Sherryll Kraizer

About the Author

Dr. Sherryll Kraizer has a Ph.D. in education with a specialization in youth at risk. She is the founder and director of the Coalition for Children, a not-for-profit (501(c)(3)) organization. She has taught and worked with schools for more than twenty-five years, and currently serves as a Special Education Staff Developer for the Denver Public Schools.

Dr. Kraizer has developed programs that support communities, schools and families to provide effective, affordable education that works. The Safe Child Program is a comprehensive prevention of child abuse curriculum that enables teachers, families and children to educate before abuse occurs and that gives children skills that make them less vulnerable. The Reach and Challenge Programs recognize the powerful forces on young people and adolescents and provide them with skills to make choices that empower their lives. The Recovery Program helps young people who have been abused to rebuild their sense of self and to prevent future victimization. The Take A Stand Program is designed to stop patterns of bullying and interpersonal violence in all areas of the community.

Dr. Kraizer’s work is based on the belief that faced with the magnitude of child abuse and interpersonal violence around the world, it is virtually impossible — at the individual and governmental level — to confront and address child abuse until viable, affordable and effective prevention education is widely available. The past twenty years she has participated in the evolution of a clear set of guidelines for prevention programs, what makes them effective, what works and what doesn’t.

Dr. Kraizer is internationally recognized for creating models that maximize community-wide participation in prevention efforts and her research of program effectiveness, including what methods effective actual behavioral change associated with reduction of risk. Her materials are translated and used in eighty countries around the world. (www.safechild.org)