The RoSPA Safety Connections e-Newsletter reports:

Volunteers at The Risk Factory were honoured with an award in the Teams section of the Inspiring Volunteering awards in Edinburgh. Their award was in recognition of the work they do in facilitating the visits of over 7,000 children to the interactive community safety centre.

The volunteers are of all ages and come from varying backgrounds with very different experiences. In the last two and a half years this assorted group has become a real team playing to each others strengths and helping one another out. Whilst some do come from a health and safety background others have said how much they have learned while training. The volunteers take small groups of children on a two hour tour explaining what to do if they find themselves or others in dangerous situations. Volunteers conduct as many tours as they want with some coming in twice a week and others twice a month.

Regardless of how often they come in the volunteers are vital to the success of the centre; without them we would not be able to pass vital safety messages on to such a large number of children.

The Risk Factory was opened in January 2007, funded by the City of Edinburgh, East, West and Midlothian Councils, to provide safety messages on a range of topics. Built inside a large warehouse is a street scene with houses, a beach, railway track and internet café to name but a few of the 11 different scenario areas, all used to teach specific messages.