Education » Community Programs

K-12

Hope Harbor’s education programs are designed to build safer schools, supportive relationships, and communities where every person understands their right to boundaries, respect, and safety. From early childhood body-safety lessons like My Body Belongs to Me, to upper elementary, middle and high school programs focused on healthy relationships, internet safety, and identifying personal boundaries, our education team meets students where they are developmentally, to teach valuable skills that keep them safe, healthy & well resourced.

Each program is interactive, age-appropriate, and rooted in prevention best-practices, giving students (and the adults who support them) the skills necessary to build safer, stronger communities.

My Body Belongs to Me (Preschool – 3rd grade)

A safety curriculum designed to help children understand appropriate and inappropriate touches through learning about personal boundaries along with various safety rules. The students are encouraged to say no, to run away (if possible), to tell someone, and finally, to remember it is not their fault if they receive an inappropriate touch. Each child receives “A Day at the Beach” coloring book to take home and share with parents/guardians.

Friendships 101 (1st – 5th grade)

A program developed to help children learn what makes a healthy friendship, how to communicate boundaries with friends, and how to spot unhealthy friendships.

Telling is Smart (3rd – 6th grade)

This program helps students understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touches, the importance of setting personal boundaries, and key safety strategies. Students learn how to identify trusted adults, how and when to seek help, and why telling is a smart and courageous step toward safety. The program reinforces that everyone has the right to feel safe and respected.

Internet Safety (Elementary Edition)

This program teaches students how to use the internet and social media safely and responsibly. Topics include cyberbullying, digital footprints, internet safety basics, cancel culture, artificial intelligence, and why it’s so important to be mindful of the choices they make online. This program encourages critical thinking, empathy, and awareness, helping students navigate the digital world with confidence and care, while reminding them that even when something scary happens online, there will always be Trusted Adults who can help in real-life.

Internet Safety for Middle & High Schools include content about inappropriate images & resources for support in cases of sextortion or other forms of online power-based personal violence.

Healthy Relationships (4th – 6th grade)

This program supports upper elementary grade students in developing the skills to build healthy, respectful relationships with friends, family, and even their earliest dating partners. Healthy Relationships for 4th-6th grades focuses on recognizing the differences between healthy and unhealthy behaviors, identifying abuse, understanding consent in age-appropriate language and identifying their personal boundaries, as well as ways to communicate effectively and safely in any type of relationship. Through activities, guided discussions, and prompts for practicing these skills at home, students are given the necessary tools for navigating complex social dynamics with empathy, confidence, and respect.

It’s My Space (6th – 8th grade) Evidence-Based Violence Prevention

Our evidence-based middle school prevention curriculum, It’s My Space, is implemented by Hope Harbor prevention educators and designed to reduce the prevalence of dating violence and sexual harassment among young people. The goals of the program are:

• To help students define the meaning of boundaries and the role of boundaries in friendships and dating/romantic relationships.
• To help students identify violations of their own boundaries and the boundaries of others.
• To help students determine the key elements of a healthy relationship.
• To help school administrators identify spaces in the physical environment of the school where students feel unsafe and create strategies for making those areas safer.

The program has two parts: a classroom curriculum and a mapping component. The classroom curriculum is facilitated by prevention educators working out of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs’ regional rape crisis centers and is available for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. To implement the mapping component of the program, prevention educators have students anonymously designate areas in the school where they feel safe and unsafe. The results of the mapping exercise are tallied and analyzed by prevention educators and then presented to key staff and school stakeholders.

Healthy Relationships (6th – 8th grade)

This program supports middle school students in developing the necessary skills to build healthy, respectful relationships with peers and early dating partners. Lessons focus on recognizing the difference between healthy and unhealthy behaviors, understanding consent in age-appropriate language and personal boundaries in age-appropriate ways, and learning how to communicate effectively and safely in friendships and early dating relationships. Through interactive activities and guided discussions, students gain tools to navigate social dynamics with empathy, confidence, and respect.

Internet Safety (Middle/High School Edition)

This program teaches students how to use the internet and social media safely and responsibly. Topics include cyberbullying, digital footprints, internet safety basics, cancel culture, artificial intelligence, and why it’s so important to be mindful of the choices they make online. This program encourages critical thinking, empathy, and awareness, helping students navigate the digital world with confidence and care, while reminding them that even when something scary happens online, there will always be Trusted Adults who can help in real-life.

Internet Safety for Middle & High Schools include content about inappropriate images & resources for support in cases of sextortion or other forms of online power-based personal violence.

Green Dot High School (9th – 12th grade) Evidence-Based Violence Prevention

Green Dot is a proven primary prevention strategy that focuses on potential bystanders. Through education and skills practice, participants will change social norms that support power-based personal violence and empower participants to intervene with peers to prevent violence from occurring. Green Dot is a research-based program shown to decrease perpetration of violence by 17%-21% in Kentucky high schools by the use of bystander intervention. The research study was conducted over 5 years between the University of Kentucky and 26 high schools with the help of Kentucky’s rape crisis centers. Green Dot consists of training faculty, staff, students, and community members on how all of us can do Green Dots regardless of our obstacles to make our community safer. The trainings discuss what power-based personal violence is (dating violence, sexual violence, stalking, and bullying), and how we as bystanders can prevent it. The trainees are equipped with the knowledge and skills to safely and necessarily intervene around violence. We offer both a 1-hour overview or a full 5-hour course.

