This past week we made HUGE progress on getting BLOOM SAFE to the next level.  Adrianne Simeone of The Mama Bear Effect (@mamabeareffect) and Steve Simons (@realstevesimons), the author of the Bloom Safe Report and the Bloom Safe Act, met with Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL), the vice chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, to ask him to lead a BIPARTISAN initiative to sponsor THE BLOOM SAFE: MAKE AMERICA THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE A KID ACT in Congress.

As a reminder, The Bloom Safe Act Has Five Core Objectives that We Call “The Five Pillars”:

1. Education and Prevention: Building on the success of “Erin’s Law” at the state level, the Act implements evidence-based, age-appropriate PreK–12 child sexual abuse prevention curricula nationwide.
2. Adult Training: The Act requires "Bloom Safe" certification and training for ALL adults who care for and work with children – teachers, coaches, faith leaders, healthcare workers, foster/adoptive parents, law enforcement, etc. – equipping them to identify, prevent, and respond to child sexual abuse appropriately, starting with all mandated reporters.
3. Public Awareness: The Act launches a sustained national campaign to break the silence and destigmatize conversations about child sexual abuse, similar to what “Just Say No” and the D.A.R.E. program did for drug abuse prevention.
4. Survivor Support: The Act expands services to ensure all survivors have immediate and sustained access to support.
5. Research and Data: The Act establishes a National Child Sexual Abuse Research Hub for ongoing data collection, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, ensuring evidence-based peer reviewed science is the foundation for ongoing improvements in policy and practice.

The Act creates a central “Bloom Safe Task Force” – an interagency body co-chaired by HHS, CDC, and the Department of Education (with the Department of Justice in advisory support) – to coordinate efforts across federal agencies and states. This ensures unified leadership, unified data, and sets uniform standards nationwide. The legislation also mandates transparent annual reporting on progress, outcomes, and spending.

In short, Bloom Safe couples funding with strict oversight, transparency, and data-driven evaluation to guarantee taxpayers see results.  It is a chance for every sponsor to lead a historic, life-saving initiative in Congress – uniting parties, agencies, and communities around the shared goal of making America the safest place in the world to be a kid. This is a legacy building piece of legislation that will truly make a life-long, high impact difference in millions of lives.  So, we encourage you to reach out to Representative Buchanan to ask him to sponsor this bill by contacting him on his website:

https://buchanan.house.gov/contact

The fact is, our meeting with him went really well.  Congressman Buchanan shared how deeply he appreciates the truly vast scale of the epidemic of sexual violence targeting our children in the United States today, and how the issue is truly NONPARTISAN in the fact that so many people of both parties share his concerns.  With his distinguished record of supporting legislation that protects children from exploitation, trafficking, and abuse and a strong record of reaching across the aisle to bring unity on issues, we believe he is an ideal candidate to introduce this bill and bring other members of Congress on board, but he needs to hear from you.  

We also ask that you consider reaching out to your members of congress and ask them to review the BLOOM SAFE: MAKE AMERICA THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE A KID ACT by downloading it from our website:

https://www.bloomsafe.org

Please also take this opportunity to like, to follow, and to share @bloom_safe posts on Instagram.  Please share this petition with all of your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.  Every signature counts and raises the chances that we will get the attention of Congress to take action on this critical issue.

We also would love for you to join the #RingFingerChallenge and post your own accent nails tagging @bloom_safe to show your support for THE BLOOM SAFE: MAKE AMERICA THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE A KID ACT.

Every voice counts.  Every vote counts.  Every signature counts.  Please join us in making this bill into law.

Yours Sincerely,

Steve Simons
Author/Founder of Bloom Safe