Keeping our kids safe: Day for Daniel

Day for Daniel is Australia’s largest child safety education and awareness day. In 2023, Day for Daniel will be held on Friday 27 October. It is a day for parents, carers, educators, and community groups to teach children important personal safety lessons. The theme of the day is ‘Wear Red, Educate, Donate’.

In 2020, the Foundation inspired more than 1.5 million people to get involved in Day for Daniel. Over 4,846 schools and early learning centres wore the Foundation’s signature colour red and participated in child safety education. Hundreds of businesses and community groups also championed for child safety.

Children may be curious about what happened to Daniel, and why we have a ‘Day for Daniel’. It is important children learn about Daniel without getting overwhelmed, scared, or upset. Day for Daniel is a day to be positive about learning to be safe.

In response to questions, it is best to answer in straightforward and simple terms.

You might like to try the following response:

Daniel was a 13-year-old boy who felt safe every day. One Sunday, at the start of the school holidays, he went to catch a bus. Unfortunately, the bus broke down and by the time the next bus turned up Daniel was gone. Daniel’s situation went from safe to unsafe very quickly. Luckily, what happened to Daniel doesn’t happen very often and there are lots of things we can talk about to help you stay safe.

We have ‘Day for Daniel’ because Daniel’s family want to help children learn what to do if they ever find themselves in an unsafe situation.

You can help keep kids safe and promote ‘Day for Daniel’ by following these steps:

• Talk to your child’s school or early learning centre and encourage them to register for Day for Daniel
• Take the opportunity to start or continue conversations about safety with your child
• Have open and honest conversations with your child/ren, remind them nothing is so awful, they can’t talk to someone about it
• Use the Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s Keeping Kids Safe Resources
• Wear Red, Educate and Donate

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