Healthy Relationships

This program equips students with the tools to build and maintain healthy relationships, both romantic and platonic. It covers key topics such as recognizing the signs of unhealthy or abusive relationship dynamics, understanding and practicing consent, setting and respecting personal boundaries, and navigating complex dating scenarios. Through active discussions and skill-building activities, students develop the critical thinking and communication skills needed to support their individual growth, as well as their ability to form respectful and equitable relationships.

Boundaries & Consent (9th – 12th grade)

A program designed to teach high schoolers about the importance of consent, how consent works, and how to set healthy boundaries in relationships.

For more information on our education programs, please contact educator@hopeharbor.net

Adult

Hope Harbor offers education and prevention programs for adults throughout the Barren River Area Development District.

Some of the topics include:

Green Dot Community – Evidence-Based Violence Prevention

Green Dot is a proven primary prevention strategy that focuses on all the members of a community as potential bystanders. Through education and skills practice, participants will change social norms that support power-based personal violence and empower participants to intervene with peers to prevent violence from occurring. Green Dot is a research-based program shown to decrease perpetration of violence. Green Dot Community consists of training community members on how all of us can do Green Dots, regardless of our barriers, to make our community safer. The trainings discuss what is power-based personal violence (dating violence, sexual violence stalking, and child abuse), and how we as bystanders can prevent it. The trainees are equipped with the knowledge and skills to safely and necessarily intervene around violence. We offer both a 1-hour overview or a full 5-hour course.

Hope Harbor Services & Consent

Gain an understanding of the prevalence of sexual violence common reactions and effects sexual assault and abuse, and how to help others through support and resources. This is followed by a conversation about how consent works legally and socially.

Consent on Campus

Defines how university organizations can take part in preventing and ending sexual assault on campuses. The topics include responding to survivors of sexual assault, the impacts of sexual violence, risk reduction vs. prevention, and myth busting common misconceptions surrounding sexual assault.

Internet Safety

Internet Safety is important for people at any stage of life. As the internet grows and evolves, we are here to teach you important tips to keep you and your loved ones safe online. See each of the sections below for more information. For information on Internet Safety for children, see the K-12 page. 

• for Parents & Caregivers
  This program reviews some basic tips to keep a child under your protection safe online, reviews forms of violence that may occur to children, and walks through tips to keep your child safe on different platforms. Caregivers will leave with resources on how to create a family media plan.
• for Seniors
  Our Cybersecurity for Seniors course debunks common myths about the Internet, offers tips on how to spot generative AI, and reviews common scams that target older adults.
• for Adults with IDD
  This program reviews basic internet safety tips, covers how to respect online privacy, offers insight into how to spot generative AI, reviews common scams, and covers how to have a more positive online impact.

For more information on any of these educational programs, please contact educator@hopeharbor.net

Professional Trainings

Hope Harbor has education and training programs available on a variety of topics that are tailored to each specific audience. If you do not see the program you had in mind, please contact us and we can combine or create a program surrounding the issue of sexual violence.

Hope Harbor Services

Covers the basics of the free services offered by Hope Harbor: crisis intervention, emergency medical and legal advocacy, counseling, and community education. It can be tailored to meet the needs of law enforcement, medical personnel, school faculty and staff, social workers, criminal justice professionals, correctional staff, and other community-based groups. Our services training will help your agency learn about Hope Harbor, recognize why/how sexual violence occurs in our community, and the best response to end that violence.

Child Sexual Abuse (Professionals)

Teaches individuals the definition of child sexual abuse, how to recognize it, appropriate reactions to disclosures, legal responsibility to report, and where to go for help if a child you know is being abused.

Developing a Sexual Assault Response Team

This training is designed to assist agencies in developing their own in-agency sexual assault response team (SART). SARTs are multidisciplinary teams of people who respond to instances sexual assault, coordinate training opportunities pertaining to sexual assault response and victim services, provide education and outreach opportunities to the population they serve, and influence agency policy and procedure as it pertains to sexual assault response. Recipients of this training will come away with an understanding of how to develop, implement, and maintain a SART within their agency or community, as well as guidance and continuing support toward these efforts. This training is ideal for universities, businesses, faith communities, and organizations with residential communities.

Co-Occurring Violence: Stalking

This training provides information about the crime of stalking. Participants will come away with a greater understanding of stalking as a form of violence, how stalking co-occurs with sexual violence and other forms of violence, and how to support stalking survivors in their community. This training is ideal for any professionals who may work with survivors of violent crime.

Co-Occurring Violence: Strangulation

This training provides information about the crime of strangulation. Participants will come away with a greater understanding of strangulation as a form of violence, how strangulation co-occurs with sexual violence and other forms of violence, and how to support strangulation survivors in their community. This training is ideal for any professionals who may work with survivors of violent crime.

Co-Occurring Violence: Sex Trafficking

This training explains what sex trafficking looks like, specifically in our area, and dispels the myths and misconceptions around sex trafficking. The training can be catered to the needs and education level of your agency.

Working with Currently & Formerly Incarcerated Survivors of Sexual Trauma

This training is customized to all staff working in confinement settings, such as local jails, detention centers, youth residencies, halfway houses, and addiction recovery centers. Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) is much more than paperwork and regulation; it’s about helping those affected by sexual trauma get the help and resources they need.