Donations to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) fund amazing and vital programs for children's health and safety. Children and families across the country benefit from these programs powered by charitable gifts to the AAP. One example is an incredible initiative that used education to reduce injuries for children.
The concept of a "Safety Town" has been around for over 80 years. The program is usually a one-week educational program that teaches young children about injury prevention including traffic, fire, water and poison safety. Unfortunately, these beneficial injury prevention programs do not reach all communities.
Bringing injury prevention & health experts directly to families
Pediatricians Andrew Hashikawa, MD, FAAP, Wendi Wendt MD, FAAP and Ryan Kwong, MD, FAAP, saw an opportunity to make a difference in their Detroit, Michigan community. They received an AAP donor-funded grant to develop Pop-Up Safety Town for families participating in Head Start programs.
The AAP members wanted to bring a high quality, effective injury prevention program to urban areas. By making a shorter, easy-to-transport "pop-up" program, it could be less expensive for urban areas.
Pediatricians and individuals within the community, along with Head Start, collaborated to design a mobile, 4-hour event bringing injury prevention and health experts directly to Detroit families. The play town, important to reinforce pedestrian and tricycle safety, was built as reusable pop-up buildings that could be set-up and taken down quickly.
Children went through 15-minute injury stations that included health screens from public health nurses, dental health screens, and four major injury prevention topics:
1)
helmet safety
2)
pedestrian safety
3)
dog bite prevention
4)
medication safety & other important health and safety topics.
Just the beginning: AAP donations spark program's growth
AAP donations can be just the beginning of great things. Following the AAP funding that started this project, the Pop-Up Safety Town received ongoing support from the AAA Auto Club Foundation and the Michigan Health Endowment to continue and make the program even bigger, spreading throughout Michigan.
"Pop-up Safety Town brings an injury prevention education event to communities that really need it," stated Dr. Andrew Hashikawa.
"It's definitely a collaborative effort and a great example of different groups of volunteers coming together to create a positive event for children and
families," he said.
The kindness of AAP donors
The AAP is deeply grateful to our donors that made the Detroit-based Pop-Up Safety Town possible, and so many other wonderful programs that make a meaningful difference for children and families everywhere. The kindness of AAP donors helps children and adolescents to be healthier, which we work towards every day.
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