This year, Day for Daniel returns on Friday 29 October with over 5,500 schools and early learning centres, plus hundreds more businesses and individuals across Australia participating in events, activities and action in support for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. The theme this year of Help Seeking and Reporting aims to encourage and teach children to feel brave enough to report abuse and harmful behaviour. In addition to sharing child safety messages, On Friday 29 October, Australia will be painted red as local schools, businesses and individuals wear red to symbolise the distinctive red shirt Daniel was wearing when he went missing.

Bruce and Denise Morcombe say this year, they want all children to feel brave enough to report abuse and harmful behaviour and know they are supported when they do.

“I know it can seem scary but I urge all children to be brave and report anything that makes them feel unsafe. You will be believed, you will be cared for,” Bruce says. “It’s up to adults to be ready to listen and, most importantly, to believe. “The rate of false allegations of sexual abuse is very low. A range of studies show approximately 95% of allegations are proven true.”

(Ferguson, C. E., & Malouff, J. M. (2016). Assessing police classifications of sexual abuse reports: A meta-analysis of false reporting rates. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45(5), 1185–1193.)

“Day for Daniel is an opportunity for Australians to teach children to report and ask adults to support.”

The Foundation wants to change this culture of silence and the perceived stigma by educating kids on their rights, helping them identify unsafe situations, teaching them how to react and empowering them to report to an adult.

In addition to sharing child safety messages, Day for Daniel is an opportunity to remember Daniel Morcombe who was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003.

Day for Daniel begins with the annual Walk for Daniel where the Morcombes lead participants from Suncoast Christian College in Woombye to Briggs Park in Palmwoods, symbolizing a trip home Daniel was not able to complete.