Our Programs
The Comprehensive Children’s Injury Center (CCIC) is involved with the following programs.
Injury Free
The Injury Free Coalition for Kids focuses on preventing injuries among children in at-risk neighborhoods. We work on educating families in the Cincinnati area about risky behaviors, provide safe out-of-school activities and work to create safer places for children to live and play.
To learn more about our work in the communities or to volunteer for our upcoming activities, please contact Dawne Gardner-Davis, injury prevention coordinator, 513-636-3153.
Safety Resource Center
The Safety Resource Center at the Gift Shop provides injury prevention items such as car seats, booster seats, bike helmets, smoke detectors and other items to the hospital community at an affordable price. The Safety Resource Center also offers free educational materials about a variety of safety topics.
The Gift Shop is open Monday-Friday 9am-6pm and Saturday and Sunday from 12:30-3:30pm For more information or to inquire about purchasing a product, please call 513-636-4310.
Concussion Outreach & Education
An injury prevention coordinator from the CCIC is available to provide educational courses for athletes, parents, and coaches about concussions. Each presentation is specifically geared towards the audience and lasts 30-60 minutes. Topics covered include; what is a concussion, how does an athlete get a concussion, signs and symptoms, and what to do if an athlete has a concussion. For more information, contact Courtney Schaiper at 513-803-5137
Youth Injury Prevention (YIP)
The Youth Injury Prevention (YIP) Program is a multi-generational, multi-denominational faith-based approach to preventing injuries in our communities. Our mission is to work together to eliminate injury as the leading cause of childhood death and disability.
The components of the program include a scripture –based curriculum for children, parent and grandparent educational series, car seat checks, safety fairs, ministerial message, Teen Empowerment Program, Safety Seat Distribution, and Congregation Empowerment. YIP was developed with the intent to partner with communities and churches to address injury prevention in urban settings across the tri-state area. To learn more, please contact Kim Price 636-0576.
Child Passenger Safety Programs
Over half of the children admitted to Cincinnati Children’s were not restrained at the time of the crash. Additionally, child restraint systems can be complicated to use and install, making mistakes is extremely common. Local misuse was found in over 85% of the 14,000 restraint systems that have been checked at community “Fitting Stations” (including Cincinnati Children’s). Misuse of these systems can lead to serious injury and death to children in crashes.
A fitting station program has been established in collaboration with 46 local fire, police, and health departments to provide permanent Fitting Station locations for parents to receive help with the installation of their car seats. A research study conducted by CCHMC has shown this to be an effective approach as there was a significant sustaining decrease in misuse rates after the parents were shown how to properly use and install their seats. Download a PDF list of fitting stations in the region.
For any question about our Child Passenger Safety Programs please contact Susan Laurence, 636-7129.
Buckle Up for Life
Buckle Up for Life is an initiative of Cincinnati Children’s and is funded through a grant from Toyota. Our partners in other cities are Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital (Houston), Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, University Health System (San Antonio), the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Children’s Hospital of Nevada (Las Vegas). Read more about Buckle Up for Life or call 513-636-7849 for more information.
Special Needs Car Seat Program
A Special Needs Car Seat Loan Program in cooperation with Caring Services Southwestern Ohio (formerly Easter Seals) provides loaner restraints for children with special health care transportation needs. For more information contact Donna Laake, Injury Prevention Coordinator, 636-7528.
Teen Driving Program
Teen POWER is an interactive teen driving program designed to engage young people in safe driving and riding (pre-driving) practices. This program utilizes several teaching strategies to ensure impact, measured by an increase in knowledge and positive change in attitudes and behaviors. The consistent theme for the teen program is that every occupant in a vehicle must wear a seat belt and that everyone is socially responsible for staying safe on the road. The Teen POWER educational program partners with African-American faith-based institutions because churches have a strong tradition of social outreach and provide respected leadership for the endorsement of the safety messages. Teen POWER utilizes peer to peer education; teens will be challenged to take leadership in promoting safe driving and riding practices in their communities. To learn more, please contact Kim Price 636-0576.
Outreach in a Box
In an effort to address the communities' high demand for injury education that exceeds ability of the Comprehensive Children's Injury Center’s staff to provide outreach, the Outreach In A Box program is available. These portable "boxes" contain a variety of injury topics and include step-by-step curricula, educational materials, and props. Individuals can borrow the boxes free of charge for use in their community, school, or church; the CCIC will provide training sessions in using the boxes. For more information or to borrow the outreach box please contact Genia Goodin at 513-636-7865.
Topics include:
- car/booster seat safety
- home safety
- poison prevention
- playground safety
- wheeled vehicle (bike and rollerblade) safety
Safe Kids
Cincinnati Children’s is a member of the Safe Kids USA campaign and the lead organization of the Cincinnati Safe Kids Coalition.
Our goal is to prevent your child from being injured in a motor vehicle crash, fire, scalding, pedestrian activity, poisoning, choking, bike crash, fall, water activity or shooting.
We provide public education, media outreach and community programming. We also distribute safety products, propose legislation, collect local injury data and evaluate local injury prevention programs.
