Home Safety Literacy Project

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Home Safety Literacy Project

• Angela D. Mickalide, Ph.D, CHES
• Director of Education and Outreach, Home Safety
  Council
• National Prevention Summit
• Washington, DC
• October 27, 2006

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Home Safety Council

• The Home Safety Council (HSC) is the only
  national non-profit organization solely dedicated
  to preventing home related injuries that result
  in nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical
  visits on average each year. Through national
  programs, partnerships and the support of
  volunteers, HSC educates people of all ages to be
  safer in and around their homes.

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Research Foundations
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Home Safety Research
Conducted the largest and most comprehensive
study of injuries at home the State of Home
Safety in America

• Each year, preventable injuries in the home
• Result in nearly 20,000 deaths
• Cause nearly 21 million medical visits
• Are the fifth leading cause of death overall
• Are 2.5 times more likely to cause injury than
  car crashes
• Cost our nation up to 380 billion
• Cost employers up to 38 billion
• Commissioned by the Home Safety Council and
  conducted by the
• University of North Carolinas Injury and
  Prevention Research
• Center

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Home Safety Research
State of Home Safety in America

• Leading causes of home injury death
• Falls
• Poisoning
• Fires / Burns
• Choking
• Drowning

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Community Outreach
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The Great Safety Adventure

• The Great Safety Adventure (GSA) is in its
  eighth year of teaching the importance of home
  safety to children across the nation. The program
  has reached nearly one million participants!

GSA continues to be a favorite among elementary
schools and Lowes stores.
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GSA Highlights

• 2006
• 2006 YTD attendance 61,325
• 25 classes taught in Spanish
• 188 events in 16 markets
• 120 elementary school visits
• 42 Lowes store events
• 26 special event days
• 16.46 million media impressions
• 1,762 media placements
• 698 Spanish media placements

• 2005
• 2005 attendance 139,169
• 58 classes taught in Spanish
• 362 events in 32 markets
• 179 elementary school visits
• 77 Lowes store visits
• 104 special event days
• 41.5 million media impressions
• 1,327 media placements
• 367 Spanish media placements

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Youth Safety Outreach
Great Safety Adventure Curriculum Kit Includes
the Code Red Rover video along with printed
safety materials for schools and communities
where the Great Safety Adventure was requested
but unable to visit. Reach 1,880 schools and/or
public health departments reaching 101,000
children
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Youth Safety Outreach
2005 Safety Ranger Program Safety Rangers Say No
to Dangers and Code Red Rover, Grownup Come
Over and video. Addresses the top five home
injury risks for children falls, fires/burns,
poisonings, choking/suffocation and drowning.
Reach 131,223 teachers (print) and 95,000
teachers and parents (video)
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Youth Safety Outreach
2006 Safety Ranger Program Disaster Preparedness
Outreach "Get Ready with Freddie" poster guide
focuses on creating an emergency preparedness
plan and Ready-to-Go and Ready-to-Stay kits.
Reach 65,000 3rd and 4th grade teachers and
3,700 Expert Network members (6.7 million
people) Impact 50 of teachers reported that
their students made changes in family readiness
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Youth Safety Outreach
2006 Safety Ranger Program Disaster Preparedness
Outreach NEW 8-page Get Ready with Freddie
activity book and video sent in August 2006 to
schools which did not receive the January 2006
poster guide. Reach 13,000 3rd 4th grade
teachers (1.4 million people) Operation Freddie
fund-raising underway to deliver program to every
school in the United States in January 2007.
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Youth Safety Outreach
2006 Disaster Preparedness Program Lowes Store
Outreach Initiative HSC distributed 64,000 copies
of the Get Ready with Freddie DVD through
Lowes Build and Grow clinics on Saturday,
October 7, 2006.
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Safe Steps Falls Prevention Program

• Falls are the 1 cause of home injury deaths,
  especially for adults 65.
• Promotes home modifications, medication tracking
  and physical activity
• Includes an educational video, wall poster and
  falls prevention activities
• Three-year study to evaluate effectiveness being
  conducted by UNC through CDC grant
• Reach 11,000 older adult activity
  centers

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Home Safety Literacy Project
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What Is Literacy?

• Using printed and written information to
  function in society, to achieve ones goals, and
  to develop ones knowledge and potential.
• --National Assessment of Adult Literacy

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Why Does Health Literacy Matter?

