In an effort to address the number one cause of hospitalization and death to children, the Play It Safe with Kohl's program at Lurie Children's Hospital has developed the Safe at Home program. The primary objective of the Safe at Home initiative is to prevent in-home injuries to children under age four. As part of this initiative we distribute a home safety bag. The bags contains numerous home safety devices such as small parts testers, cabinet latches, bath water thermometers and poison prevention information. Each bag also has a home safety checklist and information about positive parenting.
The bags are currently being distributed along with one-on-one education in several of the hospital’s clinics and the Urgent Care department. We also have bag distribution sites at a wide variety of community organizations and City agencies. Organizations interested in distributing bags must have their staff members attend a home safety webinar and take a short on-line home safety test. This year, we plan to distribute 3,000 bags. We also distributed targeted safety products such as furniture straps, CO/Smoke detectors and window stoppers with education.
In previous years, Injury Free partnered with the National SafeKids Campaign on a home safety program in low-income immigrant communities. IFCK-Chicago staff also worked with pregnant and parenting teens attending Chicago Public Schools in a specially designed “baby safety shower” program.
