Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe Kids Worldwide has leveraged corporate relationships to prevent unintended injuries to children around the globe, whether they’re at home, on the road or playing sports. Safe Kids Worldwide works with corporate partners such as Johnson & Johnson, GM, FedEx and Nationwide, just to name a few, to save lives and prevent serious injury.
For example, Safe Kids teamed up with General Motors and the General Motors Foundation in 1997 to create the Buckle Up program. What started with a focus on child safety seat checks at GM dealerships has grown into a broad multifaceted program, which addresses child safety from heatstroke to teen drivers. The partnership also includes activities that advocate for stronger state child passenger safety laws.
The success of the Buckle Up program is measured by two things: lives saved and injuries prevented. When Buckle Up started, almost 1,800 kids died each year in car crashes. Another 331,000 were injured. Today, the number of deaths has been cut by a third, and the number of injuries has been cut in half.
Since 1988, Johnson & Johnson and Safe Kids have collaborated to teach families about child injury prevention including water safety, fire safety, bike safety, medicine safety, home safety and, most recently, youth sports safety. Research shows an alarming number of athletes are hiding injuries to stay in the game, getting injured as a result of a dirty play, or going back in the game right after they’ve had a concussion. Most sports injuries can be prevented with smart habits and good training for players, coaches and parents. The partnership has produced and distributed Sports Safety 101 videos to teach skills in an effort to change the culture of youth sports, and help young athletes stay in the game.
When it comes to helping Safe Kids keep kids safe on sidewalks and streets, FedEx delivers.
In 1999, FedEx and Safe Kids created the Safe Kids Walk This Way program to bring international, national and local attention to pedestrian safety issues. What started as a pilot project in three U.S. cities has now grown to more than 225 cities in the United States and in nine additional countries around the world.
Since the beginning of the program, Safe Kids Walk This Way has enabled more than 18,100 FedEx volunteers to reach families in thousands of communities in the United States with life-saving pedestrian safety information, through just one of activities, International Walk to School Day. Leveraging online channels as well, the partners also recently developed an interactive infographic, How to Not Get Hit By a Car.
The number of long-term corporate alliances Safe Kids Worldwide has forged and maintained is a testimony to the importance and appeal of their mission and their skill at working with business partners. For this, it’s our great honor to award the Cause Marketing Golden Halo Award to Safe Kids Worldwide.
