id-Safe Productions was developed to address a growing need for community education on the subject of child abuse prevention. This need was identified at a Strategic Planning Meeting of members of the Scarborough Agencies Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (SASAT) in late 1999. SASAT is an inter-agency collaborative that provides group treatment to adults and children who have been exposed to the horrors of childhood sexual abuse. There were approximately fifty (50) agency member representatives in attendance at this meeting. Attendees were children's mental health professionals ranging from social workers to childhood educators, therapists, and therapeutic specialists.

They were meeting due to concerns of declining referrals to SASAT though it was known that this problem had little to do with instances of abuse declining. It was discussed that there are abused children out in the community who may feel very isolated in their "shameful" situation. They feel this is happening only to them. These children, afraid of speaking up believe that by not doing so, they will be protecting themselves or someone they love. Additionally, it was discussed that abused children tend to feel "I am just a kid, so what can 'I' do about it" and thus stay tragically paralyzed in their situation. "How can we reach these children so that they can get the help they need?" was the question of the day. It became obvious that more educational community outreach would be necessary in order to achieve this, with the added bonus that, this outreach could be used as a vehicle to teach all children tools necessary to stop potential abuse.

The SASAT Public Relations committee met shortly after to discuss this option further. It was here that the suggestion was made to create an educational outreach program aimed at reaching the community with the message of child abuse awareness and prevention. An ad hoc advisory committee made up of children's mental health professionals was created to help with the project. This committee provided professional expertise as to what medium should be used, what age group should be targeted, what should be the key issues dealt with and what will be the best method of getting these vital messages across to our children. It was decided that to bring the most successful message of prevention to society, the youngest of our verbal children should be the target audience (ages 4 to 7) and it should be done in a live and interactive format.

The project coordination began as a volunteer effort and was overseen by an experienced individual who, while attending advisory committee meetings, created a musical play designed to be interactive, fun, cost effective and most of all a responsible vehicle for delivering the vital messages of child abuse prevention. This coordinator designed and supervised set construction, costume design, and music recording in preparation for performance within the community. Experienced volunteers were used to help with developing a Web site and creation of follow-up materials for the play. Overseeing this project obviously became much more than just a part-time volunteer job, thus the Kid-Safe Productions company was officially created and operates autonomously.

The founder of Kid-Safe Productions continues to stay involved with SASAT as a volunteer and also keeps herself current on the issues of child abuse.