Safety First Policy
Introduction
Our safety first policy offeres a balanced approach between risk and hazards where children's health and wellbeing are served by addressing both injury prevention and their developmental needs.
Our Committment
We are committed to children and youth having fun, safe adventures and experiences in the context of nature and animal assisted therapy and social emotional learning outdoors. This includes facilitating opportunities for taking risks and engaging in 'risky play,' facing fears, recognizing and testing limits, and tackling new challenges.
Purpose
Nature and animal assisted therapy and outdoor social emotional learning experiences always carry some element of risk to people, animals, and the environment, including local ecosystems. This policy outlines how we plan to protect children from harm while while ensuring their access to the benefits and opportunities of taking reasonable risks and risky play.
Hazard or Risk?
A risk arises in situations where a child can recognize and evaluate the challenge and decide on a course of action based on self perceived skill and preference (e.g. how high to climb). A hazard is posed by a situation where the potential for injury is beyond the child's capacity to recognize it or manage it (e.g. a fallen tree branch) (Beaulieu, 2024)
Safety First Policy
1. We empower our team and children and youth to be leaders in safety, for themselves, others, and the environment including protecting both the animals in our care and local ecosystems. We do this by nurturing their self awareness and a sense of interconnectedness.
2. Identifying and managing risk is an essential aspect of our activities. We ensure our team puts safety first by providing safe physical spaces and emotionally supportive environments that also invite and optimize opportunities for reasonable risk taking and spontaneous risky play.
3. In all of our activities we support learning through experience and build the capacity of children and youth to consider the impact of their actions and activities on themselves, others, and the environment. We believe that learning to identify and manage risks in dynamic, changing environments is an essential life skill.
4. We use a 360 Sensemaking process and the animal safety guideline as tools to facilitate self awareness and continuously identify and manage risks in natural environments.
What is risky play?
Risky play is defined as thrilling and exciting forms of free play that involve uncertainty of outcomes and a possibility of injury . Risky play encourages creative and spontaneous play and learning by first eliminating hazards and then supporting risk taking that is chosen and controlled by the child and is appropriate to their experience and ability (Beaulieu, 2024)
Reference: Pediatrics and Child Health, 2024, 29, 255-261. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxae016
Dynamic Risk Assessment
ConnectByNature Copyright 2024
5. We believe most incidents are preventable; therefore, we learn from incidents, so we can prevent them from happening again.
6. We care about each other, animals and the earth and we discuss safety in terms of the impact of our activities on people, animals, and local ecosystems.
7. We provide resources and supports to help plan safe, fun adventures and activities in the context of nature and animal assisted therapy and social emotional learning experiences outdoors.
Related Standards
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First Aid Standards
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Safety Equipment Standards
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Outdoor and camping tool standards
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Animal Activity Standards
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Water Safety Standards
© ConnectByNature Therapy Services 2024
A division of BIOPHILIC HEALTH Inc.
