Safety Town of Northwest New Jersey, Inc.

Your child is engaged in the joys of childhood, running and jumping with abandon, squealing with delight, peeked with curiosity, not a care in the world, still learning—still vulnerable.

Then without warning, an accident that can change his/her life forever.

Consider these facts!

Nationally –
• 20-25% of all children a year sustain an injury severe enough to require medical attention, missed school and/or bed rest. (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control)
• Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children ages 1-10 (16,145 deaths)
• The leading causes of fatal injuries are motor vehicles, fires/burns, drowning, falls and poisoning.

In New Jersey –
• 6,876 deaths were attributed to unintentional injuries in all age groups
• Intentional injuries ranked #1 in children ages 1-10 (258)
• The leading causes of unintentional injury deaths were motor vehicles, poisoning, falls, suffocation and fire/burns.

In Morris and Sussex Counties:
• There are 88,734 children ages 0-10.
• Although there is no county surveillance system for this data, during 2002-2003 Saint Clare’s three acute care facilities had approximately 6,700 injury related emergency room visits for children ages 0-10

Preventable injuries are a major public health problem. According to Healthy New Jersey 2010, New Jersey’s public health agenda, motor vehicle injuries, drug poisonings and falls are major sources of deaths from unintentional injuries. Today, children are using recreational equipment—rollerblades, scooters, skateboards, all-terrain vehicles—that were not seen ten years ago. Many of these injuries and fatalities involving children can be PREVENTED THROUGH EDUCATION.

Safety Town, Inc. a nonprofit organization, is a community initiative comprised of leaders from the corporate and public arena who had a vision—to build Safety Town, a hands-on, interactive safety awareness and education program targeted to teach children Pre-K-10 years old life-saving lessons. The program is modeled after the national Safety Town program. This vision is steadily becoming reality thanks to collaborations with public and private entities represented on the Safety Town board as well as its grassroots fundraising efforts.

Police Station

A uniformed police officer teaches kids the basics of pedestrian safety and "stranger danger" at this station. Children learn how to safely cross at a crosswalk and how traffic lights work. They also are instructed on safety skills and precautions to take when home alone.

Fire safety station

Children interact with a fire fighter and learn the basics
of fire safety, including practicing stop, drop and roll. A push-button phone gives children an opportunity to practice dialing 9-1-1 for emergencies.

Parks and Recreation

A hiker's backpack reveals the 10 essentials necessary for safety in the outdoors. Children also are taught about lightning and thunderstorms, environmental awareness and recycling.

Bike Safety Station

Here, children are taught the basics of bike and car safety. After the lesson, kids buckle up on specially equipped bikes and begin their ride through Safety Town. During their ride, they get to practice what they learned as they encounter a traffic light, traffic signs and a railroad crossing

Sponsorships

Because Safety Town is a community venture, it needs the support of civic organizations, local businesses, educators and private donors. Sponsorships are needed at various levels:

• Financial: for planning, development and construction of site.
• Building materials: fencing, lumber, paint, topsoil, paving, wiring.
• Equipment: benches, big wheels, bicycles, bike helmets, playhouses, traffic signals.

• Instruction materials: coloring books, stickers, badges, T-shirts, certificates, videos.
• Labor: builders, electricians, carpenters, painters, landscapers, pavers.

Sponsors will be acknowledged on permanent signs throughout Safety Town.

SAFETY TOWN – PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Kids need to be active, to play and be challenged. Inherent in those activities will always be a level of risk and the possibility of an accident. But the key is to keep the potential for injury or the degree of injury to a minimum by affecting children’s attitudes at an early age so that simple actions such as wearing a seatbelt or a safety helmet are seen as the “cool” thing to do.

National Safety Town Center is a non-profit, publicly supported organization that serves as the parent to local programs such as this one. Nationally, more than 250,000 children attend Safety Town programs in their communities. Modeled after Pasco County, Florida’s Safety Town Park, Morris County’s Safety Town Park will be constructed initially on 2 to 3 acres of 14 acres of county land donated by the Morris County Parks & Recreation Commission. The site is located in Jefferson Township (Morris County) and will include indoor and outdoor learning facilities.

The indoor learning facilities will be located on the donated land in the Saffin Building and will allow classes to be held year round. The building will be renovated to accommodate two classrooms and the 911 Fire and Police Safety program. A Survive Alive House will be built
Safety Town Proposal into the rear of the building where children will be involved in an interactive, multi-sensory fire safety program. The classrooms will be used for pre-session meetings, which may include viewing safety videos. Students would then go to the Survive Alive House for the actual safety session then return to the classrooms for a question and answer period. The Survive Alive House will be a scaled down version of a two- story home with limited but appropriate furnishings and equipment. The house will have a high tech “control center” complete with monitors to view the children as they move through the house, a speaker system/intercom system, controls to regulate a simulated smoke situation, and a portable 911 simulated phone system.

