Date: November 18, 2008

1. Safe Kids Week 14 Years in the Making Date: November 18, 2008

2. Who is Safe Kids Canada? • Unintentional injuries are the number one cause of death among children and youth in Canada. Safe Kids Canada is the national injury prevention program of The Hospital for Sick Children. • Our work is based on evidence. The strategies we recommend are proven to be effective in reducing injuries. Safe Kids Canada collaborates with community partners and federal stakeholders to conduct research, raise awareness, educate families and advocate for safer environments to protect children.

3. About Safe Kids Canada Our mission is to help prevent injuries to children -not the minor bumps and bruises of everyday life, but the serious, often devastating injuries that lead to hospitalization or death

4. Canadian Trends Major causes of unintentional injury deaths among Canadian children aged 0-14 years, 1994-2003 Source: Statistics Canada

5. Canadian Trends

6. Canadian Trends

7. What is Safe Kids Week? • Safe Kids Week is Safe Kids Canada's largest-scale annual public awareness campaign. • Designed to help reduce the frequency and severity of preventable childhood injuries, the leading cause of death and disability of childhood injuries • Sheds light on a particular injury topic each year • Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson

8. Why Safe Kids Week ? • To build capacity for evidence-based programs • To promote the injury prevention strategies in Canada • To provide an opportunity to recognize the support of our North American founding sponsor Johnson and Johnson • To promote Safe Kids Canada

9. Safe Kids Canada Model Research: Systematic reviews, expert consultations, translates knowledge into accessible programs Evaluation: Decima surveys pre- and post campaign, conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals Corporate: National media placements of safety messages, information posted on the J & J Web site. Community Partners: Tools and grants to conduct programming, an average of 500 locations across Canada, distributing an average of 600,000 educational resources in French and English Media: Working with Environics, there are two national launches, regional spokespeople and broad promotion via media outlets Advocacy: Working at all levels to change legislation & standards which continues long after the campaign

10. What we do Research • Collect the latest evidence based information on a specific subject and translate it into effective interventions. • Backbone of all community activities and media messages during the program. • Includes evaluation of the program.

11. What we do Communications & Marketing • National media awareness campaign to capture public and political interest in the issue and to provide public education messages • Social marketing campaign featuring mat stories, safety brochures, micro-site and advertising Stakeholder Engagement • Educational materials and grants • Community campaigns • Advocacy

12. What we do • Government Relations & Public Policy • Advocacy efforts build awareness and support for changes that are needed to make Canada safer for children and youth • Provide tools, templates and training for community stakeholders to build community capacity • Includes calling for improvements to standards, laws, policy and/or practice

13. How are communities engaged? • Organizing community events and implementing recommended activities • Promoting Safe Kids Canada in their community • local media • distribution of materials • Safe Tip line & Web site • Advocating for change in their communities, signing petitions, letter writing • Supporting provincial and federal advocacy efforts

14. How are provincial organizationsengaged? • Promoting Safe Kids Canada in their networks, publications, reports, media releases, distribution of materials to key policy makers/stakeholders ( use BC coroners example) • Public ‘Calls for Action’ • Supporting community, provincial and federal advocacy efforts

15. Safe Kids Week Model SKW Criteria Significant burden of injury Clear focus Applicable within both urban and rural communities, and for all income levels. Opportunity for good media attention Strong focus on personal responsibility Opportunity for good partner participation

16. Success Stories Safe Kids Week 2002 – Got Wheels? Get a Helmet! • What Works: • Helmet use saves lives and prevents serious head and brain injuries • Keep children under age 10 off roads • Policy Changes – Provincial/Territorial & Municipal: • Helmet legislation for all ages in all jurisdictions • Increased education and enforcement of laws • Safer environments for cyclists

17. Success Stories Safe Kids Week 2002 – Got Wheels? Get a Helmet! • Community Events: • Helmet fittings • Free helmet give away • Media Attention: • 46 million media impressions

18. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2003 – From Cribs to Car Seats • What Works: • Precautionary principle • Removing unsafe products • Policy Changes - Federal: • Ban Baby Walkers • Federal legislation changes

19. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2003 – From Cribs to Car Seats • Community Events • Product Round Ups collected almost 2,000 old or unsafe products • Media Attention • 40 million earned (unpaid) media impressions

20. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2004 – Age 4 to 9? Its Booster Seat Time • What Works: • Proper use of car and booster seats • Graduate to booster seats then a seat belt • Policy Changes – Provincial/Territorial: • Booster seat laws • Prior to the campaign, only one province (QC) had booster seat laws • By 2008, 7 provinces have booster seat laws (BC, ON, QC, NS, PEI, NB, NFLD)

21. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2004 – Age 4 to 9? Its Booster Seat Time • Community Events: • Fitting booster seats • Advocating for booster seat legislation • Media Attention: • 63 million earned media impressions

22. Success Stories Safe Kids Week 2007 – Splash into Safety • What Works: • 5 layers of protection • Isolation fencing • PFDs/lifejackets • Policy Changes - Municipal: • 4-sided fencing laws

23. Success Stories Safe Kids Week 2007 – Splash into Safety • Community Events: • 5 layers of protection • Advocating for new by-laws or revisions to existing by-laws • Media Attention: • 88 million media impressions (unpaid) • 2 million paid

24. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2008 – Slow Down • What Works: • Reduce traffic speeds • Children under 9 need supervision • Teach children how to cross the street safely • Policy Changes - Municipal: • Speed reduction

25. Success Stories • Safe Kids Week 2008 – Slow Down • Community Events: • Reduce traffic speeds • Teach children how to cross the street safely • Media Attention: • 81 million unpaid media impressions • 2 million paid impressions

26. Safe Kids Week May 25 – May 31st, 2009 Issue: Injuries to young children from the use of consumer products are common, frequently serious and sometimes fatal. Examples: • falls from bunk beds • strangulation from window blind cords • suffocation from cribs with bumper pads • choking from toy parts

27. Safe Kids Week May 25 – May 31st, 2009 Problem: The vast majority of Canadians believe that a product is safe because it is available on the market - this is not the case. Children are particularly vulnerable to product-related injuries. According to Health Canada 20,000 children under 5 were hospitalized after a household mishap in 2003 and 290 died. We know these numbers are probably higher due to the difficulty in collection and coding of data.

28. Safe Kids Week May 25 – May 31st, 2009 Solution - Environment, Enforcement and Education Products and product standards should be designed using a 'precautionary' approach that keeps child safety in mind. Product developers, distributors, manufacturers, retailers and standards developers should build safety into products before they reach the market and take immediate corrective action when risks are identified with items already for sale. Product related education should be enhanced. Federal product legislation should be strengthened and enforced.

29. Injury Burden Product Related Injuries • What do we know? • Collecting data on product specific injuries in Canada is difficult as these injuries cross the spectrum of prevention injuries such as falls, threats to breathing (choking, strangulation, suffocation), scalds, and poisoning. • Health Canada does have data related to consumer products (CHIRPP, PIECES) and, using US data, we can estimate the burden of injuries related to products in Canada to be 10% of the US. • Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHRIPP) Report on Product Related Injuries

30. Injury Burden Product Related Injuries • According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), each year more than 33.1 million US citizens suffer injuries related to consumer products in the home. • This would translate to 3.3 million Canadians who suffer injuries from consumer products in the home. • We will be gathering Canadian data from various sources to be able to provide Canadian statistics

31. Injury Burden Types of product injuries related to children • Toys • In the US, (in 2006) toys caused 161,594 injuries to children under the age of 15. This would mean that 16,159 Canadian children would have been injured while playing with toys. • Magnets (more recent trend) • Since 2005, about 8 million magnetic toys have been recalled in the US and 86 child injuries and one child death has been reported. • As the number of products with “rare-earth” magnets has increased as well as the magnet strengths, so has the number of serious injuries to children

32. Key Points • The overall campaign scope is broad and we will provide information on a variety of products • Messages for the advocacy and media components will be focused • Federal legislation provides a context for the campaign • Relevant to all families and a wide range of age groups • Empowerment of families – recalls, Savvy Shopper, get legislation passed

33. How can we work together? • Your provincial injury and death data • Databases, hospitalization rates, coroner’s database • Ethnicity data (trends)

34. How can we work together? • Leveraging your networks • Distribution channels (i.e. MB Ministry of Education) • Contacts with Provincial Ministries • Connect with Provincial Organizations or Charities working on the issue • Partnership on provincial grant opportunities (i.e. Ontario Red Cross project)

35. How can we work together? Develop ethno-specific messaging or tools Campaign Media spokespeople (trained on SKC talking points, but you can give local perspective/flavour) Family spokesperson – find someone in your community who has experienced an injury and wants to speak to media to raise awareness of problem or advocate for change.

36. www.safekidscanada.ca 1-888-SAFE-TIPS