F

or children ages 14 and

under, the #1 health risk
isn’t kidnapping, drugs,
or disease. It’s injuries.
The statistics are staggering. Traffic
injuries, drownings, fires and burns,
firearm injuries, falls, poisonings…
each year in the United States,
unintentional injuries kill more than
7,000 kids and permanently
disable more than 50,000.
That’s more than drugs and
disease combined. 13 mil-
With proper education,
children can learn to lion children—one in four—
be much safer and
prevent injuries.
are injured seriously enough
to require medical attention.
In Canada, injuries are the leading
Help keep kids safe!
cause of death for children over one
year of age. Risk Watch helps kids beat TM
Lesson 1
the odds. With proper
Motor Vehicle
Safety
Lesson 2
education, children
Fire and Burn
Prevention
can learn to be much
Lesson 3
safer and prevent
injuries. And that’s Risk Watch activities Choking, Suffocation, Lesson 4
combine teaching and and Strangulation
Prevention
exactly what Risk Watch imagination to help
Poisoning
children learn to pro- Prevention
mote their own personal
is designed to do. Perfect safety, as well as that
of their family and
for schools as well as community.
Lesson 5 Lesson 6
educational programs in
Falls
Prevention
fire departments, hospitals, and other Firearms Injury
Prevention

community agencies, Risk Watch gives

Lesson 7
kids the skills and knowledge they
need to recognize and avoid risks. TM
Bike and Lesson 8
Pedestrian Safety
Water Safety
Risk Watch is a trademark of the National Fire Protection Association.

A broad-based injury
prevention program developed
by a pioneering force in safety
education.
For more than 20 years, the
National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) has been the
leader in developing quality, com-
prehensive fire safety education.
During that time, we have seen
just how powerful a weapon edu-
cation can be. For example, our
widely acclaimed Learn Not to
Burn® Curriculum, used in more
than 250,000 classrooms nation-
wide as well as in Canada and
Great Britain, has helped save
hundreds of people from fire
injury or death since its introduc-
tion in 1979.
Building on this success,
NFPA has expanded the scope
of its educational efforts and
teamed up with Lowe’s Home
Safety Council and a coalition of
North America’s most authoritative
injury prevention professionals to
develop Risk Watch. This innova-
tive curriculum targets the eight
major risk areas that kill or injure
the most children each year: motor
vehicle crashes; fires and burns;
choking, suffocation, and strangu-
lation; poisoning; falls; uninten-
tional firearms incidents; bike
and pedestrian hazards; and water
hazards.
Risk Watch’s experiential
approach to education makes
learning fun!
Risk Watch activities combine
teaching and imagination to help
children learn to promote their
own personal safety and well-
being, as well as that of their
friends, family, and community.
Using the latest in child develop-
ment and injury prevention, Risk
Watch actively involves students in
lively exercises such as creating a
safety trade show and analyzing
risky behaviors through story-
telling, role-playing, songs, etc.
It’s a unique chance for kids to
learn about injury prevention,
apply that knowledge in practice
situations, and develop the atti-
tude and motivation to make the
safe choices in a risky situation.
Risk Watch also encourages
participation by community
experts to reinforce lessons with a
“real-world” perspective.
The curriculum requires as little
as nine hours per school year,
but the benefits last a lifetime.
Field tested successfully in the
United States and Canada, Risk
Watch is a sequential program of
instruction involving children at
five learning levels from preschool
through grade 8. At each level,
kids act out learning activities by
assuming a character role appro-
priate to their developmental
stage. Each unit addresses all
eight risk areas and builds on
prior lessons, allowing for an
increasing degree of comprehen-
sion and complexity. Modules can
also be used independently. Risk
Watch’s flexibile curriculum can
be taught as a stand-alone unit or
easily integrated into subjects
such as health, language arts, and
physical education.
Support from a coalition of North
America’s most authoritative
injury prevention professionals
ensures information of the highest
quality
Helping NFPA develop Risk
Watch is a Technical Advisory
Group comprised of a select team
of professionals representing
national organizations with recog-
nized expertise in each risk area.
They provide research data,
technical content, and appropriate
prevention messages as well as a
review of curriculum lessons.
The members of this distinguished
group represent:
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of Poison
Control Centers
American Automobile Association
American Red Cross
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence
Consumer Federation of America
Duke University Medical Center
Emergency Medical Services
for Children
Johns Hopkins University
Lowe’s Home Safety Council
Maternal and Child Health Bureau,
Health Resources and Services
Administration
National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control (CDC)
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration
National SAFE KIDS Campaign®
National Safety Council
Sowers Associates
U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission
U.S. Fire Administration
University of Wisconsin