Preston Jones is the creator and developer of Keeping Kids Safe. The program began as a labor of love intended to make a positive difference in the lives of children and their families. His ultimate personal goal is to offer every child the opportunity to grow up feeling confident, safe, secure and strive to be the best they can be.  Preston Jones grew up in central Missouri, the only son of six children. The middle child of an alcoholic father and an overbearing mother, his childhood was filled with chaos and despair. As the only son he often bore the brunt of his alcoholic father’s anger. This, coupled with the fact that the family was poor, even compared to the rural farming environment in which they lived, added to the challenge of Preston being able to develop any self-esteem much less any self-confidence. By the time Preston was eleven years old he developed a severe stuttering speech impediment. The result of this speech impediment brought ridicule and laughter from his peers causing his self-esteem to sink even lower. He carried this speech impediment with him for three years until his family moved to a neighboring community and Preston enrolled in a new school. On the very first day at his new school Preston overheard one of the students make a positive comment about him. This was actually the first time in his fourteen years that he could ever remember anyone saying anything positive about him. Even to today, he remembers the tremendous impact that one simple comment made on his life. Without realizing it, this experience was to become the driving force behind Keeping Kids Safe and Preston’s mission of helping kids and families become the best they can be. Although his family environment remained the same, Preston began to realize that maybe he did have some value and slowly began to develop positive self-esteem. To escape the chaos of his family environment Preston married when he was eighteen years old. With no positive role models, skills, or knowledge on how to make a marriage work it ended in divorce nine years later and left two children the victims of a broken home. For the next fifteen years Preston tried to rise above the effects of his debilitating childhood only to encounter one failure after another. He began two businesses both of which ended leaving him in financial despair. By the time the second business ended he had remarried and had a four-year-old daughter. Vowing not to repeat past mistakes Preston reflected on his martial arts training and the efforts he was making toward a successful children’s safety program. It was then that he realized that his failures were the direct result of his childhood, being told that he would never amount to anything. He knew that this old tape was playing in the back of his mind causing him not to feel worthy of success. With this new understanding Preston let go of the past, took full responsibility for his future and created Keeping Kids Safe in the format it exists today. As a father, former police officer, Air Force veteran, martial arts fifth degree black belt, and university student studying psychology and parapsychology, Preston has combined this knowledge with his life experience and created a program that involves the entire family. Keeping Kids Safe has evolved into not only teaching kids how to be the best they can be, it helps the entire family learn how to be the best they can be. Today, Preston’s program and seminars are sought out by families, public and private schools, and agencies across the globe. Preston applies his Keeping Kids Safe principles and technique with his own family and has been able to create the family environment he knows everyone is capable of living. Preston and his wife have recently celebrated their fifteenth year of marriage and live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their two daughters. |
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