The Safety Town Committee anticipates holding two a.m. and two p.m. sessions of 25 students per class. Classes will be available year round (12 months) and will include educational classes for parents and seniors. Program instructors will be the safety educators of the Morris County Fire Prevention Association.

The outdoor layout will feature a child-size “town” complete with houses, sidewalks, crosswalks and railroad crossings where children will be involved in a variety of educational sessions such as bicycle, pedestrian and train, sports and home safety.

The goal of Safety Town Park is to reduce the needless deaths and accidents among children in Morris and Sussex Counties. This goal will be achieved by teaching children how to respond to emergencies, play safely on the playground, how to use the school bus safely, how to use seat belts, how to check helmets for proper fit as well as other safety lessons. Children will practice these activities so they develop good habits that can last a lifetime. The following are some of the planned learning stations to be built and a sample of the topics that will be presented:

• Police Station (Stranger danger, home alone precautions)
• Fire Station (911, fire safety)
• Home Safety (cleaning products security, electrical precautions, fall
prevention swimming pool safety)
• Parks & Recreation (weather safety {lightening storms}
• Road Safety (bike, bus, traffic, railroad)
• Sports Safety (protective equipment, rollerblading, skateboarding,
water safety)
• Other Safety Topics (animal, gun, internet, phone)

The program will have a coordinator who will be responsible for contacting and scheduling schools and groups and recruiting and training volunteers. School groups will be charged a modest fee to help offset program operations. The program will be marketed to child focused organizations and groups such as public and private schools, camps, scout troops, daycare centers and churches. According to the 2000 Census, there are 42,721 children under five years old and 46,013 children ages 5-9 in Morris and Sussex Counties. It is expected that approximately 5,000 children a year will participate in Safety Town.

Safety Town officially became a reality in 2002 when the Morris County Parks & Recreation Commission donated land in Jefferson Township, New Jersey (Morris County). This was made possible through the efforts of Russell Felter, Mayor of Jefferson and a member of the Morris County Parks Commission.

Development of the site is next in Safety Town’s planning goals. It will occur in two phases. Phase 1 is the most critical piece and involves the renovation of the Saffin Building. This is very important to the early start up of Safety Town, as it will enable the staff to offer programs indoors while the outdoor park area is developed. It will also benefit ongoing fundraising efforts as word of the program spreads throughout the two counties. Renovations will upgrade this site to provide two new classrooms, office space and permanent housing at the rear of the building for a Survive Alive House to teach children about fire and home safety.

CONCLUSION

Injuries in children of all ages are a significant public health issue. However, well-designed education programs that target the prevention of childhood injuries can affect positive attitudes and behavior in children. In this way, it is possible to develop a society of people who believe that prevention is a simple approach to living a safe, happy and healthy life. If you would like more information in regards to Safety Town please contact Yolanda Delgado at 973-989-3230 or Cynthia Lyons at 973-989-3311.

To find out how you can join with others in your community to provide quality safety education to our children, call the Saint Clare's Community Health Trust at (973) 989-3230.

SUMMARY:

For 50 years, Saint Clare's Health Services has made available high quality, compassionate care for the residents of northwest New Jersey. Saint Clare's Hospital is a faith based, non-profit subsidiary of Marian Health Systems, and the non-profit parent corporation of an integrated system of health and human services organizations. The Homeless Outreach Program is one of Saint Clare's most unique programs.

Program facts:

• Sister Catherine Marie Belongia, Executive Vice President of Sponsorship, along with the Community Health Trust task force founded the program in July 2000 due to the overwhelming need for healthcare by the indigent population

• 36-foot mobile healthcare unit staffed by an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN), driver, and a volunteer

• Provides access to primary care to the indigent population of Morris County, N.J. which includes the homeless, day laborers, and working poor

• 5 sites currently visited: Trinity Lutheran Church (soup kitchen) in Dover, Warren St. in Dover, St. Ann's Church in Parsippany, St. Lawrence Church in Chester, and Stanhope United Methodist Church in Netcong.

Despite being one of the richest counties in New Jersey, poverty and homelessness is a part of Morris County's social landscape. With the rising cost of living in the county, the impoverished population is forced to make impossible choices between housing, food, clothing, medical care and transportation on a daily basis, putting them on the fringe of homelessness. People without stable housing have higher rates of illness, mainly as a consequence of poor nutrition, poor hygiene, and are more likely to be exposed to the elements, violence, communicable diseases, and experience higher stress levels.

