KC CAN! In The News

Work to begin on Safety Street, a city block of learning for children

By ALAN BAVLEY - The Kansas City Star
Date: 02/25/01 22:15

Denise Dowd of Children's Mercy Hospital had an ambitious plan for teaching young children about street safety.

Overland Park lawyer Peter Mallouk was looking for a way to help the community.

When they met in mid-1999, it set off a chain of events that soon will turn Dowd's dream into a reality.

Today, the Kansas City Children's Assistance Network -- KC CAN for short -- the new volunteer organization for which Mallouk is the chairman, breaks ground on Safety Street.

It's a $250,000 life-size outdoor mockup of a city block where schoolchildren from throughout the metropolitan area will learn a variety of safety skills, from how to cross a busy street to how to escape a burning building.

Safety Street will be on the Hospital Hill campus of the Kansas City Health Department, at 24th and Campbell streets. The first phase of construction will be finished this summer, and the entire project could be completed by the end of the year.

"When it's all finished, it will be an all-day learning experience," Mallouk said. "It will all be very interactive and fun. You'll talk about it, then do it."

The program will be aimed at second-graders, and KC CAN will invite every Kansas City area elementary school to participate.

On Safety Street, children will use a real car to learn the proper way to put on a seat belt. They will learn how to safely board and exit a bus, using a real bus. They will learn what to do around train tracks next to authentic tracks.

"The whole idea of putting concepts into practice has been shown to really increase kids' retention of knowledge," said Dowd, an emergency room doctor and medical director of the Children's Mercy Center for Childhood Safety.

The Safety Street concept was pioneered by Harlem Hospital in New York. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta, have started or are developing their own versions.

Transportation-related accidents are the leading cause of serious injury to children in Kansas City, Dowd said.

In 1998, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 175 Kansas City children ages 19 and younger were hospitalized after motor vehicle, pedestrian, bicycle and other transportation accidents. Eleven children were killed in such accidents.

These numbers put a Safety Street at the top of Dowd's wish list. But Children's Mercy did not have the money to build it.

That is where Mallouk and KC CAN made their entrance.

In 1998, Mallouk and his wife, Veronica, were invited to join the board of a charitable organization. Instead, they decided to start a charity of their own.

Mallouk ran the idea by his friend, Kevin Mallot, a technology consultant, who agreed to join the effort. Mallot and Veronica Mallouk eventually became KC CAN vice chairman and vice chairwoman.

Mallot and the Mallouks rounded up other business and professional people in their 20s and 30s and put together a 13-member board. The Kansas City Children's Assistance Network was born.

Their next step was finding a project.

"Our mission was helping children in Kansas City. And we only wanted to do something that wouldn't get done by anyone else," Mallouk said.

The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, which assists local charities, put KC CAN in touch with Children's Mercy.

Mallouk toured the hospital and listened to Dowd describe programs for which she was trying to find funding.

"I remember the day we were sitting there around the table -- with no dollars," Dowd said.

"She was incredibly passionate," Mallouk recalled. "It didn't take a lot of convincing to show there was a need."

KC CAN had its project.

The organization swung into action, studying programs similar to Safety Street in other cities.

"We're going to have the biggest one and, we feel, the best in the country. We're taking all the best ideas," Mallouk said.

KC CAN got commitments of land from the Health Department, money and other help from the Accenture consulting firm, and participation by the Kansas City fire and police departments.

Kansas City Southern Railway is supplying railroad tracks. The local chapter of the American Public Works Association is furnishing street lights and signs.

When it gets more money, KC CAN will build a child-scale house on Safety Street where firefighters will teach fire safety.

Also in need of funding is a planned classroom building where police officers will teach skills such as what to do when confronted by a stranger and when to dial 911. The Health Department will use the facility to show children how to wash hands effectively and how to handle food safely.

"We've got the people in place and the curriculum. We just need the building," Mallouk said. "We need everybody in the community to give for this to happen."

Mallouk expects Safety Street to become so popular that it will be booked solid. At that point, KC CAN will consider building a street in Kansas.

Dowd also thinks Safety Street will become a regular destination for children.

"I just applaud these guys," Dowd said. "This is one great, big -- really great -- positive contribution."

To reach Alan Bavley, call (816) 234-4858 or send e-mail to abavley@kcstar.com.