Fairfield West Elementary to Launch SafePlace

BY EMILY STEWART
OCT. 9, 2007


Fairfield West Elementary School will soon launch a trial run of the Fairfield SafePlace Program as it continues background checks on volunteers this week.

The Fairfield SafePlace Program, sponsored by the Fairfield Community Connection, recruits volunteers to help parents who can’t be home when their children get home from school. They walk along popular bus and walking routes in the neighborhood to make sure children have a place to go after school. If their parents aren’t home, volunteers can offer a home close by for help.

Parent Heather Smith helped start the program two years ago after her son was left without care when Fairfield West had an unplanned two-hour early dismissal. When her (then) 6-year-old son got home, he was unable to get inside their apartment building since she was still at work. It just so happened other neighbors weren’t home either, and the boy sat outside the building by himself for almost two hours.

“It just wasn’t a really good thing that happened to him, not to mention traumatic,” Smith said. “I figured if it happens to me, it has to happen to other parents.”

At the time, Smith was conducting research on community programs and found that communities across the nation were using safe place programs. Her findings, along with her son’s incident, prompted efforts toward the Fairfield SafePlace Program.

“Initially I wanted to show that a ‘nobody’ like me in the community could make a difference,” she said. “First I went to the Fairfield Police Department for help, and they forwarded me on to the United Way. United Way then forwarded me on to the Fairfield Community Connection, and it finally snowballed to the right group.”

The Fairfield Community Connection is a group that examines community needs and connects with other social agency groups and/or citizens to help solve problems. Over the years, Fairfield Community Connection has started the Fairfield Community Foundation, a food pantry for the elderly and a program providing ambulatory equipment to senior citizens. Now it’s lending a hand to the Fairfield SafePlace Program.

“We’re really a community think tank,” Fairfield Community Connection Chairman Howard Dirksen said. “Heather came to our meeting about a year and a half ago and voiced her concerns about her inability to be home when her son got off the bus. So we decided to offer community support in doing the work to gather volunteers throughout the city to help her and other parents with the same problem.”

Dirksen, a former teacher and Fairfield City Councilmember, believes students who have a place to go after school might be protected from the dangers of bullies, drugs and alcohol.

“We’re trying to help parents and students deal with toxic culture through parenting programs like SafePlace,” he said. “Our main goal is to see that nothing happens to these children. In doing so, we are trying to provide people who can look after them and make sure they have somewhere to go when their parents can’t be around.”

Volunteers for the program have to attend an orientation session and subsequent training so they know where to get further assistance when needed. All volunteers also face a free background check through the Fairfield Police Department.

“We need evidence that volunteers will be beneficial to our program, especially since we’re dealing with children,” Dirksen said.

The process is thorough and, therefore, time-consuming, Smith said.

“Background checks are taking a while and aren’t done yet,” Smith said. “A volunteer applicant could be flagged if police have been to that person’s house a number of times and never even arrested anyone. We’re being careful.”

According to the city’s Web site (www.fairfield-city.org), more than 1,400 crimes have been reported so far in 2007 in Fairfield, most of them thefts. Although the crime rate has gone down from 2006, the city is seeing a slight increase in sexual offenses with 16 reported rapes through this August versus 12 during this same period in 2006.

The National Alert Registry’s Web site (www.registeredoffenderlist.org) lists 43 registered sex offenders in Fairfield city limits. Seven offenders live less than a mile from Fairfield West Elementary School. That’s why people like West Elementary Third Grade Teacher Angie Persiani, who is also a mother of three boys attending elementary school, are stressing the importance of thorough background checks for volunteers in the SafePlace Program.

“We’ve heard a little about the program at school, and it sounds great, but my concern is leaving my kids with strangers,” Persiani said. “As a parent, you tend to worry about pedophiles and criminals coming after your children, so it makes me feel better that they’re doing background checks. Otherwise, how do parents know the people they’re trusting their kids with when they’re not around?”

This is Persiani’s first year back teaching since she had her children, and she has always been around when her boys get home from school. Now that she’s gone back to work, she has to rely on someone else to watch them until she or her husband can get home.

“I’m lucky because my parents can usually pick the boys up or they can go to a neighbor’s house if we’re really in a bind,” she said. “There are always going to be kids who can’t get in their houses after school though. That’s why the SafePlace Program sounds so great, especially if they find the right volunteers to help keep an eye on the kids.”

The SafePlace Program has been advertised primarily through parent-teacher newsletters and has so far recruited 25 volunteers for its trial run. Dirksen believes more volunteers are needed though to make the program work more effectively.

“Most of our volunteers now are parents and grandparents who aren’t working during the day,” he said. “We’re not expecting every single volunteer to be available every single day, so hopefully others will join in soon.”

If the SafePlace Program proves successful, Dirksen hopes it can expand to the four other elementary schools in the Fairfield City School District.

“If it proves viable and effective, we would like to extend it into the other elementary schools,” he said.

If interested in volunteering for the Fairfield SafePlace Program, contact the Fairfield Community Connection at 874-5526 or visit www.fairfield-city.org.