You might have heard Safe & Sound refer to ‘strengthening protective factors’ but what are they, and why do they matter?
The 5 Protective Factors are areas of family functioning that help support youth and families to be strong. Research shows that when these factors are present in populations of families, it reduces the risk of abuse, maltreatment, and negative outcomes.
Strengthening each of these factors in your own life allows for personal development and a healthy wellbeing, which is essential in flourishing and building stability in your family. By building a foundation, having a strong community and resources to rely on, it will not only reduce stressors as a parent but also have a long lasting effect on how your kiddos solve problems and make healthy decisions throughout life.
Each Protective Factor has its own super power!
If you want to know more about how to incorporate each power feel free to call Safe & Sound’s TALK Line or come into Parent Drop In to chat and bring your kiddos to the playroom!
TALK Line: (415) 441-5437
Parenting is hard and you don’t have to do it alone
Parent Drop In:
Monday & Thursday: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Tuesday & Wednesday: 2 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
Check out our For Parents section of the website for more resources.
Safe & Sound, as the backbone agency and member of the Family Services Alliance, is a participant in the Children & Youth Fund Messaging Taskforce, a citywide collective representing more than 400 organizations that aims to strengthen the voice of San Francisco’s nonprofits serving youth, children and families.
This taskforce has recently been praised in an op-ed published in the San Francisco Examiner, highlighting potential budget cuts forthcoming which could impact the services these nonprofits are able to provide.
As the article says, nonprofits in the taskforce like Safe & Sound often serve as the city’s safety net, stepping in to provide essential services for young people and families, offering stability, opportunity, and a safe place to go. These programs don’t just benefit children and families; they create safer, more connected neighborhoods, as highlighted by our recent Lunch and Learn about building trust.
With potential funding cuts across local, state, and federal government, it is important for Safe & Sound to join the voices of other nonprofits and present actionable suggestions to maintain these lifelines for our families and communities. This advocacy work is an important part of Safe & Sound’s mission, seeking to advance laws, policies, and practices that put children and families first.
You can read the full article online.
Social trust is the belief in the honesty, integrity and dependability of others – having faith in other people. Data shows that trust between Americans is currently at its lowest since 1950. Building trust in community and between neighbours can help build trust in democracy, systems, institutions and leaders. Conversely, the absence of trust can lead people not to participate in society and become isolated, further causing individual harms. In this first Lunch & Learn of the 2025 series our panel of national and local experts discussed proven practices for building trust from within a community.
We are grateful to our expert panel for joining Safe & Sound CEO Dr. Pegah Faed in this conversation:
There were several highlights as our expert panelists shared ideas and built on each other’s experiences and insights. Following are a few points from our panelists that we want to spotlight, and if you would like to hear more please check out the webinar recording.
Trust takes time
Longevity is needed to build trust. It is earned by continually showing up, keeping promises and saying what you mean. It is important to be sincere and authentic about what is possible and what you are able to deliver in order to build and maintain trust. Through investment in the relationship over time and long-term consistency, trust can be fostered.
Trust can be borne from shared interest
Necessity such as the global pandemic helped to build trust and community. We were reminded during that time how interdependent we are – and we had to come together to meet the moment and care for one another. However, this shouldn’t only happen in a crisis; we need to learn from these lessons and remember we are stronger when we work together. A shared interest in community can help to build this trust, such as a community project, a social meetup or an inspirational community leader.
Put assumptions about people and systems aside and seek understanding.
Don’t brand communities with labels such as low income, distressed or at risk – this puts up barriers to building trust. Learn from the community and be part of it to truly understand it. Understand that everyone has a gift, and find a way to help people discover and share that gift.
Center people with lived experience
To build trust within a community it is important to let that community lead the direction they want to go and not impose a program on them. People closest to the issue often have the best solutions, and someone in the center of that community will have the most trust from others around them to lead that initiative, so all programs should involve the voices of the people at the table during the planning stages. Truly understand the people you serve and support, and advocate for them when they are not in the room with you. We discussed this topic in more detail in our 2024 series – the recordings and resources can be found here.
