Hult Center for Healthy Living is excited to announce a new program, Safe Sitter, with thanks to funding received from Community Foundation of Central Illinois Women’s Fund. Hult Center will now be able to implement a Safe Sitter babysitting program for 6th – 8th grade students. With this funding, three of Hult Center for Healthy Living’s Health Education Specialists will be able to complete a training to become certified Safe Sitter instructors. In addition, these Health Education Specialists will implement three cohorts with approximately 8 youth per cohort, empowering 24 young girls by the end of 2021.
The Safe Sitter babysitting program is an interactive, six-hour, instructor-led training designed to educate and empower young girls with the skills and knowledge they need to care for themselves and younger children. Youth will engage in fun games and role-playing exercises while learning skills such as choking rescue and CPR, assessing and responding to injuries and illnesses, behavior management, practice diapering, ability to screen jobs, and greeting employers. Through completion of the program, students will become certified Safe Sitter babysitters.
Hult Center for Healthy Living will work with Peoria Public Schools and UnityPoint Health In-School Health Clinics to recruit participants for this program. The Safe Sitter program will target young girls in 6th-8th grade who reside in the most at-risk lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. As the Safe Sitter program becomes sustainable, it will ne able to reach a wide variety of diverse young women who reside across Peoria County.
Thank you to CFCI Women’s Fund for making this program possible. Want to learn more about Community Foundation of Central Illinois Women’s Fund? Visit their website.