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Suggested Group Activity
Thank those who help keep your community safe. FreeKidsCrafts.com has a free printable to decorate recycled containers to make gifts for you local firefighters. Some firehouses accept homemade food and snacks. Others can only accept prepackaged edibles so check first before bringing homemade items.
Suggested Prerequisite
Completing the Safety Volunteer Patch Program® is a suggested prerequisite for earning your Safety Advocate Patch. Your volunteer experience will help provide you with the knowledge needed to advocate for improved safety for the people in your community. You can also opt to complete the Safety Volunteer requirements during the time you earn this patch.
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Requirement 1: Research It!
Things to find out:
- How do kids get hurt? Helpful Link: The 6 most common ways kids get injured — and how to prevent them.
- What do you put in a first aid kit? Helpful Link: Make a First Aid Kit
- How can you keep kids safe? Helpful Link: 7 easy ways to prevent injuries and keep your kids safe.
- How to keep poisons away from kids. Helpful Link: Poison Prevention & Treatment Tips
- What about pets’ poisons? Helpful Link: Animal Poison Control
- How do you keep kids safe from strangers? Helpful Link: Help Prevent Your Child from Going Missing: Safety Tips from the AAP
- What should kids know about internet safety? Helpful Link: 10 Internet Safety Tips for Kids
- What about older adults? Helpful Link: Injuries among older adults: the challenge of optimizing safety and minimizing unintended consequences
- How can we prevent falls in older adults? Helpful Link: Seniors and Falls: Statistics and Prevention
- What causes distracted driving? Helpful Link: Phones Are America’s Driving Distraction No.1
- How do you prevent distracted driving? Helpful Link: Tips for Preventing Distracted Driving
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Requirement 2: Do It!
Choose a safety issue to advocate for. Some ideas:
- Make sure your neighbors know what to do to be prepared for a natural disaster. Ask local businesses if you can place brochures on their counter.
- Advocate for sidewalk repairs to prevent falls.
- Make posters for your school and other locations about the importance of wearing helmets when biking or skating.
- Make regular public service posts to your community social media pages reminding people not to text while driving.
- Research safe internet surfing options for parents and offer to install one for your neighbors with children.
- Make animal poison prevention flyers and hand them out at dog parks or other places people bring their pets.
- Hand out safety flyers to kids at a community event.
- Make and hand out refrigerator magnets for important safety numbers like poison control, fire and rescue.
- Recruit help to clean up a run down area of your neighborhood. Well maintained neighborhoods have less crime.
Who do you want to reach? Some ideas:
- Your Family
- Neighbors
- Politicians — Helpful link: How to Contact Your Elected Officials
- Classmates
- Your Fellow Worshipers
- Other Groups or Organizations
How will you reach them? Helpful link: How to Advocate for Your Cause
Some Ideas:
- Talk to them. Consider wearing a button as a conversation starter.
- Hand out flyers. Consider setting up a booth to collect donations if allowed.
- Hang tags on doors and mail boxes.
- Make posters.
- Reach out with social media such as Facebook.
- Send a press release to your local newspaper or school newspaper. Helpful link: How to write a press release.
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Requirement 3: Review It!
Always remember to thank those who helped with your advocacy program.
Ways to say Thank You:
- Personally thank individuals and businesses who helped. A hand written letter is always nice. Helpful Link: How to write a thank you letter.
- Thank the community as a whole with posters.
- Create a follow up press release and include the names of individuals and businesses who participated.
- Thank the community as a whole on social media.
- Give certificates of appreciation.
Discuss Your Advocacy Project
- Do you think your advocacy project helped to promote safety in your community?
- Will you continue?
- What else can you do to further promote community safety?
Congratulations! You have earned the Safety Advocate patch. It can be purchased at our partner site MakingFriends®.com.
You can become a Community Advocate by earning all 5 community advocate level patches.
Did completing this Patch Program® give you some ideas for becoming a Safety Delegate?
See all our current Advocate level Patch Program®s:
Related Fun Patch Ideas:
Note: Many of the links provided to assist with completing our Patch Program®s are external and do not imply an endorsement or recommendation. At the time of publication, external content was vetted to the best of our ability. Your views and ideas may vary and we do not intend for you to substitute our opinions for yours. Research the topic thoroughly before beginning a project. As always, make sure children access the internet only under safe-surfing conditions.
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