Lesson plan

Block Parent Program

The Block Parent Program (French: Le Programme Parents-Secours) is a large, volunteer-based, child safety and crime prevention program operating across Canada. Participants in the program (Block Parents) place signs on their homes indicating that the house is a police-screened, safe home for community members in distress, particularly children. If someone is in need of help and sees a block parent sign, they know there is someone home who can help them and call the appropriate emergency service if necessary. The program, which included 300,000 participants in its heyday, is in decline. RCMP detachments in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island have abandoned the program, as have local police in major centres including Toronto and Ottawa. Participation declined from 253,000 homes in 1995 to approximately 25,000 in 2013. Factors in the decline include fewer parents at home (as more join the outside workforce), a greater reliance on mobile telephones or other communication technologies as an alternative to seeking assistance from neighbours, and more onerous police background checks in the post-9/11 era.

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Article summary

The Block Parent Program (French: Le Programme Parents-Secours) is a large, volunteer-based, child safety and crime prevention program operating across Canada. Participants in the program (Block Parents) place signs on their homes indicating that the house is a police-screened, safe home for community members in distress, particularly children. If someone is in need of help and sees a block parent sign, they know there is someone home who can help them and call the appropriate emergency service if necessary. The program, which included 300,000 participants in its heyday, is in decline. RCMP detachments in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island have abandoned the program, as have local police in major centres including Toronto and Ottawa. Participation declined from 253,000 homes in 1995 to approximately 25,000 in 2013. Factors in the decline include fewer parents at home (as more join the outside workforce), a greater reliance on mobile telephones or other communication technologies as an alternative to seeking assistance from neighbours, and more onerous police background checks in the post-9/11 era.

Key claims

  1. date of formation: 1986 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of formation is "1986". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370949897

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.