It’s important to keep our children with disabilities safe while interacting within their community. Social Boundaries: personal safety for people with disabilities can help!

Social Boundaries is a 3-week program that teaches personal safety for people with disabilities. Different levels of intimacy and social distance, how to be safe in public, how to interact with others, and what is okay and not okay in interactions are covered. Social Boundaries aims to help our children understand how to interact appropriately with different people in their community, from family members to teachers to community helpers.

How does the Social Boundaries Program work?
  • Each of the sessions includes videos, discussions, activities, and role-playing designed to teach social and sexual distance to individuals with special needs. Sessions are 3 hours long.
  • Each session explores a different level of intimacy and the many ways people trust and share information in areas of life (at home, at school, at work, in public).
  • Students learn a core system of relationship boundaries and behaviors over 3 sessions. For example, students learn when it’s okay to hug people, and when it’s appropriate (or not) to share their personal information.
  • Plan to attend all 3 sessions.
Who should attend?
  • Adolescents and teens with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders with social skills of at least kindergarten (5 years or equivalent) or above are encouraged to attend.
  • Classes are held for different age groups: 8-12 and 13-17.
  • One parent/support person/caregiver is required to participate in the class with their student. This participation is critical for the program to be successfully integrated into everyday life. 
  • The program uses Google Classroom; each participant must have or create a Gmail account.

Social Boundaries classes are limited to 6 to 8 families per session and are offered in English and Spanish. Contact us for more information. Social Boundaries uses the Circles™ Curriculum published by the James Stanfield Company. Get additional support from PHP.

Learn more about the social boundaries series by watching this short video.

This program is sponsored in part by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Santa Clara County Child Abuse Prevention Services.