NATIONAL TREASURE, DITTO.

EVENT DATE:                 Monday 3 September 2018

MEDIA CALL TIME:     10:00am – 11:00am

LOCATION:                     Bravehearts Tasmania Education Office

ADDRESS:                       Tailrace House – Office 8, 

1 Waterfront Drive, Riverside TAS 7250                                

INTERVIEW, PHOTO & VISION OPPORTUNITY:  Bravehearts’ Tasmania Education Team, Jeanette Prince, Aaron Moir and Bravhearts’ national treasure, Ditto, the friendly lion cub with government representatives to be confirmed.

Today, in the lead up to White Balloon Day, Bravehearts’ national treasure, Ditto (the friendly lion cub who has been helping Tasmanian children stay safe since 2015), will launch Child Protection Week from Ditto’s Launceston home. 

The importance of Child Protection Week and Bravehearts’ national White Balloon Day campaign in preventing child sexual assault in Tasmania cannot be overstated.

Every 90 minutes a child is sexually assaulted in Australia - that’s 1 in 5 children who are sexually harmed in some way before their 18th Birthday – a statistic that is totally unacceptable in Australian society.

Hetty Johnston AM, Founder and Executive Chair of Bravehearts said, “Child protection is everybody’s business with Governments among the most important stakeholders in child protection. 

“Every child has the right to feel safe and thanks to the tremendous support we’ve received from the Tasmanian government, together we are creating child safe communities for all Tasmanian families,” Ms Johnston said.

To help empower parents to protect their children from sexual harm, as part of Child Protection Week, Bravehearts’ is launching their FREE Personal Safety Parents’ Guide to give parents and carers insight into the myths and facts about child sexual assault and valuable guidance on personal safety education for their children.

The Guide provides tips for keeping children of all ages safe online and simple step-by-step activities for teaching children personal safety, based on Bravehearts’ acclaimed Ditto Keep Safe Adventure program that has been delivered face-to-face to children in all corners of Australia since 2006.

Bravehearts’ extensive Ditto education program includes the Ditto Keep Safe Adventure live show presented in schools and childcare centres, the Ditto in a Box educators’ pack, the Ditto parent packs and Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure DVD and music CDS for young children.

Thanks to funding from the Tasmanian Government, Ditto and the Bravehearts’ Tasmanian Education team have delivered the live Ditto Keep Safe Adventure Show at 181 (84%) Tasmanian schools multiple times while Ditto has also visited more than 50% of Tasmanian Child Care Centres to help keep Tassie kids safe from harm.

Ditto, the star of the Show is a friendly, non-verbal lion cub in purple overalls, whose personal safety messages are facilitated via a specially trained Bravehearts educational performer. Ditto and the facilitator impart the educational messages using song, dance and child-friendly, age-appropriate language.  

The live Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show is facilitated by education teams in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, South East Qld and Northern Qld, who collectively visit up to 2000 schools and early-learning centres annually along the East Coast, as well as in remote and rural communities as far north as Thursday Island and inland to Longreach and surrounding outback communities. 

Everyone can help Bravehearts educate, empower and protect children by participating in the annual White Balloon Day (Friday 7 Sept) as part of National Child Protection Week (2 -8 Sept).

Endorsed and funded by the Department of Social Services National Initiatives, White Balloon Day is Australia’s longest running and only annual national campaign to increase community awareness of child sexual assault to prevent a crime currently affecting more than 58,000 children across Australia, every year.

Bravehearts is Australia’s leader in child protection offering specialised training services for government organisations, educators in schools and childcare centres, education and support services for children and their families, while parents and carers can download free child safe information resources from our website www.bravehearts.org.au. 

Call our toll free Support Line on 1800 272 831 Monday to Friday between 8:30am to 4:30pm (AEST) or visit our website www.bravehearts.org.au. To register for White Balloon Day, please visit whiteballoonday.com.au.

#WBD2018 #ProtectKids #Bravehearts #ChildProtectionWeek #WhiteBalloonDay #BeBalloonSafe #1in5 #DittoProtectsKids

-ENDS-

 

For interview requests with Bravehearts please contact Insight Communications

E: bravehearts@insightcommunications.net.au 02 9518 4744