Ready is a national public service advertising campaign created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in partnership with The Advertising Council, which is designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. As Homeland Security encourages families to prepare for emergencies through Ready, we are regularly asked by parents and teachers if there is information appropriate to share with children. In response to these requests, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and The Advertising Council created Ready Kids, a family-friendly extension of the Ready Campaign. - Launched in February 2006, Ready Kids is a tool to help parents and teachers educate children, ages 8-12, about emergencies and how they can help their families prepare. Ready Kids includes a family-friendly Web site (www.ready.gov) and in-school materials developed by Scholastic Inc. There is also a Spanish language version of Ready Kids called Listo Niños (www.listo.gov).
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security consulted with a number of organizations experienced in education and children’s health to develop Ready Kids, including American Psychological Association, American Red Cross, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of School Psychologists, National PTA, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Their expertise helped present emergency preparedness in a way that is understandable and suitable for children.
- The Ready Kids Web site (www.ready.gov) features fun games and puzzles as well as age-appropriate, step-by-step instructions on what families can do to be better prepared for emergencies and the role kids can play in that effort. The Web site has additional resources and information for parents and teachers on emergency preparedness and response.
- In addition to the Web site, Homeland Security worked with Scholastic Inc. to develop in-school materials for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students nationwide. These activity sheets offer lessons that meet national standards for language arts, social studies and geography, while providing teachers and parents with a vehicle to explain important emergency preparedness information to children. The in-school materials have been distributed to 261,000 middle-school teachers across the country. The materials are also available to teachers and parents via www.ready.gov or 1-800-BE-READY.
- In 2008, Ready Kids developed, in partnership with Sesame Workshop, a multimedia toolkit targeted to pre-school aged children and their families that aims to encourage this audience to learn about and prepare for emergencies as a family.
- The Ready Kids materials feature the Ready Kids mascot character, a strong and confident mountain lion named Rex, who encourages children to help their families prepare for emergencies. Rex and his family -- his wife Purrcilla, daughter Rory and best friend, Hector Hummingbird -- explain how families can take a few simple steps to prepare for all types of emergencies. The Ready Kids mascot was developed with The Advertising Council, which has a long and successful 65-year history of developing mascots for other educational programs including Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog.
- As of June 30, 2008, the Ready Kids and Listo Niños Web sites have received more than 54.4 million hits and over 3.6 million unique visitors. More than 1.9 million Ready Kids and Listo Niños materials have been requested through the toll-free number or downloaded from the Web sites.
- Prominent organizations such as the National PTA, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and Boy Scouts of America have supported the Ready Kids program by distributing information and materials to their members. For example, the Girl Scouts used their Intranet Web site to reach the nearly 4 million Girl Scouts in this country. The Boy Scouts reached their more than 4 million members by sending information to their more than 300 local councils and featuring Ready Kids on their Web site and in Scouting magazine. The National PTA included the Ready Kids in-school materials in its back-to-school mailings to 26,000 PTAs across the nation.
- The Department highlights public emergency preparedness through National Preparedness Month, a nationwide effort held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. In 2007, 1,800 national, regional, state and local organizations participated in National Preparedness Month by distributing information, hosting events and sponsoring activities across the country to promote emergency preparedness. National Preparedness Month 2007 consisted of four themed weeks that focused on different areas of emergency preparedness, including: back-to-school (Ready Kids); business preparedness (Ready Business); multicultural preparedness (Listo Campaign); and home and family preparedness, including pets, older Americans and those individuals with disabilities and special needs (Ready America).
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Press Kit Materials
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