Southside Neighborhood Association
By Lori Bly
Clark
Summit - Over looking The Southside of Oil
City.
What is a SAFE House?
SAFE House is a way for neighbors to
help out neighbors in need. After an application and training process,
a SAFE House applicant will be a certified SAFE House and will be given
the official SAFE House sign to place in their window. A person in
crisis can come to your house for assistance in one of two ways: With
the police assistance or on their own.
Your responsibility is to be a conduit between the person in crisis and
the police. Your contact with the person in crisis will be limited to
the amount of time that it takes for the police to be dispatched and
respond to the call (usually less than then five minutes). SAFE House
is to be enacted ONLY in emergency situations. When there are other non
emergency issues that you need to contact the police, you should be
contacting the police department citizen not as a SAFE House. Any
misuse of the SAFE House program will be taken very seriously and may
result in your termination as SAFE House participant.
Safety for the person in crisis and for the SAFE House is our main
concern. The SAFE House program is voluntary. If there is ever a time
that you feel the situation is particularly volatile or dangerous, you
have the choice to allow the person in crisis into your home, if you
feel that it will not be a safe situation for you or our family, you
can ask the person in crisis to stay on the porch and let them know
that police are on the way.
If you have children, you may want to educate and have safety plan with
your children. Let them know what the SAFE house program is and how it
works and make plans for when there is a SAFE House situation at your
home. This can be as simple as letting you children know that you are
helping people in trouble and having a safe place for children to go
during the crisis. Not unlike the disaster planning, you may also want
to have activities in the designated safe place for your children.
If you are one of the two trained SAFE House participants, you may also
want to use a team approach for a SAFE House call and have one person
with the individual in crisis and one on the phone with police.
Is there training?
Yes, in order to become a certified SAFE House, you must complete a training
facilitated by the Southside Neighborhood Association and the Oil City
Police Department.
Are there any special materials that I will need?
Once you have completed training you will be given a SAFE House
handbook, Police Dispatcher reporting sheets, and a phone tree. During
training we will discuss other materials that you will need in order to
better facilitate a SAFE House call including first aid kit, home and family safety plan and a phone.
What type of information will I need to tell the police dispatcher?
THERE ARE 12 SAFE HOUSES ACTIVE RIGHT NOW.
WILL YOU VOLUNTEER TODAY TO BE A SAFE HOUSE?
YOU ARE HELPING TO MAKE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO LOOKING OUT FOR EACH OTHER.
OUR GOAL IS TO HAVE 300 ACTIVE SAFE HOUSES IN OIL CITY.
* SAFE House Number
* Description Of incident
* Who
* What
* When
* Where
* How
* Any Other Information ( Vehicle description, clothing description, direction of travel, etc.)
Why should I become a SAFE House participant?
You are the Eyes and Ears in your neighborhood.
Nobody else is in a better position to observe conditions.
You Can make a difference in your neighborhood!
How do I become a SAFE House Participant?
To receive a SAFE House application.
Contact Leah Gesing at the:
Southside Neighborhood Association
You can click on the link below and print it out.
It is in PDF format. If you don't have Adobe Reader
you can download it here.
Adobe Reader
Safe House Application
MAIL TO:
Southside Neighborhood Association
PO Box 805, Oil City PA 16301
Email: Southside Neighborhood Association
A STRANGER IN
NEED!
Where is help when you need it?
I
see it a Big Green House on a window there
Is a
SAFE House!
I
go to the door and they give me the help
I needed by calling 911. In a matter of seconds
I had all the help I needed.
Thank God
for those folks, who open up their home to a stranger
in need!
It's not just for those who get beat
up: it
is for Everyone who is
need of a SAFE
House!
SAFE House
is for the
* lost child that can't find
their way
home.
* senior citizen who can't
remember
where to go.
*
mother who ran out of her home
to avoid to being beaten
from her husband,
or
* the teenage girl who is
being
stalked and needs a place to hide
until help gets to her.
There are so many who
don't carry a cell
phone that in danger that can easily find
a SAFE House to go for
help!
Why can't you? The more SAFE Houses
there
are in this community, the more people can get
the help
they need fast!
For someday you
could be:
A STRANGER IN NEED!