KEYEYE
is a spin-off
of the
"
Personal
Safety for Women"
program designed
especially for children. The women who attended the
seminars often
asked if they could bring their daughters. Robin declined at the
time, as a child's approach in handling assault would require a
totally different strategy. The main concern was he did not want
to teach children to be paranoid. The only answer was to design
a program specifically for young children.
An outbreak
of missing children struck the area in which Robin and his family
lived in 1983. This prompted him to design and teach KEYEYE,
an awareness
program for elementary school children from grades four and up.
"Awareness
is the KEY
to opening your
EYEs
to
danger."
The program
was developed in three schools in Surrey, British Columbia. The
principal of one of those schools Mr. Ed Vogt is responsible for
the programs growth. As Robin puts it, "He blackmailed me".
At the end of the course at South Surrey Elementary School (Mr.
Vogt's school), the children were awarded certificates of achievement,
at what Robin believed to be the last class.
Mr. Vogt asked
Robin if he would be back after the Easter break. Robin told him
that he thought the program was over. Besides the class was in the
middle of the day and sometimes it interfered with making a living...
Mr Vogt, handed a letter to Robin that was from one of the students.
It told of a man who had tried to coax the student and his friend
into a car with , "DO YOU WANT TO BUY THIS CAR IT'S REAL CHEAP?"
The student
remembered a story he had heard at a KEYEYE
class, and told
his friend "Let's go now!" The young boy took down the
license plate number and handed it to Mr. Vogt, who promptly called
the police. The police reported that the man was a known pedophile,
recently released from prison. After Robin read the letter there
was no way he could not come back...
Every time we
receive a letter from a parent or a child who has avoided a situation
by what they have learned in a KEYEYE
class, we thank
Ed Vogt.
In 1983 Robin
and his daughter Claire held their first official KEYEYE
class at Don
Christian Elementary school in Cloverdale, British Columbia. While
walking into the school, Claire asked her father, “What are
we actually going to teach, dad?” Robin answered, “I really
don’t know.” He continued, “We’ve just got to
get the message to the children that they should not talk to any
adults.” (A man had attempted to coax children into his car
while parked outside of the elementary school on several occasions.)
They opened
their first class by teaching some very basic techniques of escaping
a hold and then running away from their attacker. For the second
part of the class, Robin gave the children a scenario and from that
moment on KEYEYE
became a program
for to teach children.
KEYEYE
is unique with
positive results. In the classes, children learn of the methods
used by molesters and kidnappers, who prey on children - emphasis
is on what to do if, or when, an approach is made. Not only what
a child should not do.
Kid's
Stories, Program Reviews & Comments and Video Info...
Read
some of the
stories kids have come up with, you'll
be amazed at what you can learn from them!
Of
course we think our program is great! But, what do other people
think about it? Well, read
what a few people have said about
