About Safe Connections and Resources

Safe Connections and Resources has been created as a tool to enable easy access to safety education and resources for a variety of purposes.

Our History: USEP – OHIO created the Discover Parenting Project in 1989, and began its work to reach parents, grandparents, professionals and a variety of educators about parenting and safe and responsible child rearing.  After 2000, Ohio Early Childhood Education and Care providers told us that children were still arriving in their centers unbelted and without proper child safety seats.  So Discover Parenting refocused on safety.  Parents were doing a better job than Grandparents, neighbors, friends and others in keeping youngsters safely seated.  In an effort to create a new tool teaching  safe child seating in vehicles, that could be used by Ohio Safety Leaders (OAHSL) and all NAWHSL volunteers in their states, Ohio wrote and piloted Kids in the Car with Grandparents and Others Who Care, which was also adopted by NAWHSL as one of its national  programs.

USEP-OHIO,  again with a mini-grant from the Agnes Beaton Education Fund,  kicked off  Safe Connections and Resources knowing that volunteers all over the country could use a simple web site that offers accessibility to safety information and resources, rather than needing to search a multitude of web sites for information.  It was important to create a simple site where volunteers of all kinds (new to safety or professionals) could easily access the best of information and resources.  Teachers and students also use this site as a direct asset to finding safety facts, laws, programs and the best of resources for their school or service projects.

Safe Connections and Resources is an internet home created to support parents, professionals, grandparents, teachers, safety volunteers, advocates and community leaders as they work to improve traffic safety, save lives and reduce injuries.

…With seed funding from the NAWHSL Agnes Beaton Memorial Fund, dedicated to the memory of Agnes Beaton, founder of the National Association of Women Highway Safety Leaders, and a pioneer of community-based traffic safety programs. Agnes  was adept at reaching out to diverse groups and individuals,  uniting them in the mission of saving lives and preventing injuries on roadways thoughout our country.  USEP-OHIO  and OAHSL also honor the memory of Mildred Gnau, Cleveland native, who was also a NAWHSL founder and represented Ohio as Governor’s Representative from the early 1960’s, and served as a NAWHSL President 1971-1973.

…Designed to provide accessibility  to finding program  resources, and  tools needed to teach the issues of safety on the roadway, in the home and the community, in order  to keep families safe and injury free.  Safe Connections and Resources includes links to a broad variety of  safety issues.

…Partners include NAWHSL  (National Association of  Women Highway Safety Leaders), USEP-OHIO, Inc.(United Services for Effective Parenting – OHIO, Inc.), and the many public and private partners in including GHSA.org, (Governors Highway Safety Association),  NHTSA.gov (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Safe Kids (safekids.org) and many others included in this site.  Parents, educators and anyone seeking safety information will be able to quickly access a simplified menu of choices for building a program, enhancing understanding of issues or reaching out to safety partners. 

Most notably we thank the many organizations we cite or link to in providing their resources to create better programs for we the public!