"Palm Beach County's multi-agency Risk Watch Task Force has continued to spread the life-saving message of Risk Watch in year two of our longitudinal study. Our task force has grown to include the fire marshal from Belle Glade, the Safety Council of Palm Beach County, and representation from Broward County's Risk Watch Task Force. We have presented the Risk Watch program to many audiences, including chiefs of emergency medical departments, the statewide Florida SAFE KIDS Coalition, the local Law Enforcement Planning Council, the Child Fatality Review Team, and countless police and fire departments. In addition, we held a major fundraiser, the 'Risk Watch Fashion Show, Luncheon and Auction,' which raised more than $20,000 from the Glades General Hospital, Child Keyppers, and the Children's Services Council to purchase the Risk Watch curriculum for local elementary schools.
Once again, Palm Beach County chose new pilot schools that reflect the area's cultural and geographic diversity. This allowed us to expand our base of community partners, which was crucial in our second year, due to the large number of classes we were testing. Overall, 96 classes representing approximately 2,880 students were tested. We are now tabulating the scores for all the classes and will be getting the results out to teachers before they begin year three of the study."
"One of our coalition's greatest achievements has been the development of our Americorp team. We submitted a funding proposal for public education and safety, and won the use of 10 very talented Americorp members for two months. With the help of our coalition experts, they produced videotapes for each of the eight risk areas. We're now in the process of supplying one full set to each school within our metro area.
By partnering with Kari Shanklin at the Gresham Fire Department, we're publishing bi-monthly newsletters for all of the schools within the Multnomah Educational Service District (MESD), which covers 465 square miles and contains eight separate school districts. We've also tackled our growing Hispanic student population by partnering with !Hola, Hola!, a Spanish language distance learning program for elementary school students, which serves the whole MESD. Using their closed-circuit television programs, we plan to promote monthly Risk Watch safety messages.
We've also established an exciting partnership with I-MAX, which is our local mass transit rail system. As their rail lines continue to expand next to existing schools, concerns have been raised about student safety while walking across the rail lines. As a result, three separate sections of Risk Watch (motor vehicle, bike & pedestrian, and fall prevention) will be used to address related safety issues. In conjunction with local school art projects, Risk Watch safety posters will be designed for display on both the light rail and bus lines."
"This year we continued our introduction into schools that have a high incidence of injuries and fires affecting children. We received a $40,000 grant from a Safe Schools, Healthy Children's fund, which was used to purchase the Risk Watch curriculum, learning tubs, and support materials. In addition, the Lowe's Home Safety Council trailers have visited some of our schools and the Philadelphia Zoo.
Risk Watch continues to be marketed throughout the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Members of the Philadelphia coalition have presented programs on Risk Watch at the Delaware State Fire School, the Pennsylvania SAFE KIDS Coalition's annual meeting, and the Pennsylvania State Fire Chiefs and Educators conference. The coalition is also actively working to make Pennsylvania a Risk Watch state. This is being done through safety meetings in Harrisburg (the state's capitol) and with congressman Curt Weldon's staff, as well as through teachers' educational fairs. Consideration is also being given to converting the Philadelphia Fire Department's junior fire patrol into a Risk Watch safety patrol."
"The Leeds and Grenville Risk Watch Coalition has worked over the past year to increase community awareness of Risk Watch through many events, including a high profile golf marathon that generated media coverage and raised $50,000, which enabled us to meet our goal one year early. We also held the second annual funny ball tournament, which served as a fun event for students and their families, and raised some funds in the process. In addition, we held a bike rodeo/car seat clinic sponsored by Risk Watch; a safety walk for the Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery campaign; and developed a promotional video that incorporated community partners and sponsors.
This year we implemented Risk Watch in 30 public schools in Leeds and Grenville, 10 separate schools, and two private schools that will be teaching Risk Watch by Christmas 2000. Every teacher received his/her own free Risk Watch binder and every school received a 'Risky Business' resource kit. In-service workshops were provided to all teachers and interested support staff prior to program implementation. Pre- and post-tests were conducted at the beginning and end of the school year, respectively.
The Leeds and Grenville Coalition will continue to work with its community partner, the Upper Canada District School Board, as well as interested communities within that jurisdiction to ensure that the injury prevention messages of Risk Watch are made available to students throughout the Board. To this end, the coalition members present the Risk Watch program to all interested audiences."
We conducted two teacher trainings, reaching more than 50 new teachers from a variety of disciplines - performing arts, special education, music, etc. In addition, School Basics 101 trained over 10 new "risk experts" who will enhance the Risk Watch lessons by bringing real life experiences into the classroom. Risk experts are people in non-traditional roles, such as representatives from FedEx, UPS and the Postal Service. Close to 300 presentations were made by risk experts in 2000.
Water on Wheels (WOW) was developed by Dave Tomlinson, a Champaign firefighter. With collaboration between the Champaign Fire Department and the Champaign Park District, WOW was implemented in 5 schools. Our water safety messages will grow from WOW by using the characters Hans and Swampy at various places such as the pool and will emphasize pool rules.
Risk Watch was honored by being selected as one of four "Safe Communities" across the country. Selection was based on community collaboration, evaluation, and overall implementation of Risk Watch.
The process has begun to get Risk Watch adopted into the Unit #4 school district as the safety curriculum becomes used by all teachers. This is a long process, but we are very hopeful. In November, Illinois applied to become a Risk Watch state. We continue to plan for expansion into Urbana School District #116.
An administration thank you was held in February. The purpose of this event was to thank the administrators who allowed the Risk Watch team to spend a portion of their time on Risk Watch. Information about evaluation results, successes and saves, goals and what the future looks like for Risk Watch were shared with more than 15 administrators in attendance.
The Great Safety Adventure came to Champaign in March. The Risk Watch team trained the crew who would be traveling with the Great Safety Adventure and teaching the children how to be safe. The Great Safety Adventure made stops at two elementary schools.
Channel 3 did a story on firearm safety and included Risk Watch by featuring our firearm safety presentation conducted by the Champaign Police Department at Kenwood Elementary School.
The Plano Fire Department, Plano Police Department, Plano schools, and the Medical Center of Plano have been busy, busy, busy getting the Risk Watch message to the students of Plano.
In this third year of implementation, Risk Watch is being taught in thirty-eight elementary schools, grades pre-K to five, and 11 middle schools, grades six to seven. The integration of Risk Watch into the Plano Independent School District Science and Health curriculum has been instrumental in helping the Plano coalition emphasize the importance of injury prevention.
One more teacher in-service is scheduled for the spring. Once this in-service is completed, there will be at least one teacher in every grade level in every elementary school in Plano specially trained in the Risk Watch curriculum. The school district and the Plano Fire Department have agreed to train all new teachers each year in Risk Watch as well. At least one Risk Watch binder has been purchased for every grade level in all elementary schools. It's our hope to soon have a binder for each teacher in the elementary schools.
Pre- and post-testing for the applicable grades has gone smoothly and we all look forward to seeing the results of the coalition's hard work. Some really neat stuff has been put together by members of the coalition for their visits to classrooms for Risk Watch lessons...safety toolboxes, skits, clown presentations, newsletters, etc.