What is National Safety Town Center?
A non-profit organization that serves as a resource and coordinating agency for local communities to establish and conduct a - Safety Town in their Town - and assist nursery / elementary schools, special classes and organizations.
It has provided speakers, information, assistance, books and materials to over 3500 communities throughout the United States and 38 other countries.
Millions of children, teenagers, teachers and parents have benefited from the program through the efforts of National Safety Town Center and the - community involvement - within each community. Their concern and dedication has resulted in preventing accidents and saving lives of "our" precious children.
Established in 1964 by Dorothy Chlad, it was the FIRST and ONLY organization dedicated solely to promote preschool and early childhood safety education. In 1982 - The International Child Safety & Health Center - became a reality to accommodate "spin off" programs, such as Safety Village, Safety City, Safetyville and programs in other countries.
Why a National Safety Town Center?
The major objective - to have a "Center" place for anyone to request information, assistance and material and to promote the importance of preschool / early childhood safety education through the - New Concept of Safety Town - 1965.
Unfortunately, the traffic programs operated from 1937 - 1964 were labeled non-educational and considered a babysitting program. This was truly unwarranted since there was no safety educational classes available for personnel and no detailed information as to - child development as it relates to their capabilities. These dedicated teachers, police officers and firemen taught safety lessons based on their experience and what they felt was best for the children, which including color sheets, poems and songs. (There were 12 programs in 1964. Some dissolved during those years.)
As the - New Concept of Safety Town - gained approval and communities expressed interest in organizing a program, three questions were constantly asked:
1. How do we arrange for a speaker for our organizational meeting?
2. Who will come to train our teachers and volunteers?
3. Where can we purchase visual aids and classroom material for the children?
As a result, Dorothy Chlad, began to write her manuals: organizational - curriculum - teenage training - publicity - general information - teenage instructor - parent sessions - and developed classroom activities and visual aids, safety puzzles with matching hand - eye coordinating posters, color and reading books with music tapes, safety town board game, certificates, etc.
What has National Safety Town Center Accomplished?
It definitely has succeeded and surpassed its original mission - and - plans to continue to promote, establish and provide the highest degree of preschool / early childhood safety education for children everywhere.
After reading through each specific accomplishment, listed by categories on the homepage, you will better understand the reasons for the success of the program and organization.
Their efforts are much easier now through the internet and websites of local programs who assist with providing information to new communities. THANK YOU - for caring and sharing - this is a very important program!
Since National Safety Town Center was the first and only organization dedicated solely to preschoolers, it served as a catalyst for development of other children's programs. As the success of Safety Town grew, people began to realize the many "spin off" benefits to educational, safety and health organizations, corporations and media.
Local, state and national organizations increased their membership; corporations manufactured and marketed various items and everyone enjoyed "free" publicity from the media. Today, they are all helping to inform the public of the importance of - SAFETY FOR KIDS!
