Education & Public Awareness
Kids and Car Safety (KACS) was the first organization to recognize and bring national attention to nontraffic incidents. ‘Nontraffic’ is defined as any vehicle-related injury or death occurring off public roads or highways, mainly in parking lots or driveways.
KACS works to educate professionals in the following areas who are reaching families with young children - early childhood, physicians and nurses, hospital birthing centers, social workers, car seat technicians, child care providers, public health departments and more.
Look Before You Lock program
The Look Before You Lock (LBYL) national program is aimed at preventing child hot car deaths and injuries. The program provides free educational materials to hospital birthing centers, OBGYN offices, pediatric and family practice offices, early childhood education programs, public health departments, child care providers, etc. The materials help parents and caregivers understand how hot car deaths can happen to even loving, responsible parents and provide proactive tips to ensure their child is safe. To date, well over one million LBYL cards have been distributed. Many more individuals are educated through downloadable, printable materials and social media campaigns.
Childproof Your Ride program
The Childproof Your Ride (CYR) program is our newest program. Just as parents childproof their homes to keep their babies safe, the purpose of the CYR program is to provide parents with a comprehensive resource about the many dangers children face in and around vehicles and what they can do to mitigate those risks. The program serves as a “one-stop-shop” for parents to learn about vehicle safety for their children. Materials are distributed to existing child safety programs that are focused on the parents of young children.
Below are a few examples of how Kids and Car Safety works to bring awareness and understanding to families:
- Collaborating with safety partners such as Consumer Reports, Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Federation of America, Advocates for Highway & Auto Safetym, Safe Kids Worldwide, Parents as Teachers, WIC, HeadStart, and many more to reach families and others nationwide with a focus on ensuring those in underserved communities are also educated.
- Providing free downloadable and printable fact sheets, safety tips, charts, graphics, images, etc. via our website.
- Offering education materials such as brochures, safety cards, window clings, etc. which are available via our website’s online store.
- Supporting hundreds of community advocacy programs with education materials, statistics, and organizational support to raise awareness about nontraffic incidents.
- Providing Public Service Announcement (PSA) videos that air on television, social media, doctor’s offices, etc. help bring awareness and teach families how to keep their children safe.
- Testifying before Congress to bring safety issues to the attention of our leaders in Washington, DC and in our state legislatures.
- Publishing studies featuring data collected by Kids and Car Safety.
- Presenting at national conferences and other speaking engagements.
- Collaborating with the media to produce riveting articles such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “Fatal Distraction,” or the Emmy-nominated segment with KMBC on frontovers. As the leading experts in the nontraffic field, Kids and Car Safety is sought out and featured on local and national media platforms such as Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, OPRAH, NPR, the TODAY Show, The Hustle, the CBS Early Show, CNN, ABC Nightly News, Court TV, ABC-Primetime, The Learning Channel, PBS, MSNBC, Inside Edition, ABCNews.com, FOX, NBC Nightly News, Nancy Grace, Lifetime, The USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Public Citizen News, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, Consumer Reports, San Jose Mercury News, Star Tribune, Times Herald-Record, Kansas City Star, People, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Parents, Parenting, and many more.
- Participating in the production of documentaries
Kids and Car Safety has been and will remain at the forefront of eliminating dangers children face in and around vehicles and saving precious little lives.
