From March 21 - 25, 2023, the Institute for Childhood Preparedness offered a series of active shooter preparedness events. These events were specially created for early childhood professionals. 
 

Training: Active Shooter Preparedness for Early Childhood Professionals

Duration: 3 hours

Who should attend: Any staff or support personnel that work in an early childhood environment

Description: Preparing for an active shooter incident is a topic that many of us in early childhood education never imagined having to discuss, much less attend a training on. However, as incidents become more and more common, we must take steps to ensure our programs are as safe as possible. This training has been designed specifically for early childhood professionals. During the course, participants will learn evidence based techniques and strategies on how best to prepare for and respond to an active shooter incident. The course will also provide information on how best to conduct drills, develop a plan and work together to ensure staff, teachers and children are best prepared. *Note: this course is designed to prepare early childhood professionals, not scare them – no live or simulated ammunition will be used in this training.

 

Training: Active Shooter Preparedness – Tabletop – Considerations for Owners/Directors

Duration: 3 hours

Who should attend: Owners, directors, and others with decision-making authority

Description: The purpose of a tabletop is to strengthen problem-solving abilities, identify resources, and forge working relationships between different organizations and entities. The tabletop exercise will be specifically designed to work through internal organizational and community plans. The focus will not be to test anyone’s specific performance, but to shed light on the various roles, responsibilities and plans currently in place. The tabletop exercise will purposefully stress and overwhelm existing resources, so that the worst case scenario can be explored. This helps to evaluate and improve existing plans. By planning for a worst case scenario, an organization can become better prepared for all the lesser crises that can occur.

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Safety Spotlight Professional Learning Community

9-month program focusing on safety, security and preparedness

Space is Limited, Register Today! The Program runs April - December 2023. 

The Safety Spotlight Cohort is a new program designed to make emergency preparedness more manageable for early childhood programs. It seeks to provide knowledge, instruction and education on emergency preparedness basics, plus emerging trends and issues facing early childhood programs. The goal of the Safety Spotlight is to help make measurable progress towards enhancing safety, security and preparedness - by keeping preparedness at the forefront through a 30 minute exercise or activity each month.

 

The Safety Spotlight is a 9-month program. Each month each facility would receive a task that is purposefully designed to be action-oriented, take up less than 30 minutes of a director's time, and focus on one specific issue. The monthly task will be accompanied by expert instruction – providing you with the latest information and leading practices related to that particular subject. For illustrative purposes, topics may include: Fire safety, lighting/parking lot safety, employee HR issues (such as termination), de-escalation techniques, emergency communications, crisis communication, etc. Once a program successfully completes 9 months’ worth of tasks, the program is awarded a special plaque which recognizes their commitment to preparedness. The program will begin in April 2023 and run through December 2023. 

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Who we are

For those unfamiliar, a bit about our background - all of our courses are developed and designed for early childhood professionals and those who support early childhood operations, with input from industry leaders – such as Sesame Street, Walt Disney Corporation, Kaplan, Head Start programs, the National Association of Family Child Care and many other child serving organizations. We have conducted training in Louisiana on numerous occasions and work closely with the Registry, Child Care Association of Louisiana and the Department of Education. We have presented at numerous conferences, most recently - the 2022 Department of Education conference in New Orleans in July 2022 and at the Child Care Association of Louisiana’s conference in October. 
 
Our approach is purposeful – and all of our trainings are specifically designed for early childhood professionals – and none of our trainings are scary. We want folks to be prepared, not scared. Our trainings are reviewed by psychologists and psychiatrists who specialize in early childhood. Our trainings are delivered by award-winning first responders who have been working in early childhood education since 2015.