Trust is essential to sustainable system change
We must invite people in to build out the processes, and give them the space to talk about their real experiences and situations.
Trust isn’t something that “just happens”. As our panelists discussed, it takes some structure, a lot of time and patience, and the ability to find and engage the people in your communities and groups who can weave together relationships, connections—and build trust.
We all have a role in our communities to build the trust needed to make change for children and families.
2025 Child Abuse Prevention Month Webinars from the Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP)
OCAP’s Child Abuse Prevention Month theme was “It Takes A Village.”Each webinar is focused on how we build connections and trust to strengthen our collective “village.”
TrustMap.org
Use this tool to find out the level of social trust in your neighbourhood and every other neighbourhood in the USA. Community members can lean into their neighbourhood’s strengths and use the knowledge to improve other areas.
Three Indicators of Community Trust
Understand more about the three traits that help communities build trust – which are used in the Trust Map.
Why be a Weaver
How can you build trust where you live? Start weaving connections. Weaving the social fabric is not just about caring for and serving others. It’s about forming relationships where everyone feels valued.
Six Ways to Repair Declining Social Trust
This article looks in to some statistics around the current level of trust and some concrete steps for societies to replenish trust and social cohesion.
Safe & Sound’s Center for Youth Wellness program has published a peer-reviewed article in the international journal on children’s health ‘Children’, outlining the learnings from its Trauma-Informed ACEs Screening and Intervention Evaluation (TASIE) project. The article is part of a special issue on Adverse Childhood Experiences: Assessment and Long-Term Outcomes.
Children is an international journal from MDPI, an open access scholarly publisher with the mission to foster open scientific exchange. Children has been publishing physician peer-reviewed articles and research since 2014, maintaining a rigorous standard for data and research which has lead to it garnering over 9.5 million paper views in 2024 and over 14,000 paper citations in 2023 [1].
Existing research has demonstrated that the assessment and study of ACEs’ impact is essential. The articles in this special edition combine to deepen knowledge, expand understanding, and explore advanced methods of assessing ACEs. The TASIE project was included as an example of innovative research into childhood adversity, considering its short-term and long-term impact on psychological well-being, health, and social outcomes. Other articles in the special edition consider the link between exposure to violence and the perpetration of other forms of violence, the common and differential mechanisms involved in the development of different types of youth violence, and an assessment of the predictive accuracy of risk assessment tools in child health and wellbeing.
You can read Safe & Sound’s article and the full special edition online now.
The article in Children Journal discusses the findings of our three-year TASIE project. You can read more about the research outcomes of this project in this website page: https://safeandsound.org/about-abuse/the-tasie-project/. Through this Center for Youth Wellness program, we have provided vital recommendations to healthcare leaders on how to integrate ACEs and toxic stress screening and prevention efforts into patient healthcare management.
The TASIE project has laid the groundwork for more trauma-informed care across the country, helping to build a healthcare system that better supports children and families affected by adversity. The success of the TASIE Project is highlighted in HRSA’s report to the United States Congress, spotlighting Safe & Sound’s pioneering role in this national effort.
Safe & Sound’s Center for Youth Wellness program seeks to continue this effort by working with partners and practitioners to conduct further trauma-informed practice research and training. By producing and disseminating data, we seek to continue to learn lessons and develop tools to inform national, state and local policies and practices in addressing childhood trauma. With your ongoing support we can progress this important research.
Kids’ Turn workshops for Spring 2025 are in progress, and the families taking part have already started to experience the benefits of attending.
“Hearing everyone’s thoughts and stories makes you realize you are not alone and broadens your perspective” – Kids’ Turn parent
Kids’ Turn is a co-parenting workshop which supports children and parents through separation and divorce. The program helps children discuss their feelings and teaches tools to cope with parental separation, while family members learn new ways to support their children and manage their new life circumstances.
The workshops involve interactive sessions giving parents and children the space to share, as well as more structured advice on responding to different situations.
Kids need to know their thoughts and feelings matter. When we create a space for them to express themselves openly—without judgment or interruption—we help them feel valued and understood. When kids feel heard, they learn to manage their emotions in healthy ways.
