Innovative program to provide hands-on learning for children
Children might soon have their own mock village and house to learn safety lessons without getting in harm’s way.
The Safety Village Project, which includes a scaled-down village with buildings and streets, is intended to provide a realistic learning experience for safety issues. The facility would be located off Vley Road, in Glenville, near the intersection of Route 5, on a currently unused piece of land. The town would still own the 3-acre site, but the organization is looking for a long-term lease. The cost of the project is expected to be below $1.25 million, which was the estimate in 1999, due to construction costs going down.
It is primarily designed for children’s education related to bicycle and pedestrian safety, said Project Coordinator Patrick Carroll. `Inside the educational facility is a house with a bedroom and kitchen area for the purpose of a fire safety component.`
The lessons would combine classroom instruction with hands-on learning to increase retention. The Safety Village will be set off to the side of the classroom building and feature paved streets, traffic signals, streets signs, bus stops, railroad crossing and other elements found in a real-world setting.
Organizers expect the number of visitors annually to be about 20,000 in the beginning years. The facility would start out serving third- and fourth-graders from local school districts and would eventually expand to grades 1 to 5. Another possible future program could teach adults safety awareness courses, along with first aid and CPR.
Glenville officials appeared to support the project during a Town Board work session meeting on Wednesday, June 8.
`I, for one, am very in favor of the program. It is a great program that is a great use for the space,` said Glenville Supervisor Christopher Koetzle.
To reproduce traffic and fire safety issues at a school can be difficult, but the site would allow Capital District school schools to visit the location.
`To go to a school and try to reproduce traffic safety or fire safety issues at a school is nearly impossible,` said Carroll. `It is actually more cost-effective and time-effective to bring the children to a site which is already in place.`
The target areas for the program are Albany, Saratoga, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties. Trained safety experts such as police officers, firefighters and health-care providers would direct programs.
`It is really intended to be a regional project, not just to benefit the Town of Glenville and the Village of Scotia,` said Kathleen Toombs, also coordinating the project. `Part of the reason the site was selected was because it’s right next to I-890.`
Major funding for the project is expected to be obtained by September, which would follow with the site being operational by fall 2012. The organization is seeking federal and state grants available for the type of project being pursued. Currently, said Toombs, the funding appears to be available.
`If the money is there today there is no guarantee it will be there in the near future. I would think that probably there is a guarantee that it won’t be,` said Toombs.
To help raise funds for the property, outside of grants, there are also sponsorship opportunities. If a company wanted to sponsor a portion, such as a building, it could. Also, items along the streetscape, such as street signs, could be purchased and named.
Before town officials make any decision on the project, funding sources need to be secured by the organization. With schools and groups paying a fee to use the facility, the hope is to remain self-funded with the possibility of ongoing grant funding.
`Going to the facility in Jamestown, it has actually been open for over a year now and it has become the hub of the community,` said Carroll of a similar project in Chautauqua County.“
