SafeStart for Youth Outreach Program
Larry's Outreach Programs
Getting SafeStart to “every worker, every athlete, every child, in our lifetime,” is Larry’s personal mission. The stats show that accidental death is the leading cause of death among people ages 3-44, and nearly all of these deaths were preventable. After learning this Larry sought out to get the right resources and training to as many people as he could. The objective: save as many lives as possible. “Create a heart connection, what do you care about and why?”
First Nations Program
As part of Larry’s initiative to get SafeStart to every person in every community, he created the SafeStart for First Nations Schools and Communities program. This program was designed to enable and empower participating Nations to engage and prepare their youth with safety awareness skills for everyday life.
Safety First
Larry created the ‘SafeStart for Youth’ program for young people aged 8-12 to introduce them to techniques that can help improve safety awareness and mindfulness. Several Boy Scouts troops helped pilot the program in Edmonton, Alberta where they learned to work together as a team to enhance safety-related habits and skills to help them engage in their wilderness activities in a safer way. As an organization that highly values personal safety, SafeStart for Youth was a natural fit for the Boy Scouts.
Boo Boo Bandits
As a father of 4 children, Larry saw the need for a platform to get SafeStart concepts across to children. In 2007 Larry wrote and produced ‘Boo Boo Bandits,’ a short film designed for kids that teaches hazard recognition of hard, sharp, hot and slippery objects. After the film had been out for a few years, Larry began to realize that this was a good start, but it wasn’t quite enough. In 2016, Larry went on to write and produce three more episodes of Boo Boo Bandits, introducing further dangers to children, such as drowning, suffocation, and poisoning, as well as teaching children about how human factors such as rushing, frustration, fatigue, and complacency increase their risk of getting hurt.
Make a Difference
Boo Boo Bandits and SafeStart for Youth make safety fun and accessible for children and teenagers around the globe. Do you have kids or know a community group that you think could benefit from Boo Boo Bandits or SafeStart for Youth? Get involved and help bring personal safety awareness to those you care about.
