Some Weyburn businesses recently received requests for donations via email which prompted many to follow up with the Weyburn Police Service regarding its legitimacy. Rest assured, the opportunity to sponsor Health Safety Booklets printed by Community Safety Net is legitimate and part of a collaboration with the Police Service.

The WPS is partnering with Community Safety Net to provide an informational handbook to local youth, meant to provide them with the tools they will need to navigate some of their most formative years. The initiative aims to prepare young teens and pre-teens for the world that lays ahead, covering topics such as online safety, mental health awareness, maintaining a healthy environment, and even topics for parents to read as well. Connie Schultz is the office manager for the Weyburn Police Service and acting liaison for the Community Safety Net project within Weyburn. 

"They're promoting safety and healthy lifestyle things," said Schultz. "Like who to go to with their problems, how to eat properly, hygiene, the kinds of things that 10 to 13 year olds are just starting to learn."

The educational booklet, adding up to about 100 pages of useful information, can be seen as a sort of reference guide for early adulthood. The goal is to steer youth towards productive solutions for common problems and reinforce positive habits that will lead to fulfilling lives as adults. Some of the instructional subjects may seem like common knowledge at first glance, such as building a medicine kit or what to do in case of a fire, but one can never assume that all people have had the same opportunities to learn these lessons. The result is an all-encompassing toolkit which ensures that this valuable knowledge is available to the next generation of our community.

"Hopefully this will give them a little bit more understanding of what things are to come later in their teenage years," said Schultz. "Hopefully we help prepare these children for potential cyber-attacks or bullying, or those kinds of things that come in their teenage years."

The project is in its beginning stages, and sponsors are needed to fund the printing of these booklets for the Weyburn area. If local businesses, organizations, or champions of the community would like to support this initiative by sponsoring the printing of these booklets, they are encouraged to reach out to Connie at (306) 848-3250 or cschultz@weyburnpolice.ca.

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