Cooke Center thanks Bic Corporation for sponsoring Play Safe, Be safe!

The Cooke Center for Learning and Development envisions a world in which people with special needs are included as valued members of their communities, leading independent and purposeful lives. We work to make this vision a reality through our robust and comprehensive adaptive skills curriculum, which places a heavy emphasis on safety in the home, workplace, and community.
Thanks to a generous donation from the Bic Corporation, we were able to further expand and enhance this curriculum on Friday, May 5th. Dr. Robert Cole and Dr. Holly Brown provided a customized fire-safety workshop, Play Safe Be Safe!, to our staff at CCGS.

Dr. Brown is a Doctor of Nursing Practice and works as a mental health nurse practitioner with children dually diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Cole currently serves as President of Community Health Strategies and one of the nation’s leading experts in fire safety education. They worked extensively with Cooke staff to tailor their workshop to our specific needs, surveying families about safety precautions in their homes and each child’s previous experiences with fire. They also surveyed CCGS staff about their previous work on fire safety and our own exit procedures in the school setting.

During the workshop, Dr. Cole and Dr. Brown provided a comprehensive overview of “fire” from a developmental perspective, best practices for teaching fire safety, and adaptations for children with developmental disabilities. They also provided each participant with play safe! be safe! kits, which included an outline of the curriculum, visual cues, interactive games, etc.
Our staff members look forward to utilizing these materials in the classroom setting, and sharing these strategies with our families. We are grateful to the Bic Corporation for generously underwriting this workshop, and to our presenters for sharing this unique program with our staff!