Simple ways to encourage open sharing:
Parenting isn’t just about guiding children—it’s also about healing ourselves. One parent shared how Kids’ Turn helped them recognize their own triggers, leading to an emotional but meaningful conversation with their daughters.
“Learning about my personal triggers from my own upbringing. I really sat down with my daughters and just cried. I scared them, but we started talking about how my mom was to me and I didn’t want to be that way anymore. It was a pretty special moment. This class really did bring up things I just didn’t realize were issues.” – Kids’ Turn parent
At Kids’ Turn, we create space for parents to reflect, heal, and grow—because breaking cycles starts with awareness. Every moment of learning and connection strengthens families for the better.
Whether it’s learning better communication skills, finding community, or simply realizing you’re not alone—Kids’ Turn exists to support families.
Want to learn more about how our workshops help families navigate challenges together? Visit the dedicated website page.
The end of April marks the end of Child Abuse Prevention Month 2025. We hope that you were able to take part in a way that was meaningful to you. We are grateful for the opportunity this month brings to share information and spread awareness about child abuse prevention with our community.
We’re delighted that so many people and organizations chose to get behind Child Abuse Prevention Month in different ways.
April may be over but our mission to create a world in which every child and family can thrive continues. Child Abuse Prevention means working with communities to keep children safe, provide the support families need to stay together, and raise children to be happy, secure, and stable adults. If you would like to be a part of that mission, please consider donating today.
This tool suggests the stages of development from birth to 6 years and some activities you can do with children to encourage their development. Enjoy watching and helping your child grow!
Social and emotional development involves several interrelated areas of development, including social interaction, emotional awareness, and self-regulation. Parents and families play an important role in nurturing their children’s social and emotional development, which can be both rewarding and challenging at the same time. Critical to providing support is having realistic expectations of children’s development at different ages. The tips are organized by age (Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers) and are intended to help parents and families support their children’s social and emotional development – nurturing children’s ability to develop healthy relationships, manage challenges and realize their full potential.
This website has a whole library of resources to help children grow smarter, stronger, kinder, covering a wide range of topics including: Emotional Well-Being, Emergencies, Self-Care, Grief, Feelings, Divorce, Traumatic Experiences, Parenting and Community Service.
When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time.
Parents and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.
Stopbullying.gov is a website full of information and resources, here are some specific pages that might be useful.
Each child develops at their own pace and has diverse learning needs and approaches. In the tools shared, your child may do more or less of the activities listed under each age group.
Tuning in and being aware of your child’s specific needs and where they are developmentally can help you adjust to daily routines and activities with your child. But if you are ever worried about your child’s development, don’t wait! Talk with your child’s doctor if you have concerns.
Local news station KRON4 has recognized Child Abuse Prevention Month with a segment featuring Safe & Sound’s CEO Dr. Pegah Faed and a client, Alexis, who first engaged with our TALK Line over 40 years ago. Working with Safe & Sound reinforced Alexis’ inner strength to help her six-year-old child with the trauma of witnessing a shooting in their local area. “I think if I didn’t have Safe & Sound I don’t know where I’d be” – shared Alexis.
This is all part of our effort to reduce the stigma around parents getting help and support – parenting is hard, regardless of the circumstances, and Safe & Sound is here to help.
Although stranger abduction (where a stranger takes a child intending to keep or harm him/her) is rare, it is important to talk to your child about strangers. Often children do not have a clear understanding of who is a stranger or what to do in a potentially dangerous situation. Use these tips to help guide your discussion.
Make clear that a stranger is anyone your child doesn’t know well. It’s common for children to think that strangers look mean and scary. Explain that no one can tell whether a stranger is nice or safe just by looking at him/her, and children should be careful around all strangers.
Point out adults your child can trust. This will help your child better understand the stranger concept and know who to go to if your child needs help.
Provide your child with basic rules on keeping safe:
Have your child practice saying, “No!” to going with a stranger or taking something from a stranger by playing the “What If …” Game and doing role plays. Some scenarios you could discuss are:
If your child asks, “What if they get me anyway?”: Talk about your child’s feelings; Reassure your child that he/she is safe; Reinforce the safety rules; and Suggest your child follow his/her instincts.