Our Story

I’m Holly-ann Martin OAM, founder and Managing Director of Safe4Kids.

Where It All Began

Our story began in 1985, when I volunteered at a school for children with special needs in Perth, Western Australia. The children had varying disabilities, ranging from mild learning disabilities through to profound cognitive impairment.

We knew these children were at greater risk of sexual abuse, so we began teaching them about body safety. In particular, we taught them about public and private behaviours, safe and unsafe touch, and what was and was not appropriate. We also taught them the correct anatomical names for their private body parts and helped them understand that their body belongs to them.

We wanted to empower these children by giving them knowledge and practical skills that could help keep them safe.

Discovering Protective Behaviours

Unknown to me at the time, a program called Protective Behaviours had been developed in the United States by Peg Flandreau West and her colleagues.

The program was initially developed in the early 1970s to help children recognise when they did not feel safe and explore what they could do about it. Over the following years, the program continued to evolve. By 1975, the core themes, concepts and strategies now associated with Protective Behaviours were being taught.

The Protective Behaviours program was introduced to Australia in 1985 and remains in use today.

In 1992, while working as a teacher assistant, I was formally trained in the Protective Behaviours program. The school principal had introduced the program following a critical incident.

By then, I had already spent seven years helping children learn about body safety and the concepts of public and private. Learning about Protective Behaviours strengthened my understanding and ignited an even greater passion for helping protect children from abuse.

Developing Resources for Children and Educators

In 2004, I was working as a teacher assistant at a Language Development Centre and teaching the Protective Behaviours program.

After seeing the positive impact the program was having on the children, the principal asked me to deliver it across three different school sites. By this stage, I had begun creating my own teaching resources, games and lesson plans.

In 2006, a friend encouraged me to back myself and establish a company dedicated to producing high-quality, innovative child abuse prevention education resources.

Although Protective Behaviours was recognised across Australia, very few quality teaching resources were available to support those delivering the program. I had already created many of the resources I needed to teach children, and I thought that if I needed them, other educators might find them valuable too.

So, I took a leap of faith, established my first company and began producing teaching resources, games and lesson plans commercially.

Expanding Into Community Education

In 2007, while on long service leave, I was invited to visit two remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to help teach adults and children about child abuse prevention education.

During that visit, I began to realise that quality teaching resources were only one part of the solution. There was also a need to train teachers, parents, carers and entire communities in child abuse prevention education, empowering them to teach the children in their care and help keep them safe.

Establishing Safe4Kids

In 2010, after working as a teacher assistant for 23 years, I resigned from the Western Australian Department of Education.

In 2011, Safe4Kids (Aust) Pty Ltd was born, and a new journey began.

Working Together

In 2012, my husband, Roger Cripps, resigned from his position as a sports administrator in the AFL and joined Safe4Kids as our Business Development Manager.

Roger has postgraduate qualifications in business management, so he looks after the business side of Safe4Kids while I concentrate on creating new teaching resources and training parents, carers, teachers, educators and community members to help keep children safe.

We are a bit like yin and yang—and it works incredibly well.

Together, we work to help protect children in Australia and around the world from abuse.

Recognition for a Lifetime of Service

For more than four decades, child safety education has been at the centre of my life.

One of my proudest moments came in 2016, when I was inducted into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in recognition of my service to child protection education.

In 2022, I was deeply honoured to be awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the General Division—OAM—for service to child safety.

Receiving an Order of Australia Medal was an extraordinary personal honour, but it also represented something much greater than my own journey. It recognised the importance of child safety education and the work being done by educators, parents, carers and communities to help children feel safe, speak up and seek help when they need it.

Safe4Kids Today

The world has changed enormously since our story began in 1985, and so have the challenges and potential threats facing children.

Safe4Kids is dedicated to developing high-quality, innovative and up-to-date child abuse prevention education programs, professional training and teaching resources.

This is not a sideline for us. It is our full-time work, our passion and our purpose.

Our programs and resources are designed to give adults the knowledge, confidence and practical tools to teach children about personal safety in an age-appropriate and empowering way.

We want children to understand that they have the right to feel safe, that they can talk about anything, and that trusted adults will listen to them and take action to help.

Work With Safe4Kids

That is our story so far.

We are excited about the future and would love the opportunity to work with you to help protect the children in your care.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions. We are here to help.