Safe Kids Cherokee County Awarded 2023 Car Seat Mini-Grant

Press release from CCFES:

Feb. 10, 2023

Safe Kids Cherokee County, led by Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services (CCFES), was awarded the 2023 Car Seat Mini-Grant by the Georgia Department of Public Health, Injury Prevention Program. Through the Mini-Grant, Safe Kids Cherokee County is able to provide car seats and education to financially eligible families in Cherokee County. This program is funded by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to help ensure Georgia’s children are safe while riding in motor vehicles.

And it works! Since 2007, the education, car seats, and booster seats provided through the Mini Grant prevented serious injury or death and saved over 425 of Georgia’s children who were involved in crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car seats reduce fatal injuries by 71 percent among infants and by 54 percent among children ages 1 to 4 years in passenger cars. Car seats offer the best protection for children in the event of a crash, and they are most effective when installed and used correctly. Nearly three out of every four car seats are not used properly, placing children at unnecessary risk.

“It’s our responsibility to keep our children safe,” said Lisa Grisham, CCFES Senior Fire Safety Educator and Safe Kids Cherokee County Coordinator. “The Car Seat Mini-Grant is a great opportunity to help our community and help protect our children from serious injuries or death in motor vehicle crashes.”

Safe Kids Cherokee County educates parents and caregivers on how to properly install and use car seats, offers car seat inspections, and provides car seats and booster seats to financially eligible families. Through the Car Seat Mini-Grant, agencies supporting more than 120 counties are working to keep Georgia’s children safe. These programs help families get their children buckled up right, every trip, every time.

Safe Kids Cherokee County, led by Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services, is a local coalition through Safe Kids Worldwide, a global organization dedicated to preventing injuries in children, the number one killer of kids in the United States. Around the world, a child dies from an unintentional injury every 30 seconds. And millions of children are injured in ways that can
affect them for a lifetime. Safe Kids Cherokee County is dedicated to preventing those types of preventable injuries to its citizens.

Since 1988, when National Safe Kids was founded by Dr. Marty Eichelberger of the Children’s National Medical Center with support from founding sponsor, Johnson & Johnson, there has been a 60 percent decrease in the unintentional injury rate among children 19 years and younger across the nation. Safe Kids Cherokee County is one of 31 local coalitions in Georgia implementing safety programs and hands-on training.

For more information about the Safe Kids Cherokee County car seat program, visit www.CherokeeCountyFire.com. For information regarding other counties involved in the program, please contact the Georgia Department of Public Health’s Child Occupant Safety Project via email at injury@dph.ga.gov or by calling 404-463-1487.

This press release was produced by CCFES. The views expressed here are the author's own.