Lambton Children’s Safety Village to develop safety program Village

Children are always taught to be careful. Starting from young ages, they get lessons like "Don't talk to strangers" and "Don't touch the stove."

What about all of the information teachers and parents didn't remember to give them? There have been changes in the world and the advances in technology have opened up a whole new world of threats.

The Lambton Children's Safety Village committee would like to develop a facility in Lambton County to teach safety programs to the youth in Lambton County.

Their objective? To create a child scale village where kids learn proper safety.

Lambton County is the last urban/rural area in Southwestern Ontario that doesn't have the benefit of a village.

This program will benefit over 12,000 children a year.

"It is so important to teach responsibility and awareness of safety issues because we need to help prevent more child injuries and fatalities," says John Reurink, OPP and vice chair of the Lambton Children's Safety Village.

The Village would be providing the facility, with two large classrooms to teach a curriculum the school boards have provided.

The school boards are a main component in this project because the way for the children to access this training is by going with their classes.

"There will most likely be a schedule for certain school to come on certain days," explain Reurink. "All elementary kids from junior kindergarten to grade eight will have unique lessons taught specific to their age group."

Those who want to participate will have the opportunity to do so. This will include private schools, the Christian school board and home schooled children are all also welcome.

Adults will also be able to participate in proper safety training.

Educational programs will deal with farm safety, bicycle safety, railway safety, traffic and crosswalk, first aid, fire and public safety, hydro safety, water safety, street proofing, stranger awareness, drug awareness and Internet safety. 

The committee applied to Aviva Community Fund to assist in the funding of this project. They already have a two acre property across from Mooretown arena donated by St. Clair Township.

This idea is so far in the small qualifying stage which means that the project has a budget of up to $50 000. Medium would be $50 000- $100 0000 and large would be $100 000+. 

The primary way to get money is by fundraising. The committee has also applied for Trillium Grant and so far three service clubs have donated a total of $15 000.

The program will also have further funding and support from Bluewater Power who will be financially assisting it and providing teachers for the programs.

All they need now are votes. The more votes that it gets, the better chance it has to making it to the next round of voting.

Qualifying round 1 ends October 15 so if you would like to help support this community project, you can go here.

Tags: aviva, child injuries, curriculum, elementary kids, lambton county, proper safety, rural area, safety issues, safety programs, safety village, southwestern ontario, village committee