DALLAS – Five cities across the country have been chosen to receive 1,000 Hands-Only CPR training kits each to help turn more of their residents into lifesavers. Austin, Texas; Buffalo, N.Y.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Savannah, Ga.; and Virginia Beach, Va., were the grant winners announced today by the American Heart Association and Cities of Service, a bi-partisan coalition of more than 150 mayors who have committed to using service to address pressing local needs.
The training kit grants will support the implementation of the Cities of Service Volunteer CPR Blueprint, a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor’s office partners with local medical professionals and emergency responders to train volunteers to use the lifesaving Hands-Only CPR technique. The Blueprint calls for the volunteers who are trained by professionals to teach CPR to at least five other residents, vastly improving a community’s ability to respond to sudden cardiac emergencies. Each grant is valued at $20,000.
“The more people who are trained in CPR, the more lifesavers we have in communities who can act as first responders when citizens go into cardiac arrest,” said American Heart Association president Donna Arnett, Ph.D. “Getting people at a grassroots level to not only learn Hands-Only CPR, but to share it with others, is one way the American Heart Association is working to ensure all Americans know the simple steps to save a life with Hands-Only CPR.”
The Hands-Only CPR Training Kit grant program is part of the American Heart Association’s national Hands-Only CPR campaign, which is supported by a three-year, $4.5 million grant from the WellPoint Foundation. The campaign uses public service announcements, social media and a multi-state mobile training tour to teach the Hands-Only CPR method as part of an aim to double the rate of survival from cardiac arrest by 2020.
Nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States, and 89 percent of Americans die because they don’t receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. Hands-Only CPR is a quick, easy way to save more lives. If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, (1) Call 9-1-1; and (2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Doing these compressions at the proper beat can more than double a person’s chances of survival; coincidentally, the proper beat matches the classic Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive.”
“The Volunteer CPR Blueprint is a tested service strategy that has helped mayors train more than 150,000 Americans in Hands-Only CPR,” said Katie Leonberger of the Cities of Service coalition. “We’re thrilled to partner with the American Heart Association to spread this life-saving technique to more cities and thousands more Americans nationwide.”
Details on the grant recipients:
Austin, Texas: The City of Austin’s goal is to train at least 500,000 people (roughly half of its resident population) in the next 10 years; these kits will help in meeting that goal. So far, more than 10,000 people have been trained in Hands-Only CPR, ultimately improving the city’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate from less than 7 percent to more than 13 percent, and improving the bystander CPR rate to 44 percent.
Buffalo, New York: The City of Buffalo aims to use the kits to train 6,000 city residents in CPR training sessions led by local emergency responders, health agencies, and volunteers. Buffalo will implement the Hands-Only CPR technique in schools to better equip teachers, professionals, and families for emergency preparedness.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The City of Milwaukee’s goal, through a partnership between the Mayor’s Office and the Fire Department, is to train the city’s 70,000-plus college students, employees of large companies, and targeted high-risk communities.
Savannah, Georgia: The City of Savannah’s goal is to conduct an intensive Volunteer CPR initiative throughout 2013 with the help of a broad coalition of community service providers. The program will be coordinated through a partnership between the City and Saving Lives In Chatham County, Inc. (SLICC), a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to training citizens to recognize and treat cardiac arrests and strokes.
Virginia Beach, Virginia: The City of Virginia Beach’s goal is to work with their Emergency Medical Service to train a total of 5,000 residents in Hands-Only CPR – which will be accomplished by training 1,000 local residents using CPR Anytime Kits and encouraging them to train at least four additional friends and relatives.
SOURCE: American Heart Association