Fireproof Children/Prevention First Awarded Third FEMA Grant to Bring Prevention First Safety Program Into More Classrooms

Fireproof Children/Prevention First has received a $715,568 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to continue and enhance its Prevention First Preschool: Train the Trainer Fire Safety Education Program for Preschool Children and Families workshops. It is the third FEMA grant the company has received to develop and carry out the free training workshops in states with high levels of fire-related deaths and injuries to young children.

Targeted states for the Fall 2005 workshops include: Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. Head Start directors in these states are invited to contact Fireproof Children/Prevention First if you are interested in hosting a workshop.

The program trains managers and health directors of Head Start and other preschool programs to teach effective fire safety education to young children. It utilizes the award-winning play safe! be safe!®

multi-media juvenile fire safety program in English and Spanish, created by BIC Corporation for use in classrooms. Participants return to their communities and in turn teach the program to teachers, who also receive a free play safe! be safe! kit for their classrooms. The play safe! be safe! program has been found to be effective in teaching preschoolers life-saving fire safety lessons.

Prevention First Preschool has now reached more than 10,000 Head Start managers and classroom teachers, increasing both knowledge of fire safety and confidence in teaching it in the classroom. The program has reached more than 178,000 preschoolers and their families, and is expected to reach another 100,000 through the 2005 program.

The 2005 Prevention First Preschool program will introduce a children's book, conveying important safety messages in an engaging story. Children participating in the program will also be able to take these books home, to be read to them by their parents.

Partners in this year's FEMA grant include BIC Corporation, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM), KidSmart Corporation, Ultralife Batteries, the International Association of Hispanic Firefighters (IAHF), and Hamilton Creative.

This year's grant will also support evaluation of the effectiveness of a smoke alarm distribution initiative carried out through last year's Prevention First Preschool program. Three locations are participating in the evaluation: Chicago, IL; Corpus Christi, TX; Pike County Area, OH.  In each of these locations, evaluators have been hired to conduct home visits along with members of the local fire service. The evaluators and fire service representatives for each location are:

Chicago, IL

Evaluator:  Salome Amezcua-Frieri

Fire Service: Tim Brown

Corpus Christi, TX

Evaluator: Kathy S. Rodriguez

Fire Service: Brian Rogers, John Mora, John Luis, Mike Borden, Angela Williams, Mark Wagner

Pike County, OH

Evaluator(s): Willa Henry, Geraldine Taylor, Jill Rider

Fire Service: Mike McRoberts, Jamie Stewart, Rob Heising

Fireproof Children/Prevention First to Help Hispanic Firefighters
Protect Older Adults

Fireproof Children/Prevention First will assist the International Association of Hispanic Firefighters (IAHF) in designing and carrying out a training program for caregivers and community agencies working with older adults in Hispanic communities. The program is made possible through a major grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Adults over 65 are more than twice as likely to die in a fire, making fire prevention and education essential to their safety. But the lack of fire safety materials in Spanish leaves Hispanic seniors especially vulnerable. In addition, many older adults are isolated, due to living alone or to reduced mobility. Safety messages must be accessible where older adults already congregate, such as senior centers in their neighborhoods.

The year-long pilot project will use the Spanish language fire safety video "Mas Vale Prevenir" developed by IAHF especially for Hispanic older adults. The training program, including take-home safety messages and smoke alarms, will be distributed in three cities with large Hispanic communities. The pilot project is expected to reach 100,000 older adults.

Fireproof Children/Prevention First also works with BIC Corporation to bring fire safety materials in Spanish to young children, another population at high risk for fire injury and death. The BIC play safe! be safe!® multi-media classroom kit is available in Spanish and English, and has been distributed to more than 60,000 classrooms worldwide.

For more information on Older Adults and Fire:
www.fireproofchildren.com/documents/SeniorsandFire.pdf

For play safe! be safe! games for children in Spanish visit:
www.ninossegurosninoscontentos.com

For IAHF's Tito the Parrot fire safety education and games for children, in Spanish visit:
www.titolorito.org

Fireproof Children/Prevention First Receives National Grant for Prevention First Preschool, Fire Safety Education for Preschool Children and Families

		Fireproof Children/Prevention First has received a major grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency/Department of Homeland Security to expand Prevention First Preschool, Fire Safety Education for Preschool Children & Families in 2004. The "train the trainer" workshops are made available to childcare providers, Head Start programs, and preschool teachers in states with high rates of fire-related deaths and injuries for children. The program was established in 2003 with a previous FEMA grant. States targeted for the 2004 workshops include: Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The program will distribute more than 20,000 smoke detectors to participating families in selected areas, through partnerships with Ultralife Batteries, First Alert/BRK Electronics, KidSmart, and Home Depot. The National Association of State Fire Marshals is assisting with smoke detector placement in homes. The framework for the training is the award-winning preschool program play safe! be safe! developed by BIC Corporation in cooperation with Fireproof Children and others. BIC is donating nearly 4,000 play safe! be safe! kits for use in classrooms. Family activities will be included to bring home specific safety messages, including the importance of developing and practicing home exit drills, having a working smoke detector, and keeping matches and lighters out of children's sight and reach. The program is expected to reach 126,000 families in one year, and through the "train the trainer" model and continued use of the play safe! be safe! kits in classrooms will reach 500,000 families over the next four years. For more information about this program please click here.

Fireproof Children Selected to Provide National Workshops

Fireproof Children was awarded a contract from the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) to provide a series of juvenile fire intervention training workshops. Funded through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Program of the U.S. Department of Justice, the workshops help communities address juvenile firesetting through better understanding of the problem and coordination of existing services. The goal is to present these workshops in all 50 states. For more information about Community Coalition Building Workshops please click here.

Fire Safety Web Site of the Year The Polyurethane Foam Association (PFA) presented Fireproof Children with its 2002 Fire Safety Web Site of the Year Award. The award is given annually to recognize the one Web site that, in the opinion of the PFA executive committee, makes best use of the Internet to convey its fire prevention and fire safety education message.

Firefighter of the Year

Lt. Robert Crandall, Vice-President of Fireproof Children/Prevention First, was named Firefighter of the Year 2000 by the Rochester, NY Fire Department. The award recognizes the career achievement, character and long-term dedication of the selected recipient. Selection is not based on a single incident but on many contributions and exemplary behavior demonstrated over the course of a career.

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