Although the true number of homeless is difficult to obtain, the US Census Bureau 2000 estimated there to be 212 people using emergency shelters on any given day in Morris County, which is a 53.6 percent increase since 1990. The census data also demonstrates that Morris County experienced a population growth of 11.6 % since 1990, an occurrence fueled primarily by the growth in immigration, especially of the Hispanic population. The town with the largest Hispanic population in Saint Clare's primary service area is Dover with 57.9 percent. Dover also has the lowest median income and the highest percentage of persons living below the poverty level in Morris County.

Although the social service agencies in Morris County provide many services such as: housing, food pantries, counseling and job training, none of them provide healthcare. Since this population is challenged with a myriad of social and physical issues on a daily basis, health care is usually delayed. As a result, health care is often sought on an emergent basis through hospital emergency departments. Consequently, Saint Clare's took a leadership position to integrate basic primary health care into Morris County's continuum of services by implementing the Homeless Outreach Program. The program is modeled after a similar initiative by Massachusetts General Hospital, in which an advanced practice nurse (APN) serves as an outreach worker in an attempt to reduce the number of Emergency Department visits by homeless individuals.

The primary goal of the Homeless Outreach Program is to increase access of primary healthcare to the indigent residents of Morris County, in order to avoid the major complications of illness and injury often seen in the Emergency Department.

The objectives for 2002 are to:

1. Expand health care services to include 2 additional sites over the year to increase access to health care. This objective was met by researching Morris County to determine the neediest areas and by networking with the appropriate social service agencies, churches, and public health departments. Consequently, three new sites were added in 2002: Warren St. in Dover, St. Lawrence Church in Chester, and Stanhope United Methodist Church in Netcong.
2. Increase the number of client contacts, through marketing and networking, to 300 for the fiscal year. This objective will be attained by year-end using marketing strategies, which include: constructing and dispersing flyers throughout the county, placing advertisements in the local newspapers, and through the word of mouth of clients.
3. Decrease the number of monthly Emergency Department visits by the homeless/impoverished population as their primary source of medical care. Although this remains an important objective, it is immeasurable at this time. COBRA laws make it impossible to question patients about their income status.
4. Increase successful client outcome percentage from 66 percent to 75 percent. The APN will use health education and closer follow up to achieve this.
5. Improve coordination of services through Saint Clare's Hospital for the client when possible to remove obstacles to care and ensure continuity of care. The APN will continue to develop contacts with the necessary hospital units, especially social services for possible eligibility for state/fed programs, and to ensure a smooth referral process.
6. Evaluate client satisfaction in order to enhance services. The statistician recently created a client satisfaction survey in order to meet this objective. Each client completes a survey at the end of their visit if they have not done so in the past three months. Valuable statistics will be tabulated from this data in order to improve services. (See attached Program Summary Statistics)
7. Continue to collaborate with existing homeless shelters and social service agencies in order to coordinate and enhance services provided. Open communication is maintained between the Advanced Practice Nurse and Morris County's social service agencies in order to avoid duplication of services.

The Homeless Outreach program has been successful in impacting the health of the community by decreasing the barriers to health care often faced by the impoverished. Although there are other programs like this one in the United States, Saint Clare's Homeless Outreach Program is modeled after an existing program in Massachusetts and is the only program dedicated to serving this population in northwestern New Jersey, specifically in Morris County. The program also incorporates a system of follow up to track referrals into the healthcare system and evaluation to measure impact on community health.

The Homeless Outreach Program is a creative way of helping to solve the problem of access to care. One major barrier in the community is the poor transportation system. Not only does the mobile clinic provide services in five locations, but also the program's volunteers go out into the community and provide transportation to the mobile clinic. Lack of insurance is also major barrier to receiving health care. The program provides services to the impoverished free of charge. A third barrier and community problem is the growing population of day laborers in the area, the majority of whom are Hispanic and are not currently documented. Language barriers and the fear of being deported are their major barriers. Through time and patience the Spanish speaking APN has established trust with this population who are generally wary of formalized institutions. The day laborers often view work more important than their health so the mobile clinic parks in close proximity to the site where they wait for work. By forming relationships with these individuals, the APN has been able to increase their awareness of the importance of preventative medicine and the management of chronic disease.

OUTCOMES:

Tracking client progress and assessing outcomes of treatment measure the program's success and effectiveness. This is accomplished by reviewing intake information, patient charts, and feedback from client surveys and community gatekeepers. Through the assistance of an expert statistician, who is contracted by Saint Clares Hospital, the data that is collected by the APN is analyzed. Program success is defined in terms of preventing advanced disease, and maintaining follow up appointments as directed by the APN.

Marvin Yarmush, Client, Janel Post, APN