Dear Parents:

McGruff the Crime Dog® and his nephew Scruff® appear in this web site to help your children learn how to make themselves safer.

We know that children trust and love McGruff (an adult figure). Children trust McGruff as an adult who cares about them and offers helpful advice. Scruff, who is a child figure, gets into situations that children may have encountered or worried about, involving alcohol and other drugs, gangs, and weapons. By remembering his uncle's good advice, Scruff is better able to handle these problems.

In addition, the web site invites children to be part of the story -- to interact by making choices and participating in solving problems and games that relate to the messages in the text.

How can you build on the site's messages? Invite your child to read the screens of the stories aloud to you -- and to younger children in the family or on the reservation. Teach your child about your own reservation or community -- places to go for help, places to avoid, ways to resist peer pressure, what to do if a weapon or drugs turn up, and how to turn to adults for help.

Talk with others in your community about what you can do together to help protect your children.