How CAP got its start...

The Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Project originated in 1978, in Columbus, Ohio, as a project of Women Against Rape (WAR). At the time the organization was responding to a plea by parents and staff to a parochial school in which a second grader had been raped. Offering emotional support and empowering prevention information, the staff at WAR developed the original Child Assault Prevention (CAP) curriculum. In 1984, Ms. Magazine published an article about the successes of the CAP program. The following is a true situation that was featured in the article:

Twelve-year-old Tanya and her eight-year-old brother Marcus were walking home from school together. Two adolescent boys attacked them and tried to drag Tanya off the sidewalk and into a yard. Without hesitation, both kids started shouting a deep, guttural self-defense yell while Tanya kicked and fought to get loose. The young attackers ran away.

Tanya and Marcus escaped harm because they had participated in a Child Assault Prevention (CAP) workshop in Columbus, Ohio, the summer before. Though shaken by the attempted assault, they had learned real skills that changed the outcome of a dangerous situation just as clearly as teaching children how to cross streets prevents many pedestrian accidents. Tanya and Marcus were the first children we heard about who had actually used the information we taught to prevent assault. They were not the last. Since that incident CAP success stories have become commonplace and have proved CAP's effectiveness to prevent abuse against children. Today, CAP has trained facilitators in 22 states and 16 countries and is considered to be one of America's most innovative and comprehensive prevention programs. It is presently disseminated nationally and internationally by the International Center for Assault Prevention (www.internationalcap.org) .

How NJ CAP got its start...

In 1984, a New Jersey teacher named Pat Stanislaski became trained in the CAP project and began implementing the program in her own elementary school in Somerset County, NJ. She was amazed how well the program worked and was received by children and the school community.

Her many successes with the program, were noted by the NJ Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect which later chose CAP to fund as a primary prevention program for all the schools in the state. Based on its excellent record of providing services to schools and communities, the Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC – www.eirc.org ) was selected as the host agency for the New Jersey State project. Since that time NJ CAP has set up 21 county projects and trained over 2 million children and 250,000 parents and school staff. New Jersey is the only state in the country to offer Child Assault Prevention training statewide. NJ CAP has received national and international recognition as a "model state" program in child assault prevention education.

In 1993, the National CAP Office in Columbus, Ohio transferred its national and international responsibilities to New Jersey, and EIRC became the new headquarters for the  National and International Center for Assault Prevention. Today EIRC houses the NJ CAP and ICAP projects.