I've been searching for almost a year for some sort of safety training for children and young adults on the spectrum. For a while there seemed to be nothing of the kind until recently when I put the feelers out on twitter and a mom responded to my question. She tweeted the link https://besafethemovie.com/. Be Safe The Movie is an excellent teaching tool for families, schools, community programs and organizations to use for teaching children/teens/adults who are on the autism spectrum or have and intellectual disability how to interact with police officers. The movie is a several part series that goes over specific areas of interaction, awareness, ability to identify police officers and the tools they use on the job to keep us safe as well as themselves.
I encourage you as individuals, family members, caretakers and I/DD professionals to see if there is a local CIT affiliate and how often they conduct CIT trainings. Take a moment to speak with the CIT Coordinator and find out how you can share your experiences or concerns. My son and I were invited to share our experience during the Consumer Panel portion of the CIT training. The Consumer Panel is small forum of people who have a mental health and/or intellectual disability diagnosis. The panel may also include family members and caretakers. This is our chance as a community to interact with our officers and first responders in order to share and learn.
In my personal experience, I've found that sharing personal experiences about my son's interactions with first responders to be welcomed and extremely helpful for officers and first responders receiving the trainings. I thought it was going to be a one time thing, but the officer's and first responder's desire to learn and their appreciation for the opportunity to interact with my son was overwhelming. My son and I are now regular presenters at the quarterly CIT trainings.
Utilizing Be Safe The Movie is a great way to open and explore opportunities on how to work with you local police to set up safety trainings for persons on the autism spectrum and/or having other intellectual disabilities.
The video below shows how Be Safe the Movie is being used as tool for interactive trainings with Police Officers.
I hope this video sparks a fire in you as it has done for me to find even more ways to reach and teach our children about safety in the home and community.
For more information about Be Safe The Movie visit these links:
Be Safe The Movie (Official Trailer)
Web Page: Be Safe The Movie
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/BeSafeTheMovie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/besafethemovie?lang=en
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