• Studies that have investigated the issue
  report that limited literacy skills are a
  stronger predictor of an individual's health
  status than age, income, employment status,
  education level, and racial or ethnic group.
• Partnership for Clear Health Communications

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Background

• Adults with low literacy are considered at
  high-risk from fires as a result of several
  factors, including
• Their inability to read and understand current
  English-language community safety messages
• Inability to read or comprehend product
  information, including instructions for using
  smoke alarms
• Most of the fire safety material in use by fire
  departments nationally are written at the
  
• 6th-11th grade reading level

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National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL)

• Conducted by U.S. Department of Education,
  National Center for Educational Statistics
• Released December 2005
• Interviewed 19,714 participants ages 16 or older
  in homes and prisons across the United States

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The Three Literacy Scales

• Prose literacy understanding continuous text
  arranged in sentences and paragraphs (e.g., news
  stories, brochures)
• Document literacy comprehending noncontinuous
  text in various formats (e.g., job applications,
  payroll forms, bus schedules, maps, tables, food
  and drug labels)
• Quantitative literacy identifying and
  performing computations (e.g., checkbooks, order
  forms, interest
• on loans)

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Literacy Levels Described
in NAAL

• Below basicranges from being nonliterate in
  English to being able to do only the most simple
  and concrete tasks such as signing a form, adding
  the amounts on a bank deposit slip, or reading a
  short text to find out what a patent is allowed
  to drink before a medical test.
• Basicability to perform simple and everyday
  literacy activities such as using a TV guide to
  find out what programs are on at a specific time,
  comparing the ticket prices for two events,
  searching a pamphlet for prospective jurors to
  find out how people were selected for the jury
  pool.
• Intermediateability to perform moderately
  challenging literacy activities such as
  identifying a specific location on a map,
  consulting reference materials to determine which
  foods contain a particular vitamin, or
  calculating the total cost of ordering specific
  office supplies from a catalog
• Proficientability to perform more complex and
  challenging literacy
• activities such as comparing viewpoints in two
  editorials
• interpreting a table about blood pressure, age,
  and physical
• activity and computing and comparing the cost
  per ounce
• of food items

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Key Findings

• 14 of the population (30 million adults)
  function at the lowest or Below Basic level on
  prose tasks
• 29 of the population (63 million adults)
  function at the second or Basic level on prose
  tasks
• 55 of the population (118 million adults) have
  only Basic or Below Basic quantitative skills

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Risk Factors for Limited Literacy

• Low income
• Unemployed
• Elderly
• Did not finish high school
• Minority ethnic group
• Recent immigrant to United States who does
• not speak English
• Born in the United States but English is
• second language

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Adult Safety Outreach
2005-2006 Home Safety Literacy Project HSC has
established partnerships with ProLiteracy
Worldwide and Oklahoma State Universitys Fire
Protection Publications to research and develop
new easy-to-read fire safety and disaster
preparedness information for adults enrolled in
literacy programs. Reach 9,000 (Phase I) and
15,000 (Phase II) adult literacy teachers and
Expert Network members
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Home Safety Literacy Project Objectives

• Provide high-quality, tested fire education
  instruction
• Provide deliberate and effective outreach
• Pair fire and literacy experts at the community
  level
• Ensure little or no impact on fire service or
  literacy provider budget or staffing

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Pilot Tests

• Seven urban and rural areas of the U.S. conducted
  a pilot test of the Home Safety Literacy Project
• San Bernardino, CA
• Washington, DC
• Palm Beach, FL
• Montgomery County, MD
• Poteau, OK
• Philadelphia, PA
• Plano, TX

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Formative Evaluation Results

• Literacy providers and fire service members from
  the seven pilot sites were trained in 2004 to
  implement and evaluate the projects
  instructional approach and specialized materials
• Results from pilot test were evaluated through an
  independent formative evaluation process
  immediately following the conclusion of the
  pilot/field test.
• Conclusion focus on a few key messages and
  develop different materials for various reading
  levels

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Home Safety Literacy Project Kit
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HSLP Components

• Overview video and computer slide show
• Pictographs
• Readers 2 levels
• Tabloid, News for You
• Posters
• Tearpads
• Pencils
• Community Leaders Guide
• Literacy Teachers Users Manual

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Key Messages

• Installing and maintaining smoke alarms
• Creating and practicing a home fire escape plan
• Developing a communications plan for disasters
• Assembling Ready-to-Go and Ready-to-Stay kits

