Injury Prevention Grant

 

Little Village Child Safety

From 2003 to 2005, Hektoen collaborated with Susan Avila, RN, MPH, of the John H. Stroger, Jr., Hospital of Cook County Department of Trauma, on the Little Village Child Safety Project. This project aimed to decrease the currently high number of unintentional injuries to children under the age of five in Chicago’s South Lawndale community by: 1) working with community partners to get information to parents and families about home safety products and practices; and 2) training community members to provide peer education on prevention of child injury.

These objectives were carried out through the implementation of Safety Baby Showers and the training of peer educators. The baby showers involved education in the form of a game and distribution of baby safety products. The Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Chicago (IFCKC) staff members developed and tested the curriculum for the Safety Baby Showers. A trained, bilingual health educator conducts the Baby Safety Shower game and distributed the baby safety projects. The health educator also worked with class participants to determine their abilities and interests and provided them with training to become peer educators. The expected outcome of this project was to reduce the number of injuries to children under five, educate families, create a cadre of trained educators in child safety, and develop a pilot that could be implemented at other local churches and community groups.