Fire safety education gets a boost
The Quincy, Mass.-based National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has received a $500,000 grant from FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration. The funds will be used to train fire service representatives from 200 communities throughout the United States in implementing Risk Watch, a child-injury prevention curriculum, in schools.
Risk Watch is designed to provide children in pre-school through grade 8 with information preventing fire and burns, choking, strangulation and drowning. The curriculum is taught in schools by community safety advocates and fire service representatives. To date, the program has been implemented in 17 states and has been credited with saving 27 lives.
The grant will be used to supply materials, training and technical support to communities interested in teaching the program. The grant will allow NFPA to provide Risk Watch teacher modules to more than 2,100 classrooms, affecting 62,000 students and adding to the safety infrastructure at local, state and national levels.
The grant was awarded as part of the federal government’s distribution of the Fire Investment and Response Enhancement Act Title XVII program. For more information visit www.riskwatch.org or www.nfpa.org.