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Results

• Fire Safety Teaching Aids
• Technically accurate
• Meet national literacy standards
• Highly Illustrated
• Easy to read
• Meet stringent national fire safety standards
• Content includes
• Home fire safety skills
• How to apply key fire protection measures in the
  home
• Installing and maintaining adequate smoke alarm
  protection
• Emergency escape preparedness

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Summative Evaluation Sites

• Fifteen urban and rural areas of the U.S. were
  selected to help the Home Safety Council conduct
  a summative evaluation of the Home Safety
  Literacy Project. An additional 15 communities
  served as control sites. Experimental sites
  included

• Camp Verde, AZ
• Dekalb County, GA
• Wabash County, IN
• Columbus, MS
• Tunica, MS
• Hickory, NC
• Wilson, NC
• Rochester, NY
• Lima, OH
• Chambersburg, PA
• Westerly, RI
• College Station, TX
• Prince William County, VA
• Tacoma, WA
• Jamesville, WI

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Summative Evaluation Results

• Adult students who participated in the Home
  Safety Literacy Project learned more fire safety
  messages than adult students who did not
  participate in the project.
• A greater number and percent of adult students
  who participated in the Home Safety Literacy
  Project had smoke alarms installed in their homes
  than adult students who did not participate in
  the project.
• A greater number and percent of adult students
  who
• participated in the Home Safety Literacy
  Project created
• fire escape plans for their homes than
  adult students who
• did not participate in the project.

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Fire Department Challenges

• Overcoming student reluctance to have
  firefighters come into their homes,
• Communicating with non-English speaking
  populations,
• Developing a schedule to install smoke alarms in
  the homes of adult students within the timeframe
  of a firefighters work week, and
• Targeting an adult student population who
  actually needs smoke alarms installed in
• their homes.

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Adult Safety Outreach

• 2006-2007 Reaching Those Who Teach Project
• HSC received 1 million from the DHS/FEMA for a
  third year of funding. Key components
• Survey of fire safety education in partnership
  with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
• New fire safety materials for preschoolers,
  elementary school students, middle schoolers, and
  older adults through Weekly Reader
• Best practices in fire safety education
  conference in Washington, DC, January 10-12, 2007

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Home Safety Month 2006

• Salute to Home Safety Awards Dinner
• Media 140 million impressions
• Materials 30,000 via e-store, Expert Network,
  corporations, safety groups

• Theme Hands on Home Safety
• Sub-theme Light it up, lock it up, test it
• Omnibus poll older adult safety by HarrisSafe
  Haven report
• Web activity 185 increase over 2005
• Webinar 80 participants

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The Expert Network

• HSC established the Expert Network to provide
  fire and life safety educators with reliable and
  effective home safety teaching tools.

• Nearly 4,000 members 90 from local fire
  departments.
• Additional educators include nurses, public
  health educators, literacy teachers and community
  safety advocates.

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Public Policy Initiatives

• Introduce and support health and safety
  legislation Keeping Seniors Safe from Falls Act
  of 2006 with requested annual funding of 35
  million
• Increase HSCs visibility on Capitol Hill and
  acknowledge Congressional support for HSCs
  mission Leadership awards to Senators Burr and
  Specter and Representatives Davis and Andrews

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Public Policy Initiatives

• Partner with federal and non-governmental
  agencies Affiliation with DHSs Citizen Corps
  which reaches 72 of the US population
• Secure funding - 50,000 earmark for development
  of GSA curriculum kit through CDC
• Participate in targeted coalition efforts
  Campaign for Public Health (495) and Falls Free
  Coalition (65)

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Recent and Upcoming Safety Observances

• Home Security Week (July)
• Garage Safety Week (August)
• Falls Safety Month (September)
• National Preparedness Month (September)
• Fire Safety Month (October)
• Ladder Safety Week (November)

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2006 Awards for Home Safety Council

• Two Silver Anvil Awards from the Public Relations
  Society of America (Home Safety Month 2005 and
  BRGs year-round media efforts)
• Institute for Health Literacy Award for
  Innovative Health Literacy Program (Home Safety
  Literacy Project)
• DC Chapter of the American Marketing Association
  (Great Safety Adventure)
• CFSI/Motorola Mason Lankford Fire Service
  Leadership Award (Meri-K Appy)
• Sprinkler Advocate of the Year (Meri-K Appy)

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Additional Information
Please contact Angela Mickalide, Ph.D.,
CHES Director of Education and Outreach Home
Safety Council 1250 Eye St., NW, Ste.
1000 Washington, DC 20005 202-330-4907 Angela.mick
alide_at_homesafetycouncil.org www.homesafetycouncil.
org