NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
10 January 2003

INNOVATIVE NEW RISK PREVENTION CURRICULUM TO GET UNDERWAY IN CITY SCHOOLS; LARGEST PROGRAM IN THE NATION

Harrisburg, PA — Mayor Stephen R. Reed today announced that ‘Risk Watch’, an innovative new injury prevention curriculum for young school children, will be getting underway in the Harrisburg School District beginning on January 6. The unique initiative will educate young people about how to avoid or prevent injuries from falls, fires, poisons and much more.

The National Fire Protection Association reports that the Harrisburg initiative, which will reach over 5600 students in 272 classrooms, is the largest in the nation.

Reed said the city will seek additional funds in 2004 to expand the program into the parochial, private and charter schools, to reach even more youngsters.

Reed said the Risk Watch Program involves a comprehensive educational effort geared specifically to city school students from Pre-School through 8th grade. The specialized instruction is divided into five separate ‘modules’. Each module addresses specific kinds of risk areas, including motor vehicle safety; fire and burn prevention; choking, suffocation and strangulation prevention; poisoning prevention; fall prevention; firearms injury prevention, bike and pedestrian safety; and water safety.

The Mayor said the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire is the lead public safety agency involved in the Risk Watch program, and are joined in the effort by personnel from the Harrisburg Bureau of Police, LifeTeam Emergency Medical Services, Harrisburg School District, Dauphin County Safe Kids Coalition, PA State Fire Commissioner’s Office and the state Dept. of Health. Approximately $21,000 in grant and matching city funding will be used to implement the program. Funding came from the state Dept. of Health, the State Fire Commissioner’s Office, the National Fire Protection Assn., and the Lowe’s Home Safety Council. Harrisburg was the only Pennsylvania community to receive the maximum amount of allowable of grant funding from the state, totaling $15,000.

Representing the largest such student education effort ever conducted under the auspices of the National Fire Prevention Association, the Risk Watch program will involve more than 30 city fire, police and EMT personnel providing each student with at least one 45-minute session per week for five weeks, beginning on January 6th.

In noting the importance of the program, Mayor Reed said that “injuries are the number one health risk to children under the age of 14 in America, with more than 7,000 young people killed and 50,000 more injured each year. One in four children, or more than 13 million each year, are injured seriously enough to require medical attention.

“The Risk Watch program helps beat these odds, and will provide practical and fun education to our youth about how to avoid and prevent all manner of injuries, hopefully reducing medical costs from accidents, school absenteeism and most importantly, the losses of life from accidents and accidental injuries.”

Reed said the curriculum involves the active participation of students through exercises, creating a safety trade show, analyzing risky behaviors through story-telling, role-playing, songs and more.

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