Nation’s First Safety Demonstration House

This month, the nation’s first Safety Demonstration Home will open right here in Kansas City. The house is a project of Charlie’s House, formed in 2007 in the memory of Charlie Horn who died in a tragic accident after he was found under a dresser that had tipped over in his Kansas City home. The Safety Demonstration Home will enable parents and caregivers to tour the home and receive educational lifesaving tips.

The 3,440-square-foot facility will be built to look like a home but will have interactive features to communicate the importance of childproofing a home.  The Safety Demonstration Home will be designed with the normal rooms of a home to illustrate common hazards and how to ensure the safety of children from those hazards. Additionally, the conference room will be a primary center of activity and education, where Charlie’s House will offer parenting classes, infant CPR instruction, babysitting courses, safety fairs and more.

“What’s most rewarding is that we will have a place to call home now and will be able to host our own events on the property,” says Stuart Hoffman, Charlie’s House executive director. “We have a great deal of work to complete in the next year but we’re confident Kansas City is going to be very proud of Charlie’s House. It reinforces our commitment to parents, caregivers and children.”

Charlie’s House Safety Quick Fact

One child dies every two weeks from a television, furniture or appliance.  Injuries occur:  three per hour, 70 per day, more than 2,000 per month and more than 25,000 per year.  These injuries and deaths happen when children under the age of 9 climb, hit, kick and play near televisions, furniture and appliances; victims are crushed, trapped, hit or struck.  The bedroom is the most common location for these injuries and deaths to occur.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), on average, tipped furniture or falling televisions send a child in the U.S. to the emergency room every 24 minutes. Each of these incidents could be prevented if parents and caregivers installed low-cost furniture anchors, which will be on view in the new Charlie’s House Safety Demonstration Home. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death, many of which are preventable, and include falls, furniture tip-overs, drowning and SIDS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that car accidents were the leading cause of death for ages 5-9 years and drowning for ages 1-4 in 2016. Charlie’s House provides resources and education for these areas.

(Sources: Consumer Product Safety Commission, Neighborhood Safety Network and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

For more details, please visit CharliesHouse.org. Like Charlie’s House on Facebook (Facebook.com/CharliesHouse) and follow them on Twitter (@CharliesHouseKC).