Kids for Safety - Overview

Each year St. Clair County Homeland Security and Emergency Management hosts an annual Emergency Services Breakfast through a sponsorship program of monetary donations from entities throughout the area.

The sponsorship program gives us the opportunity to bring together various key players, agencies, disciplines, organizations in the private and public sectors to discuss the most effective and efficient way to strengthen preparedness activities for terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and other emergencies in our county.

This year, the sponsors decided to give back to our community by launching the new “Kids for Safety” program.

The program objectives are designed to strengthen the safety values of children in our communities to establish preparedness level with our residents prior to incidents occurring thus making this a safer community. We are outreaching to children ages 6 to 12 years old by giving them the opportunity to earn a patch in the following safety areas: 72 Hour Preparedness, Bicycle Safety, Fire Safety, Weather Safety, School Safety and Home Safety. The development of the program was intended to give parents/guardians and child(ren) the ability to conducted these lessons at home.

The programs are simple and have fun activities that will help you teach your child(ren) some of the most important life safety lessons. Each patch safety area consists of one to four lessons that take approximately 15 – 20 minutes to complete. The patch program format is outlined below:

1. Parent/Guardian Instructions: Directions for completing the lessons.
2. Lesson Discussion: Information/background statistics which describe the importance of the lesson.
3. Parent/Guardian and Child(ren) Activity: To teach your child(ren) the importance of the lesson and reinforce the content.
4. Patch Requirements: The child(ren) must turn in two activity sheets to receive the patch for the safety areas. There are notations on the completion form as to what activity sheets are required.

Below are brief descriptions of the patch safety program areas:

The 72 Hours Preparedness patch is designed to discuss preparedness activities such as creating a family communication plan and deciding what items to put in a emergency kit unique to your family needs.

The bicycle safety patch is designed to assist in promoting bicycle safety with lessons including bicycle inspection, bicycle helmet safety and rules of the road.

The fire safety patch is designed to teach your child(ren) fire prevention such as cooking safety tips, completing a home fire safety checklist, and creating a fire escape plan.

The home safety patch is designed to discuss with your child(ren) what to do when you they are “home alone” in instances when the phone rings, what to do if a family member comes in contact with a poisonous substance, has an accident or an emergency.

The school safety patch is designed to discuss school safety issues with your child(ren) such as playground safety, and how to handle strangers and/or bullies.

The weather safety patch is designed to teach your child(ren) the types of potential hazardous weather that affects our area, how to prepare for and what to do during a storm.

If you are interested in participating in this program parents/guardians can begin by registering their child(ren) with St. Clair County Homeland Security and Emergency Management in one of three ways:

1. By calling St. Clair County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management at 810-989-6965 and request a Kids for Safety Registration Form.
2. Visit us on-line at www.stclaircounty.org/emerg_mgmt under the Kids for Safety link.
3. We have selected pre-designated location throughout the county where you can pick up the registration form and entire patch program at one of the following locations:
    
   Capac Police Department, City of Yale , Clay Township Police Department, Grant Township, Marysville Fire Department, Marysville Police Department, Marine City Fire Department, Memphis Police Department, Michigan State Police – Richmond Post, Port Huron Township Fire Department, St. Clair County Homeland Security – Emergency Management

We feel this approach can be effective because parents/guardians will be taking an active role in teaching their child(ren) safety values and can reinforce these lessons every day.

Our predestinated locations are responsible for the recording and traceability of the registration process, patch completion form process and the distribution of patches.

Upon receipt of all six patches and certificate, we will be sending out an evaluation form to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the program. We are requesting that each child and parent/guardian take a couple of minutes to complete and return the form to us.