City to Provide Children Safe Spaces in Emergencies

Joint initiative provides children shelter and services in the event of an emergency.
City to Provide Children Safe Spaces in Emergencies
Christine Lin
9/11/2008
Updated:
7/9/2012
NEW YORK—Actress Julianne Moore and other notable figures announced a joint initiative to provide children shelter and services in the event of an emergency. The Safe Spaces program was announced at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in Brooklyn on Sept. 9.

In the spirit of National Preparedness Month, Save the Children and OEM agreed to establish Safe Spaces for children in emergency shelters during city, state, or federally declared disasters. According to the program description, the Safe Spaces would give children a “place to play, socialize and begin to recover when living in shelters immediately following an emergency.”

Save the Children will provide 1,075 Safe Space Kits containing toys and art supplies. The kits will be used in over 500 emergency shelters and will also be used to help train over 1,000 volunteers.

Moore serves as the U.S. Ambassador for international non-profit organization Save the Children. Save the Children is the only agency advocating for children on Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) National Advisory Council.

The initiative is a joint effort among Moore, New York Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Bruno, and Mark Kennedy Shriver, managing director of Save the Children U.S. Programs.
Christine Lin is an arts reporter for the Epoch Times. She can be found lurking in museum galleries and poking around in artists' studios when not at her desk writing.
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