PROJECT SAFE CRIB TO HELP FAMILIES IN SEVERAL ESSEX COMMUNITIES

Keeping Babies Safe, a Warren-based non-profit dedicated to ensuring safe sleep practices and safe products for babies across the United States, has received a $25,000 grant for its ongoing Project Safe Crib campaign in Essex and Passaic counties.

Project Safe Crib is funded in part by a grant from the Partners for Health Foundation, whose vision is to make our communities healthier places to live. It will fund 127 new, safe cribs for families in Bloomfield, Caldwell, Cedar Grove, Clifton, Essex Fells, Fairfield, Glen Ridge, Little Falls, Montclair, North Caldwell, Nutley, Roseland, Verona, West Caldwell, and West Orange.

Since 2008, Partners for Health has awarded more than $8 million and partnered with more than 105 organizations, congregations, school districts and municipalities to make progress in key areas.

Project Safe Crib works to ensure that every baby is able to sleep in a safe and secure crib, with the latest safety precautions, no matter the income level or other financial limitations of the parents.

Every year, in response to requests made by the state Division of Children and Families for cribs for needy families, KBS purchases and donates cribs, along with copies of a video on safe sleep and other educational materials.

The cribs and educational materials are distributed by DCF to health and human services agencies that serve low-income families throughout New Jersey. Since KBS launched Project Safe Crib in 2007, it has been able to donate more than 8,000 cribs nationally.

Moreover, KBS has trained DCF staff members in safe sleep practices and provides safe-sleep training to the staff members at the agencies that distribute the cribs.

"Partners for Health recognizes the critical importance of KBS and its ongoing campaign to ensure safe cribs for babies which is in keeping with our efforts to fund programs that directly improve the health and well-being of low income children," said Pam Scott, executive director of the foundation. "We salute KBS for Project Safe Crib, as well as for its advocacy efforts for policy changes and legislation that improve the safety of all babies."

Davis noted another benefit of providing safe cribs: parents won't use supplemental baby mattresses in soft-sided play yards - a proven suffocation hazard.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, from 2010 to 2012, 123 infant deaths in the U.S. were associated with unsafe cribs and 44 deaths were associated with unsafe playpens/play yards. According to KBS, more infants die every year in cribs than from any other nursery product. There are about 20 million potentially fatal cribs in the U.S. in current use or in storage for future use, with 26 crib-related injuries requiring an emergency room visit every day.

Learn more about the work of KBS at keepingbabiessafe.org.

Learn more about the Partners for Health Foundation at http://partnersfdn.org.