Ottawa police join LINKED-Autism Safety Project

The Ottawa Police Department is joining the LINKED-Autism Safety Project.

Ottawa joins Peru, La Salle‚ Mendota, Oglesby and Spring Valley in partnering with the Linked- Autism Safety Project.

LINKED was created by an Autism mom, Ashley McClain, to build a relationship between emergency responders and the members of the Autism and special needs community. This project was created as a collaborative effort with a network of public safety professionals, autism professionals and autism parents.

This program is a voluntary registration for the Ottawa’s official Safety Alert System. Caregivers of the Ottawa’s autism and special needs community can access the registration form from the police departments’ website at https://cityofottawa.org/police-department/ or by stopping into the Ottawa Police Department, 301 W. Lafayette St., to fill out a hardcopy of the registration form. This information will provide first responders with important individualized information about the person with autism and within the special needs community. This will allow the responder to create a pre-arrival plan to best assist those within the community. All registrations are secure and confidential and will only be used for the response of the first responders.

Each family that registers for the LINKED program will receive a Family Emergency Planning Folder with individualized instructions and a guide that includes tips and tools to navigate this program and an emergency situation. Additionally, the Family Emergency Planning Folders provide an emergency preparedness social story, created by professionals, which is a personalized learning tool containing text and illustration that supports the safe and meaningful exchange of information between parents, professionals and people within the special needs community of all ages.

First responders will be equipped with a sensory pack in every emergency vehicle which contains a variety of sensory products that were recommended by professionals in the field. To accompany the sensory packs, LINKED – Autism Safety Project is providing an Emergency Picture Exchange Communication System, which is a picture communication tool for non-verbal residents developed by professionals to assist in the dialogue between the child and emergency responders.

This program is free and open to all residents. Reach out to Det. Osvaldo Landeros if you have questions.