Community Outreach

Safe Kids Connecticut

In 1993, we initiated Safe Kids Connecticut, as part of a national campaign to reduce childhood injury. We now have over 300 member organizations and 500 individual members from across the state, including police, firefighters, public health officials, educators and parents. Our state coalition is organized into six local chapters and one county coalition. With support from the Connecticut Elks Association, Safe Kids Connecticut regularly holds child passenger safety events statewide, including car seat clinics, car seat technician classes, booster seat education and giveaway events, and educational presentations. Safe Kids Connecticut also holds bicycle safety events, distributes smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, distributes educational information, hosts injury prevention meetings, and presents at statewide injury prevention conferences. In addition, the program maintains an active website, manages two listserves, and serves as a resource for injury prevention professionals statewide.

Child Passenger Safety

The IPC seeks to ensure that every ride in a motor vehicle is a safe ride. Several IPC team members are certified National Child Passenger Safety Technicians. They provide expert advice, education, training, informational materials and resources to parents and community-based organizations. IPC team members conduct monthly car seat check events. In addition, the IPC supports child passenger safety at Hartford Hospital’s Newborn Nursery and Connecticut Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Teen Driving Safety

The IPC has a number of partners who work to keep teens safe behind the wheel. Together, these partners meet as an informal association known as the Connecticut Teen Driving Safety Partnership. To learn more about this work, please visit SafeKids: Safe Teen Driving.

Bike/Pedestrian Safety

Through the generous support of the Connecticut Elks’ Association for Safe Kids Connecticut, the IPC is able to reach out to the community with direct safety education. With the support of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the IPC implements Watch for Me CT, a safety campaign that includes media advertisements on television, radio, and the internet that address how to stay safe while biking or walking on Connecticut’s roads and sidewalks.

Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP)

In 2021, Connecticut Children’s joined Hartford Communities That Care (HCTC), St. Francis/Trinity Health, COMPASS Youth Collaborative, Mothers United Against Violence, and Hartford Hospital in developing a collaborative partnership to strengthen the existing violence intervention and prevention efforts in the City of Hartford. In early 2022, Connecticut Children’s hired its first HVIP Specialist to better serve patients and families affected by violence and to act as a liaison with our community partners. The City of Hartford, Office of the Mayor, is also a key partner in these efforts.

Super Safe Comics

Super Safe Comics is an educational series focused on safety and injury prevention for children and families. The 16-page comic books are for children from kindergarten through fourth grade. Each issue features Captain Super Safe and his friends as they tackle safety issues including bicycle and helmet safety, pedestrian safety, dog bite prevention, water safety, fire safety, and concussion education. The series is written by Kevin Borrup, DrPH, JD, MPA, and illustrated by Scott DaRos and Alexis Deprey.

Super Safe Comics are available FREE to schools, libraries and community organizations in Connecticut and it may also be licensed for use. The Super Safe Comics Partners licensing program allows other children’s hospitals to re-print the comics branded with their own logos and the logos of their local community partners. Super Safe Comics may also be used for Public Safety Announcements. For more information, call the Injury Prevention Center, 860.545.9988.

Gun Buyback Program

The Gun Buyback Program, a collaborative effort among Connecticut Children’s, Hartford Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital, Community Renewal Team, the City of Hartford, the Hartford Police Department and the Emergency Nurses Association, is an annual event that raises awareness about the responsible and safe ownership of guns. People may turn in unwanted firearms in exchange for a gift cards. For more information, call 860.249.1072.

Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Hartford

Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Hartford (Injury Free Hartford) is part of a national injury prevention campaign being conducted at 42 Level I trauma centers. Our community-based programs are anchored in research, education, and advocacy. Injury Free Hartford serves the community by providing safety and injury prevention information and activities in the following areas: pedestrian safety, bike helmet use, booster and car seats, home safety, fire safety, fall prevention, and child discipline techniques. The program’s goal is to decrease childhood injury by altering the manner in which residents in Hartford neighborhoods think about and approach child safety.