An improved community program to provide emergency assistance to area children will add organization to the several other programs also present in DeKalb.

The statewide Community Block Home Project, a result of 1986 Child Safety Hearings findings, was initiated in 1987 by legislation sponsored by Sen. William Mahar. The project was boosted by a press conference Oct. 16 to alert the media of its attempt to improve organization within the community.

The hearings revealed “an increasing number of child injuries and abductions around elementary schools,” said program developer Shirley Harris of the Illinois State Board of Education. The board will administer the project, while McDonald’s Restaurants support it.

“The legislation directed the State Board of Education to develop a model program and a universal sign to involve local law enforcers to assist in the screening of those who volunteer,” Harris said.

The Block Home Project aids elementary school children at times when they are going to or coming from school in case of any emergency situations—such as a child who was “hurt in an accident, lost, or approached by a drug dealer,” Harris said.

The sign, a red and yellow house with a picture window containing an adult’s hand clasping a child’s hand, reads “Block Home” in black letters and has the McDonald’s symbol. The sign is placed in the window of volunteers to alert children of a safe resort.

Adults who are home “when children are most apt to be on the street” can volunteer to participate in the program, Harris said. The volunteer will receive program rules, order forms for the signs, and a manual after organizing a group and obtaining a sponsor. The volunteers will be screened by local law enforcers, she said.

“The last two years the program was not organized,” said Southeast Elementary School Principal Cheryl Nelson. “It is an excellent program since people are screened.”

The Sycamore School, with approximately 420 students, held a presentation about the Block Home Project at its open house in an attempt “to get parents encouraged. Parents are trying to get more people actively involved,” Nelson said.

“Every community needs one,” Harris said. “Kids need adults watching out for them.”

A few similiar programs have been in existence throughout DeKalb for years. “There are lots of signs with little coordination,” said Harris, who said she hopes the Block Home Project can work hand-in-hand with the others.

Detective Jim Rhodes, of the Youth and Service Division of the DeKalb County Police Department, said the Helping Hand program “has been in effect through most of the community.”

Sycamore Chief of Police Dale Vesta said another program has been successful for at least ten years. The sign, a black and red home with stick figures of kids, lets “kids know there’s a place for them to go,” he said.

“You hope in a small community things won’t happen,” Nelson said.

arris recalled when a DeKalb area three-year-old girl was abducted and later found dead. “Crime can happen in any little town,” she said.

For further information about the project, call Harris at 217-782-9374.