It’s the beginning of summertime, and as the song goes, the livin’ is easy.  Or is it?



As most of you know all too well, summer is “trauma season” to first responders and local emergency departments.  Kids are out of school and spending more time at home, which is the #1 place of accidental injury for children under 15 years of age. 



From pools to backyard play sets; from hot grills to fireworks; and from open windows to gasoline containers; summer brings fun but it also poses many dangers to young children. 



And because kids make it their job to explore boundaries and test their limits, keeping kids injury-free at home is fundamentally the responsibility of their parents and caregivers.



Research Reveals a Safety Gap



That sounds logical, but in fact, there’s a dangerous disconnect. According to recent Home Safety Council research, nearly all (99 percent) of parents say it is important to them to keep their family safe at home.  And yet:



•    only 13 percent have installed grab bars in tubs and showers to prevent falls;



•    fewer than three in 10 (26 percent) have planned and practiced a home fire drill;



•    and while the only measure scientifically proven to reduce pool drowning is proper fencing, 92 percent of parents surveyed told us they do not have a four-sided fence that goes all around the pool.



We also know many children experience lapses in good adult supervision.  This means the safety of children often depends on the decisions they make themselves…and that’s just not good enough.  



Please don’t get me wrong. 



Teaching children to make wise safety choices is important, and many fire departments invest time and resources to do it.  But this approach only gets us so far.  When it comes to safety, kids need help.  Our research makes it clear that they need more help than they’re getting from the adults around them.  Children cannot drive themselves to their local Lowe’s to buy new smoke and CO alarms.  They can’t install child safety latches and cover the ground under the backyard swing set with 12 inches of rubber mulch.  Only the grownups who love them can truly protect them, by maintaining a safer home environment that includes active and effective supervision.



Get to the Grownups



So in our public education efforts, if we fail to reach adult caregivers, we are missing what HSC believes is the MOST IMPORTANT AUDIENCE when it comes to the safety of children.



Home Safety Month in June is the perfect time to “get to the grownups” and HSC has created a wealth of great tools to use.  These are featured right now on HSC’s brand new Web site: www.homesafetycouncil.org.  HSC’s safety information is now organized by tabs according to life stages: from babies and toddlers (Start Safe) to school-aged children (The Great Safety Adventure) to the whole family (My Safe Home), and to older adults (Safe Seniors).  This makes is easy for you – and members of your community – to find the information that is most relevant for your needs.



To put your department front and center during Home Safety Month, we’ve also designed fill-in-the-blank press releases, fact sheets, HSC’s special brand of step-by-step illustrated safety brochures in English and Spanish (including a new one on Scald Burn Prevention) and other tools to make it easy.  As a member of the HSC Expert Network, you can access all of our online resources at no charge.  You’ll receive specially-reduced prices on hard copies in the HSC Store. Here are some links to help you get started:



•    Visit the Home Safety Month page



•    Visit the HSC e-store



Note:  because the HSC Web site is brand new, you’ll need to register on the site to take advantage of the tools we are creating just for you. Registering is easy and free and will give you access to many of the resources we offer for download from the Web site. Registering will not affect your Expert Network registration, so feel free to use your same user name and password, if you’d like.



Fire and life safety educators are the Home Safety Council’s most trusted partners to drive our message home in communities across America.   You inspire us every day!  Thanks for everything you do, and let’s work together to make this the summer of safety, starting with Home Safety Month in June.