Renowned Child Protection Advocates Ed Smart and Erin Runnion Invite Parents to Child Protection Forum

WHAT: Ed Smart, father of abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart and a nationally-recognized child protection advocate, along with Erin Runnion, surviving parent of abducted and murdered child Samantha Runnion, will conduct a free open forum for parents Wednesday, April 1 at the Gwinnett Convention Center.

Sponsored by Keep Georgia Safe, a non-profit organization that provides safety and crime prevention training and operates the only wireless network that sends all three Georgia emergency alerts for missing or dangerous persons, Smart and Runnion will be in Atlanta debuting It Takes a Community, a revolutionary children’s safety partnership comprised of national leading children’s safety initiatives unified to protect our children and families, to the east coast for the first time. Steve Daley, founder and executive director of radKIDS©, Inc., and a leading national children’s safety expert, will lead in the instruction. The April 1 open forum is for anyone interested in learning more about safety education and violence prevention for children from three of the nation’s leading experts, free of charge.

The cornerstones of the It Takes a Community initiative include the radKIDS© Personal
Empowerment Safety Education Program, The PRIDE Neighborhood Child Protection Program and The National Child ID Kit. radKIDS©, a revolutionary hands-on educational program that provides techniques and skills for children on how to recognize, avoid, resist and escape dangerous situations, abduction and harm, is recognized as the national leader in safety education and violence prevention for children.

Ed Smart, father of abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart, is the national spokesperson for radKIDS©. Ed has been instrumental in bringing world-wide attention to the power of this hands-on educational model for children on national news and television programs such as the Oprah Winfrey Show. Erin Runnion, surviving parent of abducted and murdered child Samantha Runnion, is founder and director of The Joyful Child Foundation that trains instructors in its PRIDE program – a neighborhood child protection course for communities.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 1
7 P.M.

WHERE: Gwinnett Convention Center
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097

WHO: Meet Ed Smart, Erin Runnion, Steve Daley, Keep Georgia Safe founder and chairman Gary Martin Hays and executive director Mary Ellen Fulkus.

WHY: Nearly 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and in 40 percent of stereotypical kidnapping cases, the child was killed. More than 800,000 children are determined to be victims of child abuse and neglect. That is one child every 35 seconds.

Keep Georgia Safe has a two-pronged approach to crime prevention: 1) Proactive: Safety education and, 2) Reactive: Alert System Network. As the only organization that sends out all three of Georgia's emergency alerts, the Keep Georgia Safe Wireless Network uses a text platform to notify opt-in wireless subscribers at no charge when the GBI issues any of its three emergency alerts: Levi’s Call: Georgia’s AMBER Alert for an abducted or missing child, Mattie’s Call: elderly or disabled missing person alert and Kimberly’s Call: dangerous fugitive alert.

How: For more information, go to www.keepgeorgiasafe.org or call 770-934-8000.
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