Ditto the Lion engages with schoolkids at a live Keep Safe Adventure in-school event. Image courtesy Bravehearts.
Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure (DKSA) is Bravehearts’ widely-respected live incursion program, teaching crucial personal safety skills to children aged 3-8 to more than 1.6 million Australian children since its launch in 2006.
Starring Bravehearts' iconic mascot Ditto the Lion working alongside a specially trained presenter, Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure is a fun, interactive live performance delivered in schools and early learning centres with the aim of helping to safeguard young children against child sexual abuse.
DKSA uses storytelling, interactive games, and songs rather than direct classroom instruction — helping children recognise, react to, and report unsafe situations and providing them with three simple, memorable rules for staying safe:
We all have the right to feel safe with people
It's OK to say 'NO' if you feel unsafe or unsure
Nothing is so yucky that you can't tell someone about it.
DKSA is curriculum-aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, supporting what’s already taught in schools and offering school teachers structured, practical follow-up resources which reinforce messaging well after the end of Ditto’s visits.
Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure continues to be a crucial initiative in a world where, sadly, statistics surrounding child sexual abuse in Australia remain staggering: more than 1 in 3 girls and almost 1 in 5 boys are affected and in more than half of cases, the onset of child sex abuse is from 0-8 years old*.
For this reason, it is a key commitment for Coolaroo Foundation to help Bravehearts - and in particular the Bravehearts NSW South Coast committee - to establish a permanent home for Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure in the under-supported South Coast region of NSW.
*Australian Child Maltreatment Study (Haslam D, Mathews B, Pacella R, Scott JG, Finkelhor D, Higgins DJ, Meinck F, Erskine HE, Thomas HJ, Lawrence D, Malacova E. 2023)
“Our local children need to have these personal safety messages delivered. It is so important that we, as a community, do all we can to keep our children safe.
I look forward to continuing my support of Bravehearts and Wendy (Woodward, South Coast Bravehearts Advocate) in establishing a local Bravehearts education team.”
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Phone the Bravehearts FREECALL Information and Support Line on 1800 272 831 (Mon to Fri, 8:30am – 4:30pm AEST) or visit https://bravehearts.org.au/get-help/
Bravehearts' Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure Program has reached over 1.6 million children across Australia — and on the NSW South Coast, that reach is growing thanks to the work of a dedicated local team.