How do you change the world? It starts with children

Steve Daley was an admittedly confident young police officer in Pinellas County in the 1980s when he went on a call that changed his life forever.

Daley responded to a domestic violence call and entered the house, where he spotted a small figure at the end of a dark hallway. He called out to the figure several times as he approached and realized it was a young girl standing before him. He knelt to get face to face with her and saw that she was covered in her own blood.

Daley asked, “Are you all right? I’m a police officer.”

The girl stared back at him and simply whispered, “Where were you?”

The once-cavalier young officer realized at that moment that “protect” in protect and serve wasn’t accurate, since officers typically respond to the aftermath of an incident. Daley decided to do something about it. He created the Rad Kids organization, a personal empowerment safety education development curriculum. It teaches children skills to get out of situations such as attempted abductions, bullying, avoiding substance abuse and avoiding sexual abuse.

Elizabeth Smart was abducted in 2002 by Brian David Mitchell and held captive for more than nine months. The 14-year-old repeatedly was sexually assaulted during her ordeal, but in the end, became a rarity in abduction cases in that she survived to see her family again. Smart said she doesn’t believe Mitchell would have been successful if she had taken a class such as Rad Kids and became the national spokesman for the educational program.

The Rad Kids curriculum is available nationwide and was founded by Daley nearly 20 years ago. It is now coming to the Bradenton area for the first time thanks to West Bradenton Crime Watch founder Tami Goudy.

“It’s an amazing program,” said Goudy, who recently completed her instructor certification and was on hand while eight area law enforcement officers were taking the course this week.

The certification course is open to anyone and the curriculum is available to children between the ages of 3-12.

“It teaches kids the mindset that no one has the right to hurt them and that they don’t have the right to hurt others,” Goudy said. “You see the difference in their stature and confidence after they have been through the program.”

Though it is a highly successful program across the country, instructors are hard to find, and it remains a relatively new venture in South Florida. Goudy is the only certified instructor from Alachua County to Miami, but she brought Daley to Bradenton to change that.

Daley said the classes change the way a child thinks about negative situations because the old school thought of “stranger danger” doesn’t apply to reality. And society tends to blame the victim.

A video of a child being abducted shows the girl willingly walking away with the predator and the reaction in other classes has been, “Why didn’t she run or scream,” or “Why didn’t her parents teach her to do something?”

But there’s only one person to blame, Daley said.

“There’s this whole process that we have created in our education of kids that keeps that victimization way too long,” Daley said. “When someone hurts you, it’s not your fault. It’s their fault. In this crazy world of alternative news where everything gets turned around, the truth is, no one gets to hurt anyone.

“We grew up with the, ‘Don’t talk to strangers, be polite.’ What the heck does that mean? It means if you’re nice to me, I’m nice to you. But if all of a sudden you are mean, what do I do now?”

Rad Kids is an activity-based program where kids get the skills, not just the rules, that makes Rad Kids unique and successful.

“It teaches kids how to make their own decisions and skills and to respond if they find themselves in a dangerous situation,” Daley said.

More than 175 children across the country who escaped abduction have reported it was their Rad Kids training that helped them get away, “and thousands more have escaped abuse,” Daley said. “Every kid deserves to be safe in this world.”

The program transforms the way children see themselves. Not by using fear, but rather teaching them the confidence to overcome negative situations.

“What changes is how the child gets their own boundaries in place and grow themselves,” Daley said. “It’s based on self value and self worth and we use safety, and all the safety skills to build that. What really changes is you see a child develop their own standards and boundaries of safety. Their awareness increases. Their standards of possibility of hope increases over fear because they are not afraid of things.”

West Bradenton Crime Watch’s annual Safe Kids Fair is Dec. 2 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3011 19th Ave. W., at which time Goudy hopes to introduce the program to the community. From there, she hopes to bring the program permanently to Bradenton. To learn more about the program or to become an instructor, visit radkids.org or contact Goudy at info@crimewatchbradenton.com.

Though costs are minimal, Goudy said she is looking to grow the local instructor base and is seeking sponsorships for the program either in the form of donations or businesses can sponsor scholarships for local kids to take the class.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 10:04 AM with the headline "How do you change the world? It starts with children."