Kidsafe Victoria and Wyndham City have announced a new partnership in a bid to increase community awareness of unintentional childhood injuries and their prevention.

Injury is the leading cause of death for Australian children aged 1-14 years. Every year in Victoria, approximately 19 children aged 0-14 years die and over 100,000 are treated in hospital as a result of unintentional injuries.

The partnership between Wyndham City and Kidsafe Victoria will see the implementation of a range of programs and activities across the next 12 months, including community child car restraint checking sessions, child restraint information sessions and quarterly community awareness campaigns focusing on issues such as children left unattended in cars, driveway safety and backyard pool safety.

Wyndham City’s Family Friendly Portfolio Holder, Cr Mia Shaw, said children’s safety was one of the Council’s top priorities.

“As parents, we all like to think that we take good care of our children. We just want to ensure they are safe wherever they are 24 hours a day,” Cr Shaw said.

“As the holder of the Family Friendly City portfolio holder I’m excited to launch this partnership to raise awareness and spread messages about child injury prevention to all parents, carers and service providers in our community.”

“Given Wyndham’s growth, with more families moving into our City, this is a very important issue that we need to raise awareness of.”

“The campaign will focus on pool safety, not leaving children in cars, child restraint and driveway safety.”

“It will also see an extensive engagement program with our community, including signage, social media, and information sessions.”

Jason Chambers, General Manager of Kidsafe Victoria, welcomed the partnership saying that Kidsafe Victoria were proud to be working with Wyndham City to empower the local community.

‘The direct action by Wyndham City is a major step in supporting the local community and the efforts of Kidsafe Victoria to reduce rates of unintentional childhood injury’, said Mr Chambers.

The first activity of the partnership is a free community child restraint checking session which is taking place at the Tarneit Community Open Day on Saturday 25^th November. For more information on the event, please visit https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/whats-on/tarneit-community-open-day.