Safety Scouts provides kids with a safety vest and other farm safety materials
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
An industry inputs manufacturer has created a new program to help keep Canadian kids safe on family farms.
BASF’s new Safety Scouts program is designed to engage children in learning about farm safety.
Each family who signs up for the program will receive a Safety Scouts kit.
The kits include a letter to parents, and letter to kids and are full of materials to help kids become an official Safety Scout, said Nicole McAuley, head of communications and public affairs at BASF Canada Agricultural Solutions.
“There’s an adjustable child-sized safety vest that is CSA z96-15 compliant, a customizable name badge, safety-themed activity and colouring sheets, a BASF Safety Scouts reward badge and an official BASF Safety Scouts membership certificate,” she told Farms.com. “We want (the kids) to feel proud of their contribution to the farm and helping deliver success in that way.”
Targeting children with safety messaging is important.
If farm safety can become part of a child’s routine at a young age, they are likely to carry on with proper safety measures as they get older, McAuley said.
“We’re hoping they take accountability of the program themselves as young children,” she said. “It is one of those things that will build skills and knowledge for the long term.”
The Safety Scouts program builds on BASF’s relationship with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA).
The two organizations typically work on in-person presentations and materials to deliver farm safety messaging.
But the pandemic necessitated a shift in how to get farm safety messages across, McAuley said.
“We were starting to execute our usual annual in the classroom and community plans for safety programming for youth,” she said. “But because of COVID we had to do a complete 180.”
That turn led to the creation of the Kids’ Safety Hub. This online resource is where families can sign up to receive Safety Scouts kits and view other farm safety materials.
Canadian children have lost their lives on farms.
Between 2006 and 2015, 84 fatalities of kids from under five-years-old to 14-years-old have occurred, a CASA report says