This National Preparedness Month, we are reminded that all community members, no matter their age, can learn and practice emergency preparedness.
Siana-Lea Gildard, the Chief Development Officer for the Central California Region, shared this great story of how teaching youth about preparedness can truly make a difference in their experience during an emergency.
“While at my friend’s house recently, the power went out and my 6-year-old godson, Logan, ran around letting us know what different appliances were off and that the lights didn’t work. Coincidentally, I had brought the ‘Prepare with Pedro Power Outage’ storybook with me and we sat down to read it together.
What I found most enlightening about this was that it really seemed to alleviate much of the anxiety a child might experience when something changes suddenly, like the power going out.
Understanding why these things happen, how to prepare for them and what to do, empowered him to identify what was going on.
In the end, Logan is now a preparedness guru and even showed me he knew where his flashlight was too!”
Since 2015, the American Red Cross has taught more than 1.5 million students emergency preparedness and coping skills and has 15 verified lives saved through their youth preparedness programs. Educating youth, like Logan, about emergencies and teaching them how they can help stay safe and keep calm is crucial to ensuring the entire community is prepared and vital to the Red Cross mission.
Youth Preparedness Resources
Get your little ones prepared for any type of emergency by utilizing these available and free youth preparedness resources:
- Prepare with Pedro Hazard Storybooks
- Prepare with Pedro Animated Videos (English and Spanish)
- Pedro’s Fire Challenge (Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant)
- Become a Prep Champion! Online Learning Resource
- Youth Resilience Resources