When Safe Passage Corner Captains are out along “the Route”, safe protocols call for regular check-ins over walkie-talkie. In this regular column, we’ll share with you updates, field notes, and other highlights from this important program.
Safe Passage Checking In . . .
Safe Passage kicked off the school year by hosting a safety training with five Tenderloin afterschool program providers. Twenty-five staff members from GLIDE, Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, Salvation Army, and Cross Cultural Center worked alongside Tenderloin Safe Passage Corner Captains in situational drills led by our training partners from KidPower. For example, teams practiced communicating succinctly and clearer in a pressurized situation to flip a line of oftentimes excited school-age children to reverse direction.
Safe Passage staff work with providers to identify needs, confirm pickup times and routes, and to ensure they are using the same system of response over walkie talkies.
This response system has helped to successfully reroute children twice during the first three weeks of school. Together we’ve prevented kids’ proximity to a physical fight and other aggression on the street.
Training and practice are critical to our work. In a separate instance from the last few weeks, one of our Corner Captains was able to put their training to use in observing, identifying and reuniting a lost child with a searching family member, a scenario which is part of our regular trainings.
Safe Passage offers trainings each month to anyone interested in volunteering with Safe Passage, and are currently seeking additional people to join in this important work. Volunteer safety trainings take place at 512 Ellis St. on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 12:30pm. Come see what it’s all about!
Photo: Safe Passage Corner Captains and other volunteers ready for the first shift of the new school year. Photo: Tenderloin Community Benefit District
Comments are closed.