Chautauqua Childrens Safety Education Village

Goal 1: Prevent injury related deaths for people of all ages within Chautauqua and surrounding Counties.
Goal 2: Reduce unintentional injuries within Chautauqua and surrounding Counties by providing life safety education.
Goal 3: Ensure the community has the skills required to respond appropriately to emergency situations.
Goal 4: Collaborate with the community to enhance safety awareness and build partnerships.

The life safety programs provided by CSV are comprehensive, age appropriate, and build upon one another. Programs include fire, traffic, bike, and home alone safety, first aid, CPR, new babysitter training, distracted driving, child passenger safety seat education for parents, and smoke/carbon monoxide alarm education and installation. The programs promote a positive attitude towards safety that will benefit people throughout their lives.

Those who participate in the programming have a better understanding of and appreciation for safety issues. It is expected that they will have lower accident rates than those who do not receive the training, which will have lasting effects on the community, including: fewer lost days of education for children, fewer lost days of work for adults, lower costs for police, fire, and other emergency responders, lower insurance costs, fewer visits to emergency rooms, which will help contain medical costs and allow scarce resources to be used for other needs, and the opportunity for schools to save funding by participating in centralized safety training.

CSV believes that education is the key to reducing risk and protecting our community. By reaching out to all residents, it teaches important safety techniques that will help to protect the community. CSV does more than just present safety information; it teaches and trains participants how to react when faced with dangerous situations. Adults can easily recall unique learning experiences they had as children. Research confirms that knowledge gained through hands-on learning remains with us far longer than simple presentations of facts. This is especially important because as a whole, unintentional injury is the fifth leading cause of death in Chautauqua County and the third leading cause of death in New York State according to the Chautauqua County Department of Health’s Community Health Assessment for 2019-2021.

The Chautauqua Safety Village (CSV) collaborates and has relationships with Chautauqua County school districts, home schools and various community organizations in Chautauqua County. CSV works with these entities to schedule and implement programs to the people they are serving.

The CSV will provide both in-person and virtual classes through its comprehensive life safety education programming. These programs are designed to emphasize practical, realistic, hands-on emergency and safety skills. The programs that make up the objectives of the project are provided beginning at Pre-K and continue through 12th grade. life safety programs provided by CSV are comprehensive, age appropriate, and build upon one another. Programs include fire, traffic, bike, and home alone safety, first aid, CPR, new babysitter training, distracted driving, child passenger safety seat education for parents, and smoke/carbon monoxide alarm education and installation. The programs promote a positive attitude towards safety that will benefit people throughout their lives.

Those who participate in the programming have a better understanding of and appreciation for safety issues. It is expected that they will have lower accident rates than those who do not receive the training, which will have lasting effects on the community, including: fewer lost days of education for children, fewer lost days of work for adults, lower costs for police, fire, and other emergency responders, lower insurance costs, fewer visits to emergency rooms, which will help contain medical costs and allow scarce resources to be used for other needs, and the opportunity for schools to save funding by participating in centralized safety training.

The CSV training facility was designed to meet the safety education needs of children in the region. It was opened in 2010 in response to the identified need for safety training services in the area. CSV employs certified CPR instructors and certified car seat technicians who carry out community car seat safety checks and CPR training.

For school ages children, students are able to learn in a child sized environment. Children ride bikes and drive electric cars, use hand signals, and obey street signs. Younger children learn how to cross at a crosswalk parking lot safety and the dangers of crossing between cars. For bicycle training, students learn stationary scanning, scanning while riding, and stopping and maintaining balance. Students learn the dangers of not using a helmet. Safety training in non-motorized scooter, in-line skating, and skate board safety is incorporated into the classes. Classes simulate real-life traffic with a traffic light and railroad crossing. Fire safety classes takes place within the education building at the Safety Village that includes the interior of a model home. After the children learn about fire prevention and what to do in case of a fire, they go into the model home to run through an escape plan. Students enter an area with simulated smoke and are taught how to get down on their hands and knees to stay below the smoke. They attempt to escape through a door that becomes warm to touch and, after feeling it with the backs of their hands; they learn they must find a different way to escape. Students exit through a bedroom window via an escape ladder where they climb down a half-story and go their meeting place.

To date, over 35,000 students have visited the Safety Village. An additional 2,500 children have been trained in virtual classes that were developed in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. CSV would like to expand programming to reach additional areas in the WNY region and to continue working toward the goal of reducing the number of unintentional injuries and injury related deaths for people of all ages.