Minnesota Child Car Seat Resources Receive Honors from National Safety Council, Safe Kids Worldwide

Safe Kids Worldwide and the National Safety Council have nationally recognized a pair of child passenger safety resources developed by the Minnesota Safety Council and AAA Minnesota/Iowa. Honored as the 2007 "Outstanding Child Passenger Safety Program" by Safe Kids Worldwide, and "Outstanding Community Safety Campaign," by the National Safety Council was the Web site, CarSeatsMadeSimple.org, and the ECHO (Emergency and Community Health Outreach) television program, "Child Safety Seats." The awards were given as part of both organizations' recent national and international meetings.

The Web site, http://www.carseatsmadesimple.org, was introduced late last year in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety and AAA Minneapolis. It offers solutions to parents and others who face a perplexing range of child safety restraint options and installation choices. The site offers facts and news about common errors, installation checklists, and a synopsis of Minnesota's child passenger safety law in Spanish, Hmong and Somali, and of course English.

"Child Safety Seats," a television program, was produced by the ECHO Minnesota Collaborative, which offers health and safety information to immigrant communities by phone, TV and the Web. It debuted in May 2007 as six separate programs, each presented by a different ethnic host and authoritative guest, in Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian. The series incorporated key concepts of the carseatsmadesimple.org Web site and has also been offered to community health organizations in DVD format.

The Minnesota Department of Health and numerous community safety and health organizations have also been included as additional partners.

Carol Bufton, President of the Minnesota Safety Council, said, "Our goal wasn't to win awards, but to provide tools to parents to make it easy for them to keep their children safe while in motor vehicles. It's an added bonus that the National Safety Council and Safe Kids Worldwide recognize the value of these empowering tools, and we're pleased that Web technology allows us to share those tools with parents and caregivers everywhere."

The primary goals in creating these resources is empowering parents, providing an accessible resource and reducing the strain on community-based car seat clinics (which are often booked for months in advance). Randy Williams, President of AAA Minnesota/Iowa, said, "We want to provide caregivers with the proper resources and the confidence that they can choose the right seat and install it properly. Our hope is that this will increase the correct use of all types of child passenger restraints."

The Web site can be seen at http://www.carseatsmadesimple.org. View the television program (or read the script) through links on the ECHO Web site at
http://www.echominnesota.org/index.cfm/p/tvArchive/tvid/43/.

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View Full Post posted by The National Safety Commission : 10:27 AM