Who We Are

Personal Safety Nets is a program of the Wallingford Community Senior Center.

Personal Safety Nets® serves a mission of social change. Its work is to help people prepare for life's changes and challenges by teaching them the benefits and know-how to build their own Personal Safety Nets®. 

We have met this mission previously by offering programs and workshops which could be adjusted to fit you, your family, the community at large, work-place settings or educational institutions. We've now transitioned and offer this website, designed to aid you in defining your own process, or in engaging one of the individuals who have taken our training sessions. Our outreach to the community now includes our book/workbook/audio book, interactive presentations through trainers, e-newsletters, keynote addresses and more.

Personal Safety Nets® are the resources we weave together to create a more caring, connected, and community-minded circle for ourselves, our friends, family, and workplace. 

You can see the latest information on Personal Safety Nets, as well as how the concept came to be, how it might work for you, and how to get started with building your own PSN - founders Dr. John W. Gibson and Judy Pigott spoke in April 2012 and we've got it all captured on this video.

Our core values are:

          • Effectiveness – doing anything well, and in time (Can always be enhanced by preparation and practice)
          • Learning – take in and understand new information 
            (Happens throughout all of life and can be planned)
  • Community – a group of people with common interests
    (Essential to happiness and longevity and part of strength)
  • Kindness – being caring 
    (“Do unto others as you would like done unto you”)
  • Security (secure) – feeling safe and protected 
    (Enhanced through connection with others)
  • Power – control and influence to do something 
    (Being able to see and affect choices and ask for help)
  • Hope – to have a wish for something to happen or be true in the future (A cornerstone of strength)
  • Humor – the ability to see that something is funny 
    (Smooths the bumps, raises the spirits, and heals)

Aided by our book Personal Safety Nets®: Getting Ready for Life’s Changes and Challenges, and our workbook Personal Safety Nets®: Get Ready/Get Started, you’ll be able to follow the steps below:

  1. Thoughtfully identify the people you most depend upon - or would like to depend on.
  2. Know what it is that each brings to your life.
  3. Talk to them about this relationship, affirming that you’ll also be there for them.
  4. Let them know about each other, and organize a process for communicating and coordinating help, if it’s needed in good times or hard ones.
  5. Make plans for various “predictable” changes and challenges.
  6. Appreciate the resources - people, plans, and supporting organizations that surround you.
  7. Keep giving to others!

We look forward to helping you build your very own Personal Safety Net!