Illinois Risk Watch
Despite the attention commanded by kidnapping, drugs, and other threats to young children, it is actually a handful of simple preventable injuries that are the number-one health risk for children ages 14 and under. Yet, according to the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), parents and caregivers too often view these hazards as inevitable consequences of growing up.
In an effort to reduce those risks in Illinois, a coalition of state agencies and private industry has introduced an injury prevention curriculum entitled Risk Watch created by the NFPA to five communities in Illinois for 2001. Risk Watch is a comprehensive program that gives children and their families the information and support they need to make positive, health-promoting choices about their personal safety and well-being. Illinois Risk Watch is looking for communities that wish to participate.
Risk Watch targets the eight leading causes of injury for children: motor vehicle crashes, fires and burns, choking, suffocation, and strangulation, poisoning, falls, unintentional firearms incidents, bike and pedestrian hazards, and water hazards. Risk Watch curriculum, divided into five learning-level modules (preschool through grade eight), is designed to involve children as active participants, not just as listeners.
The Illinois Risk Watch Champion Management Team (CMT) is coordinated by the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal in cooperation with Health Alliance Medical Plans, the Illinois Department of Public Health/Illinois Safe Kids Coalition, Illinois State Police, Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois School Board.
Over the next several years, the coalition plans to recruit, train and assist with resources for local coalitions in communities in Illinois. These coalitions will then go into the schools in their local communities to teach the children how to make their schools, homes and communities safer.
Risk Watch was developed under the direction of NFPA with co-funding from Lowes Home Safety Council and with technical support from a coalition of North America's most authoritative injury prevention professionals. Risk Watch is a trademark of NFPA, Quincy, MA.
Map of Illinois Risk Watch Communities updated 9-6-2011[JPG, 184Kb]
Registration Form for May 22, 2012 Illinois Risk Watch New Community Training in Dixon, IL [PDF, 54Kb]
November 15, 2012 Illinois Risk Watch Symposium Winter Save the Date [PDF, 50KB]
Educational Materials
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