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Minnesota Child Car Seat Resources Receive National Awards
Multi-cultural Web site and TV program honored by National Safety Council, Safe Kids Worldwide (ST. PAUL, Minn., November 21, 2007) - A pair of child passenger safety resources developed by the Minnesota Safety Council and AAA Minnesota/Iowa have received national recognition from Safe Kids Worldwide and the National Safety Council. The Web site, CarSeatsMadeSimple.org, and the ECHO (Emergency and Community Health Outreach) television program, "Child Safety Seats," were honored as the 2007 "Outstanding Child Passenger Safety Program" by Safe Kids Worldwide and "Outstanding Community Safety Campaign," by the National Safety Council. The awards were presented as part of each organization’s recent national and international gatherings. The Web site, www.carseatsmadesimple.org, was launched late last year in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety and AAA Minneapolis. It offers solutions to parents and other caregivers who face a confusing array of child safety restraint choices and installation options. The site provides information about common errors, installation checklists, and a summary of Minnesota’s child passenger safety law in Spanish, Hmong and Somali as well as English. The television program, "Child Safety Seats," was produced by the ECHO Minnesota Collaborative, which provides health and safety information to immigrant communities by phone, TV and the Web. It aired in May 2007 as six separate programs, each with a different ethnic host and expert guest, in Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian. The program incorporated key concepts of the carseatsmadesimple.org Web site and has also been made available to community health organizations in DVD format. Additional partners included the Minnesota Department of Health and numerous community safety and health organizations. "Our goal wasn't to win awards, but to provide tools to parents to make it easy for them to keep their children safe while in motor vehicles. It's an added bonus that the National Safety Council and Safe Kids Worldwide recognize the value of these empowering tools," said Carol Bufton, president of the Minnesota Safety Council. "And we're pleased that Web technology allows us to share those tools with parents and caregivers everywhere." Empowering parents, providing an accessible resource and reducing the strain on community-based car seat clinics (which are often booked for months in advance) were primary goals in creating these resources. "We want to provide caregivers with the proper resources and the confidence that they can choose the right seat and install it properly," said Randy Williams, president of AAA Minnesota/Iowa. "Our hope is that this will increase the correct use of all types of child passenger restraints." To view the Web site, see http://www.carseatsmadesimple.org. The television program can be viewed (or the script read) through links on the ECHO Web site at http://www.echominnesota.org/index.cfm/p/tvArchive/tvid/43/. ### AAA offers automotive, travel, insurance and financial services to more than 50 million members in the United States and Canada. The Minnesota Safety Council is a private, not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to preventing unintentional injuries at work, on the road, at home and at play, and is a chapter of the National Safety Council. Additional Pages News Releases |
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