One Million Safer Kids!
Our goal is simple: to make one million young people safer with Kidpower as a result of education, awareness, and skills. Click here to learn more.
Author Archives: Irene van der Zande, Kidpower Executive Director/Founder
“Someone, Call 9-1-1!” – A Personal Story
On sunny peaceful day, 75-year-old Stephen Pollard fell from his bike and was mortally injured. Sad as the outcome was, it was beautiful how a group of strangers gathered together immediately to do what we could to help someone we didn’t know, that we suddenly became a community who all wanted him to live. Continue reading
Posted in Adult & Teen Safety, Community Safety
Tagged bystander, emergency, first aid, Stephen Pollard, witness
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TSA Screening – Kidpower recommendations to ensure transportation safety while avoiding trauma
The story about the four-year-old girl being yelled at and chased by TSA officials is outrageous. Let’s make airport screening a fun experience instead of a traumatic one. Here are some recommendations from Kidpower about how parents flying with kids can prepare their children and how the TSA can take care of kids emotionally without sacrificing security. Continue reading
Posted in Article, Stranger Safety
Tagged air travel with children, stranger danger, TSA
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Dateline NBC: Well-Meaning But Destructive Practice of Tricking Kids with Tests About Strangers, Safety, and Ethics
Dateline NBC series about testing children’s abilities to follow their parents’ instructions to make safe and ethical choices has the potential to be emotionally damaging to kids without making anyone safer. I believe that it undermines trust for children to be tested in such a sneaky way. Children need to believe that their adults are allies who are helping them to be successful, not testing them, letting them fail publicly – and then agreeing to have them publicly humiliated by broadcasting the results on TV. Anyone who has seen one of our Kidpower workshops would agree that watching young people being coached to be successful in taking charge of their safety is educational, empowering, entertaining, and would make GREAT television! Continue reading
Posted in Article, Stranger Safety
Tagged NBC TV Dateline, parenting, stranger danger, Testing kids
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