Children's Safety Committee
The Children's Safety Committee, started in 1989, is a 501©(3) not-for-profit organization made up of volunteer representatives from education, fire and police departments, the medical community, social service organizations and business. It's mission is prevention – health, safety and social issues. Prevention education is provided to at-risk families at schools, club, meetings, community events and at the Children's Safety Village.
Accomplishments include "Kids on the Block" puppet shows, a mobile fire safety house and portable firefighter's sliding pole, the Children's Safety Village and Risk Watch of Sangamon County. Since 1990, literally thousands of children and families have been reached by our education programs. Statistics indicate improvement each year in the education levels of children in safety issues by pre and post tests given by the Risk Watch program risk experts.
Several years ago, Children’s Safety Committee merged with Risk Watch© which is an outreach program of the national fire protection association. Risk Watch© determines the curricula, providing instruction guides. Tubs of instruction materials are located in classrooms at certain high risk schools in Springfield. Pre and post tests are given to the children to determine the learning curve, which must be submitted to N.F.P.A. At this point, all education sponsored by the children’s safety committee is provided by Risk Watch© experts.
The Committee's goals are to complete the construction of the Children's Safety Village to offer hands-on education in the variety of safety issues presenting themselves to children. Through the school district of Springfield, and other surrounding communities, children will be bused to the safety village to receive this safety education in an environment that is more conducive to their understanding of risks.
The CSC expects to continue to lower the number of preventable injuries occurring in Springfield. Correct use of bicycle helmets, escape routes, smoke alarms, unplugged appliances, safe usage of matches and lighters, stranger danger, substance and drug abuse prevention, railroad safety, playground safety, bus safety, child abuse prevention are just a few of the issues we have tackled over the years and will continue to do in the future.
The Children's Safety Village located on South llth Street on the University of Illinois property, just west of the main entrance of the UIS, has completed construction of a playground (funds donated by McDonald's charities), a storage barn, and a schoolhouse containing two classrooms, office, kitchen, bathrooms, and maintenance area. Our property is leased from UIS for $10 per year.
Funds and volunteers are needed to complete the construction, which will include miniature streets, small buildings depicting businesses, fire department and hospital, etc., railroad crossing signals, and traffic control signs. Infrastructure is complete to some extent, and the list attached defines further needs.
The CSC has existed through the work of a small group of volunteers, and much of the work and labor at the safety village was donated by labor unions, friends, associated businesses and fire department members on their days off.
Bruce Ratterree
The Children's Safety Committee lost one of our inspiring leaders recently. Bruce Ratterree of Crawford, Murphy & Tilly passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. Bruce was the engineer in charge of construction at the Children's Safety Village and worked innumerable hours designing, contacting building suppliers, overseeing construction and many other details too numerous to mention.
His loss to the Children's Safety Committee is truly felt and to his many friends and co-workers, he was a class act and his shoes will be hard to fill.
At the request of the Ratterree family, memorial contributions in honor of Bruce are being accepted by the Children's Safety Committee to continue Bruce's project of constructing the Children's Saftety Village