Our Mission
To make a positive impact on the community at large, to create change in a family’s life for the better, and to give hope in the life of a child by providing bullying and child abuse prevention education that is relevant to issues facing children today, including all forms of abuse, neglect, bullying and internet safety.
Our Vision
To increase awareness of child safety and abuse issues including bullying and internet safety, to reduce the rate of child abuse and to provide child safety and abuse prevention education to all elementary age children within the state of Florida by 2015.
About the Monique Burr Foundation for Children
The Monique Burr Foundation for Children, Inc., was founded in 1997 by Edward E. Burr with the mission to give hope in the life of a child through child abuse prevention and intervention programs. From 1997 to 2009, the Foundation provided the Good-Touch/Bad-Touch™ (GTBT) program, licensed by Childhelp, in Northeast Florida and Tampa Region elementary schools. GTBT is a 25 year old evidence based program focused primarily on child sexual abuse prevention. Under the GTBT program, the Foundation served over 224,000 Pre-K through 5th grade students and received countless disclosures of abuse.
In 2009, the Monique Burr Foundation made the decision to focus its mission and its resources on revising the GTBT program to encompass all forms of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional and neglect) and to update the curriculum based on input from child abuse prevention experts and increased awareness of new dangers facing children today (including bullying and internet safety). In the summer of 2009, the Monique Burr Foundation began working with Childhelp to raise funds for the development of an update to the GTBT program. Funds were awarded through this effort with support from United States Congressman Andrew Crenshaw’s office. Arizona State University, a leader in research, was subcontracted to begin development of the new safety and child abuse prevention education program. The Foundation began leveraging tools available through state agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Children & Families and Ounce of Prevention to minimize curriculum costs. In the fall of 2009, the Executive Director of the Monique Burr Foundation, Lynn Layton, was appointed to the Education Cooperative Planning Team (ECPT). The ECPT sought a comprehensive program that would meet the requirements of Florida Statute 39 (The Child Abuse Prevention Training Act of 1984, which includes all forms of child abuse, bullying, pornography, and computer safety), meet the requirements of the Florida Sunshine State Standards, and eventually become evidence-based curriculum. The ECPT sub-committee reviewed the curriculum elements during the program development process and approved the program after all requirements were satisfied. The new primary prevention program is titled Speak Up Be Safe™.
The curriculum is taught in two sessions. Time allocations for each session are age appropriate and are as follows: 1st grade - 30 minutes; 2nd grade - 35 minutes; 3rd grade - 35 minutes; 4th grade - 45 minutes; 5th grade - 50 minutes. Students are provided with take-away items used to engage their parents/caregivers and reinforce important concepts including the Five Speak Up Be Safe™ Safety Rules: 1. It’s my body! 2. Ask an adult if I am safe. 3. I have choices. 4. Tell someone. 5. It’s never my fault! We also reinforce the Florida abuse hotline, 1-800-96ABUSE, which is overseen by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The Beta and Pilot phases were implemented in four counties (Clay, Duval, Hillsborough and Pasco) during the 2010-11 school year. By June of 2011 almost 20,000 students had partcipated in the program. It is the Monique Burr Foundation’s vision to provide the Speak Up Be Safe™ safety and child abuse prevention program to all 1st through 5th grade students in Florida by 2015.
Our funding is raised primarily through grants and through the success of our events such as A Night in the Village, the El Pescado Billfish Tournament, Southern Hills Plantation Golf Tournament and the annual Jinglebells ProAm.
Our children need our help! If you would like to know when Speak Up Be Safe™ will be provided in your school district or how you can help bring Speak Up Be Safe™ to your area sooner, please contact Lynn Layton at (904) 642-0210 or llayton@moniqueburrfoundation.org.