Circle of Grace

“You know what program did the most harm to this country, in terms of crimes like this? Stranger danger. Flooded the schools with it. Taught a whole generation about a scary man in a trench coat, hiding behind a tree. Then we learned that strangers are only a fraction of the offenders out there. Most are people you see every day - your family, your neighbors, schoolteachers. You know the rest. Prepared our children for 1% of the danger, made them more vulnerable to 99%. So we've been wrong before. All we can do is learn from it, and hopefully be better next time.”

This quote came from a 2006 episode of the television crime drama, "Criminal Minds". What struck me was how accurate this quote was in describing what makes Circle of Grace different from the other abuse prevention programs in schools. As many of our churches are looking for curriculum for the summer or for the school year, please encourage your ministry leaders to consider the Circle of Grace program!  Circle of Grace uses an all-inclusive approach to teaching awareness to children and adults about recognizing the signs of abuse, and creating a safe place to talk about it. As the opening quote indicates, we do not want our children to be vulnerable and ill-equipped to identify dangers. We want to give our children a voice and Circle of Grace is the right curriculum for that. 

Here is a link to our Circle of Grace promotional presentation. Circle of Grace is available for purchase at a subsidized rate through the office of CRC Safe Church Ministry.