Niagara Safety Village Expansion

The Niagara Safety Village is a non-profit educational facility located on the Niagara College Campus in Welland, Ontario. They give residents in Niagara, mainly school children, a safe place to learn about practical safety procedures ina miniature city. Working alongside the NRP, Regional Fire Services and Niagara Emergency Medical Services, the Safety Village has provided valuable education to the youth of our community since 2003 (Niagara Region Children’s Safety Village until 2012). The services have expanded to include seniors, community and youth groups, assisted living facilities and home schooling cooperatives.
Unfortunately, $25,000 in damages devastated the facility in 2016 and the Kiwanis club of Welland stepped up to help give back to an integral educational organization in the community. Now the Kiwanis clubs of Niagara have joined together to contribute even more to this worthy cause by donating a building to the village.

“The Kiwanis recognized that supporting our schools was a good sponsorship…so the Niagara clubs had a meeting and agreed that they would like to provide the funds to put a new building into the Safety Village. – Shirley Cordiner, Executive Director – Safety Village It will allow high-school students to get involved in community projects and learn about aspects of building design, from planning to the actual build itself. So not only will students get education for their trades and personal development, but after the new Kiwanis contributed building is complete, young children will continue to benefit from the facility.

Students have been tasked with budgeting and designing the building, and Dino Nardangeli (Construction Teacher at NCDSB) says “It’s a great opportunity for our students to get involved in community projects.” The plan is to build two buildings, a hospital and library, that will be easily recognizable for children and the facility believes that having these building will be beneficial for children to learn about and visit in the safety village. It’s also beneficial for students to get a chance for real experience rather than bringing
another entity in. Also, they get the opportunity to give back to the Safety Village as many of them have used the facilities in the past. Students are happy to be able to build something and contribute to a valuable community organization that they have used throughout their young life and hope that it can continue to be of help to other members of their community for years
to come.

Each of the three Kiwanis clubs have divided the costs equally and they are excited to see students get an early chance to work on construction skills and trades. Supporting this initiative allows the St. Catharines Kiwanis club to continue to meet their objective of positively affecting the lives of young people and their families in the community.