Sally Berenzweig, co-founder of the Kid Safe Foundation, protects children from abuse

Sally Berenzweig is the co-founder of the Kid Safe Foundation in Boca Raton. The organization's mission is to keep children safe.

"You know someone just said to me if you could sum it up in one sentence, what would it be. And it's really stopping child abuse with prevention education. And we have a curriculum for kids for four years old through twelve years old. We have taught about 25 thousand children throughout South Florida and we also lecture, we really believe in an integrated approach."

Sally speaks to children in schools about protecting themselves, but she also talks to parents--sharing alarming statistics. "I have a child and once you start reading, researching and seeing all of the statistics about children being harmed. One in three girls and one in six boys will be sexually exploited before the age of 18, 90 percent of the time by someone they know 68 percent by a family member."

We asked her what are her goals for the future?"

"We are actually working with a survivor, author, speaker in Illinois
actually she passed a law and she is going state to state trying to get prevention education to mandate it and so we are just trying to help her, support her and see how we can do something like that here."

Sally says her perseverance to protect kids is possible because of the support she receives from her friendships and family.

"We have to thank my husband really, because when we say supporters, he is the foundation that made KidSafe."
 
Sally Berenzweig is one of 5 Jefferson Award winners, honored for outstanding work in the community. The award is named after Thomas Jefferson.