Every day, more than 5,000 Australian children are injured in accidents and of those injured, more than 100 require hospital attention. Preventable accidents remain the single largest cause of childhood death and it was these statistics which led to the creation of the KIDS Foundation.
Founded in 1993 by former primary school teacher, Susie O’Neill, and taking its acronym from Kids In Dangerous Situations, the KIDS Foundation is an organisation dedicated to childhood injury prevention and injury recovery.
The KIDS Foundation is a dynamic and not-for-profit, health promotion charity that supports children and their families that have endured trauma, horrific burns and other injuries that have changed their lives.
Active nationally through pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, the KIDS Foundation delivers highly commended interactive education programs and provides resources to 7,500 schools.
At KIDS, we aim to:
- Teach children to recognise dangerous situations
- Educate children on how to manage risk of injury
- Guide children to help them sustain an active and safe balanced lifestyle.
- Support burn survivors and young people with life-changing injuries
- Empower children to spread the KIDS message to others
We have a diverse range of programs which extend from pre-school children to adults. The Burn Survivors’ Network (BSN) works to put survivors in touch with one another, so they can share their stories and appreciate that they are not alone.
Our injury recovery division provides support, quality rehabilitation services and resources for young people and adults recovering from injury and burns. The KIDS Foundation also provides assistance to families and carers.
Our injury prevention programs and services deliver quality school and community-based safety education programs that reduce preventable child injury and death.
Our dedicated staff is made up of qualified educators and business professionals whose goal is to raise injury awareness amongst those who are the most vulnerable, the children.
We continually revise and assess the effectiveness of our programs and our Founder and winner of the Women in Business Awards and Centennial Medal, Susie O’Neill, continues to be hands on in the organisation while actively working towards her PhD in childhood injury prevention