Jeans Day Dollars used to fund child safety seats for parents in need

Project Characteristics Program Areas Collaborative effort Community awareness Occupant Protection Targeted Audience Jurisdiction Parents, caregivers, grandparents, babysitters, and expectant parents Community

Goals

• To ensure the proper use of child safety seats
• To prevent child injury and enhance Safe Communities program

Strategies

90% of all car safety seats are misused nationally. Misused seats may not protect a child in the event of a crash. The car safety seat check ups are an injury prevention solution to help improve and enhance the current Safe Communities Program.

This program is currently available to give community members the option of getting their car safety seats checked, and also the chance to learn how to properly install their car safety seat. The following guidelines are use when inspecting a car safety seat:

• Does the safety seat meet federal safety standards? Has it been recalled?
• Is the car safety seat appropriate for the age, weight, and height of the child?
• Is the child secured properly in the car safety seat?
• Is the car seat installed correctly in the vehicle?

A free public service announcement has been created by Mid-Continent Communications. It has created a great partnership with the two local dealerships involved. In addition, some of the Jeans Day Dollars received are used to purchase car safety seats, which are given to parents when they have no child safety seat or the seat they do have has been damaged or recalled.

Results

• 8 to 50 car safety seats are inspected during a given check up event.
• In the last two years approximately 647 car safety seats have been inspected and in instances of misuse, participants were instructed in correct use, and if the seats were found to be incompatible replacement seats were provided.
• Participants are educated on how to properly use child restraints