Safety Town

Safety Town is a two-week program for preschool children (ages five or six years old) that teaches safety lessons about fire, pedestrians/traffic, water, guns, strangers and poisons/drugs. Safety Town programs that are accredited by the National Safety Town Center in Cleveland, Ohio are offered throughout the country.

Safety town is also often the name given to an area, typically smaller in scale, that represents a replica town created to instruct children about safety measures.

History

The Safety Town program was established in 1964 by Doroth Chalad to promote early-childhood safety education. Chalad began the program after realizing a lack of safety education classes specifically tailored to preschoolers. She recruited teachers, police officers, firemen and other safety-related professionals to teach lessons based on their experiences, and formulated a curiculum that incorporated various interactive teaching strategies.

Safety Town was the brainchild of a police officer of the Mansfield Ohio Police Dept. in 1937, and was the model used across the entire country and has been used continuously since that date in Mansfield, Ohio.

Oklahoma

The Safety Town in Altus, Oklahoma is one of the nicer Safety Towns across the country. At the Altus Safety Town, hundreds of children learn about traffic laws, local business, tax evasion, and odometer fraud. Safety Town in Altus is transformed each year into "Spooky Town" and "Christmas Town," to celebrate the American holidays known as Halloween and Christmas, respectively. There is a well-known rivalry between Altus' Safety Town and Imagination Station, a safer and better-funded children's center.

New York

Safety Town, in East Meadow on Long Island in New York at Eisenhower Park, is a miniature town operated by the Nassau County Police Department that teaches children about traffic safety. An actual miniature town built to 1/3 scale, it includes paved streets, two intersections equipped with traffic signals, an overpass, two tunnels, a simulated railroad crossing and 21 buildings. It allows the NCPD's Traffic Safety Unit to teach traffic and bicycle safety to children in 3rd grade under controlled conditions.

Children are taught about the rules governing pedestrians and bikers sharing the road with motorists. Attendants go through Safety Town as pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists (in electric-powered miniature cars).

Children ages 7–9 generally visit Safety Town. School groups make up the bulk of visitors during the school year. Children attending during school field trips are usually in the third grade.

Florida

Safety Town in New Port Richey in Pasco County, Florida is an example of the training offered in respect to the many hazard possibilities not always considered in other cities or states. The grounds have multiple scale buildings designed to mimic actual familiar locations such as fast food and chain stores. There are paved streets with an operating railroad gate. A child scale phone booth is used along with tips listed on a billboard for training to make 911 calls. Fire safety includes measures taken for a personal clothing fire.

Along with traffic & bicycle safety, there are school bus loading and unloading practices. With Florida's extensive lakes, retaining ponds and drainage canals, water and boating safety are taught. Children learn to resist the tempting nature of possible predator strangers, the lure of loose pets and wild animals. Incidental hazards such as electrical storms and downed power lines are included.

Tours of instruction are intended for kindergarten through 2nd grade students, ages 5 through 8 years. The facilities also train school crossing guards, Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) members for emergency response drills and holds Bicycle Safety Rodeos.

Support continues from commercial and private sources of both voluntary time and funding.

In the Tampa Bay area, there are similar safety towns in Tampa (near Lowry Park Zoo) and Clearwater.

Georgia

Safety Town in Georgia is a program designed to prepare rising kindergarteners for the dangers of situations like riding the school bus, how to call 911, and how to remember their address. Many schools have offered it, including the Forsyth County school system.

Texas

Frisco City in the Dallas Metroplex opened its new central fire station and adjoining safety town in 2006. The town is similar to others and features. In addition to a small town to scale miniature set with safety signs, lights, and artificial rail road and electrical hazards, the town also features an indoor recreated fire station, construction site, amphitheater, and two story home.

Louisiana

Sheriff's Safety Town (www.sheriffssafetytown.org), located in Shreveport, opened in December of 2008. Safety Town is a cooperative endeavor between Sheriff Steve Prator of the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office (www.caddosheriff.org) and other area agencies including the Shreveport Police Department, the Shreveport Fire Department, the Louisiana State Police, and numerous school districts in northwest Louisiana and east Texas. Safety Town is designed to protect children by teaching safety skills and allowing them to practice those skills in a safe, controlled environment. A child-sized town with miniature streets, buildings, crosswalks and working traffic signals offers the ideal setting for bicycle, pedestrian and vehicular safety instruction.

Following classroom instruction, second graders from eight parishes (including Caddo Parish) and five Texas counties take a field trip to Sheriff's Safety Town. While applying their newly-acquired safety knowledge, students interact with deputy sheriffs, police officers, fire fighters, and troopers who reinforce the safety lessons taught in class. The areas covered in the primary program include the following:

• Pedestrian Safety
• Bicycle Safety
• Motor Vehicle & Seatbelt Safety
• Railroad Safety
• School Bus Safety
• Fire & Smoke Safety
• Electrical & Power Line Safety
• Natural Gas Safety
• Home Alone Safety
• 9-1-1 Familiarization
• Weather Safety
• Natural Gas Well Site Safety
• Poison Safety
• Animal Safety
• Water Safety
• Gun Safety
• Internet & Texting Safety
• Stanger Danger

In an effort to meet the safety needs of the entire community, numerous other safety programs and events are conducted at the site on an ongoing basis. These additional programs/events include but are not limited to the following:

• Bike Rodeos
• Kids' C.S.I. Camps
• Summer Safety Mini Camps
• Hunter Safety Classes
• Women's Self-Defense Classes
• A.A.R.P. Driving Classes
• "Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier Super Safety Saturday" events
• "Justin Bloxom We Care About Our Kids Day"
• "Kiwanis Read-Around-Safety Town" event
• and others.

External links

• Pasco Safety Town