Hospital:
Wolfson Children's Hospital
Location:
Jacksonville, Florida
Contact:
Cynthia Dennis, (904) 534-0045
Program Name:
Kohl's Gear Up 4 Safety
Program Summary:
- Kohl's Gear Up 4 Safety is a year-long injury prevention campaign addressing four leading injuries to children in Northeast Florida: motor vehicle, drowning, falls and pedestrian injuries on Halloween night.
- Free safety equipment, information, and giveaways are distributed at events and during initiatives aimed at these four areas.
- Booster seats are given to children who had outgrown their car seats, but are not yet ready to ride safely in a seat belt.
- Both high-back and lo-back booster seats, as well as convertible seats and safe window clings are given away at ten special car seat check events during the year, conducted by certified child passenger safety technicians.
- Each October, over 10,000 reflective trick-or-treat bags and accompanying pedestrian safety tips are put in the hands of children all over the community for use on Halloween night. The bags are distributed through the local Boys and Girls Clubs, at each of four area Kohl's stores, and at pediatricians' offices.
- We produce and air a television ad during a month-long media campaign addressing the area of falls, along with a colorful falls brochure, which was distributed at the same time in many locations, including health departments, pediatric offices and health/safety fairs.
- The annual Kohl's Water Safety Fair at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens provides a kick-off to the swimming season and a perfect location to emphasize water safety. Volunteers are able to talk to many parents face-to-face about the use of Water Watcher Tags to assist them in carefully supervising their children while swimming. The tags and water watcher checklists are also distributed in the community at swimming lessons, Kohl's stores, health fairs and at the beach.
- The highlight of this year's project, however was the production and airing of our own locally filmed water safety special, "While You Weren't Watching." Paid and donated ads as well as web banner ads on First Coast News promoted the special. The Web banner ads also directed interested persons to the hospital website for additional water safety information. After airing it on First Coast News during primetime, the special was copied to DVD for multiple uses in the community for years to come.
Success measurements of the overall program and its reach into your community:
Overall, statistics from the Florida Department of Health for this area are used to assess trends and the numbers of accidental injuries to children that are resulting in deaths, hospital admissions and trips to the emergency departments.
Successful tactics for making our program known in our community:
- We have found that the fliers we designed and printed to get the word out about the booster seat events are an effective means of getting people to attend events. The fliers are given out at Kohl's stores, doctor's offices, schools, health departments, at the hospital and posted on our website.
- Another effective means of promoting the program was the mass distribution of the pedestrian safety checklists and Halloween trick-or-treat bags, always a popular item.
- Due to the ability to reach so many people in so short a time, the airing of the water safety special during primetime was the most efficient way of reaching the community with a safety message that is so important in our state and region.
