Save the Children launches child safety project in Tulsa (Updated 8/15/2007)

Release Date:July 23, 2007
Contact:Diane Pratt-Heavner, Save the Children or Ann Patton, Tulsa Partners
Contact Phone: 202-467-1431 / 918-527-0161

Links:
Students learn what to do in a disaster ( Tulsa World, August 15 2007)
Save the Children (News and TV Footage July 27, 2007)
Disaster Training: Safety can be fun, too: Tulsa kids learn to be prepared ( Tulsa World, July 24 2007)

Save the Children is turning to Tulsa to help find better ways to keep children safe in disasters.

Save the Children announced July 23 that it is providing $70,000 to the local nonprofit Tulsa Partners, Inc., to help prepare and protect children in fires, floods, tornadoes, and other disasters.

The Tulsa Partners / Save the Children initiative will work with children and their families, teachers, child care providers, emergency response officials and community leaders over the coming year.

“We hope that what we learn in Tulsa through this partnership will benefit other communities across the nation,” said ­­­­­­­­­­­­­J.R. Thomas, National Director of the Domestic Emergencies Unit for Save the Children, an independent humanitarian agency assisting children in need in the United States and more than 50 countries worldwide.

“We know children face disproportionate risks in crises,” Thomas said. “As Hurricane Katrina showed us, even in the United States children’s unique needs are often forgotten in times of disaster. We’re looking to Tulsa to help us develop prototype local preparedness programs that we can replicate nationally to make children a priority in every stage of emergency planning, response and recovery.”

“We’ll be targeting more than 500 children, their schools, and 20 child care centers this year,” said Steve Penrose, Chair of Tulsa Partners, Inc., a nonprofit agency using public-private partnerships to build a disaster-resistant community. “In an emergency, schools and child care centers are critical facilities; if parents can’t have safe, caring places for their children, they can’t get to work protecting and rebuilding the community. So we want to help the children, their schools, their child care centers, and their families all stay safe.”

The announcement came during a disaster preparedness workshop conducted by Save the Children and Tulsa Partners Inc. for children at the Crosstown Learning Center, 2501 East Archer Street, in Tulsa.  This children’s workshop is one of the activities that will be part of the pilot initiative over the coming year.

Among the Tulsa Partners / Save the Children initiative projects planned this year:

• Hold disaster-preparedness workshops and training for children, their teachers and families, and child care providers.
• Provide targeted children with safety materials, such as preparedness backpacks pre-packed with flashlights, water, and other disaster-survival gear.
• Help child care centers and schools review their disaster risks. Is the building or neighborhood at risk for flooding, chemical spills or explosions, windstorms, tornadoes? 
• With experts, help the centers determine what can be done to reduce their risks, such as strengthening windows and doors, building a tornado SafeRoom, or developing a flood evacuation plan.
• Help center providers develop survival plans so they can keep the children safe and keep their centers operating, even during or after a disaster.
• Test and evaluate programs to reduce disaster trauma.
• Work with neighborhoods to help link child care centers with surrounding support networks.
• Review community preparedness materials as they relate to children’s issues.
• Prepare and recommend a children’s disaster-safety annex that can be added to community emergency operations plans.
• Recommend ways that other communities can replicate the lessons learned in Tulsa.

Other prime partners in the Tulsa Partners / Save the Children initiative include the Child Care Resource Center; and Open for Businesssm, a business continuity planning project of the national nonprofit Institute for Business & Home Safety.

For more information, contact Tulsa Partners, Inc., at 918-632-0044 or see www.TulsaPartners.org.