9-1-1 For Kids

Educating and promoting awareness on emergency preparedness and procedures during crises for preschool to the elderly worldwide.

[911forkidsblog]

Our 20th Kathy Ireland Mentor Tea for Single Teen Mothers will take place on Saturday, October 11, 2014 in Orange, CA.  

If interested in participating or volunteering for this wonderful event, please contact Chelsea Gray at 714-894-5450 or by email at [email protected]

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Lack of Resources and Its Consequences

The consequences of a continued lack of 9-1-1 education for kids, parents, elders, and communities is a perpetuation of the system’s abuse. Emergency education and call training programs, like the ones 9-1-1 For Kids provides, instructs people on proper usage: how to call, when to call, where to call. With burgeoning cities globally, an increase number of people means an increased number of 9-1-1 misuse. City and even rural numbers grow exponentially, and emergency services flex to accommodate the growing populations. However, there will always be a strain on emergency services, aggravated even more by misinformed citizens and communities who are not taught the proper procedures in dialing for aid.

9-1-1 education programs also promote an awareness of the implications of prank calling emergency response, misinformed dialing, accidental dialing, and common mistakes with dialing for help. These can teach people, kids especially, that these pranks or errors can uselessly expend thousands of dollars in emergency resources, time, and possibly take away from time from someone calling with a real emergency. Because of the costliness, prank calls are illegal in most states, according to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). With these lawful repercussions, we are able to instill a sense of accountability, due diligence. However, one of the biggest problems we face in 9-1-1 education today is the widespread budgetary crises and deficit in resources.

More to come from http://www.911forkids.com/

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Next Generation 9-1-1

Today, when we think of 9-1-1 we think of a call to a live dispatcher, right? However, we fail to recognize the exponential advancement of 9-1-1 technology from its less than glamorous moments of manual transmission to this era's upcoming "Text-to-9-1-1" movement.

The advent of the 9-1-1 system was revolutionary, though its provenance in 1968 by House Speaker Rankin Fite was clunky and inefficient. Emergency calls once had to be wired through a switchboard manually to transfer it to responders-- totally unrecognizable by today’s standard of technological immediacy.    

Now, virtually any phone, whether it be a landline, current cell phone, old cell phone no longer in use, or something like a Call Box, 9-1-1 services are able to receive calls in crisis situations. It links the called to the PSAP, the Public Safety Answering Point, a dispatch center that will receive the call. Even more impressive is the “enhanced 9-1-1,” which automatically links emergency services with the caller’s location, address, and information. This can help relieve the caller of the obligation of collecting this information in some situations that could otherwise sacrifice lifesaving seconds. Automatic transference of caller information allows emergency responders: fire, medical, and law enforcement to respond more effectively to the situation.

Next generation 9-1-1 involves being able to send text and video to authorities in emergency situations. The new system is in its nascent stages as of yet, but will be the gateway to even  more well-informed response to crises. The new technology’s pilot program is in Chicago, where their citizens are the first to send images and video to authorities. 

The person seeking to contact their PSAP will enter “9-1-1” in the recipient field to be delivered, while texting details of the situation in the subject fields, while attaching video and/or audio if applicable. The way the new system will work, when implemented everywhere, is that the citizen snaps pictures and video of the incident at hand. They are sent to the crime-prevention center at their police department, where they are either forwarded to responders or investigators.

Text messaging , or in its most common form SMS, short message service, is more advantageous in circumstances where a 9-1-1 call cannot be placed for safety or weather situations that interfere with call signal. Texting could be beneficial and suitable for similar crisis situations that we have witnessed in recent eras. The best conditions under which to use texting as a means for providing information to PSAPs are school shootings , robberies, and abuse. Messaging is especially useful in circumstances where active gunman are present and silence is necessitated on the part of hostages and victims.

[911forkidsblog]

About 9-1-1 For Kids Education

 This blog is dedicated to our charity, 9-1-1 For Kids, whose purpose and drive has been to skill kids in emergency preparedness and crisis management from children to teens. Our founding in 1994 provided a firm basis to educate the upcoming generation on the misuse and abuse of 9-1-1, and to promote proper procedures to K-12 kids internationally. Our celebrity collaborators Tim Brown, former Raiders’ legend, has become our International Chairman along with Kathy Ireland, globally renown supermodel, our International Ambassador appointee.  Under the leadership of our Executive Director, Elise Kim, we are at the forefront of emergency education becoming the only official emergency caller training program endorsed by the Association of Public Safety Officials, National Emergency Numbers Association, and the National Association of Nine-one-one Administrators.

Our mission is to combat the use of 9-1-1 for non-emergency situations since the misuse expends resources in the way of fire, medical, and police response that could otherwise be utilized for real crises. Our intent is to advise kids about critical decision-making during disaster situations, while simultaneously teaching  the younger generations the repercussions of unlawful, informed, and fatal implications of misusing 9-1-1-- abuses comprise about half of all calls received by PSAPs. Misuse compounds the financial strain on public safety since its officials are often dispatched to handle what turn out to be non-emergency situations.

We are known for our informative classroom literature and materials that benefit all ages and grade levels seeking education on the emergency response system and its use. We provide a network or training tools that allow teachers, parents, public safety officials, groups, and kids to educate themselves or promote education within their own communities, classrooms, and homes.