La Salle police launch comfort bags for children in Handle with Care initiative

Not all interactions with police are easy for children, so Chestnut Health Systems is helping La Salle police introduce the Handle with Care initiative, providing comfort bags to ease young ones’ emotions during stressful encounters.

The Handle with Care initiative helps bridge the gap between law enforcement and schools to assist children and adolescents affected by trauma.

Last month, the La Salle Police Department received 25 comfort bags from Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington after Chestnut received grant funding to assist in introducing the initiative to law enforcement and schools in La Salle County.

La Salle school resource officer Nick Martin said the comfort bags will have a positive impact on police interaction.

“We’ve had children come into the station before,” he said. “They’re sitting there bored or upset, or whatever emotional state they’re going through, and the only thing we’ve had to give them is like a piece of paper and a pen. … This is more for them to do, hopefully keep their mind at ease.”

Comfort bags are filled with nontoxic markers, a coloring book, a fidget toy and a teddy bear or blanket.

Martin said he hopes the bags will help children and adolescents feel more at ease when they are at the station.

“Children see a police officer, and they know someone’s being arrested,” he said. “A lot of people see the negative, but there are a lot of positives that come out of these situations, like building our rapport.”

The initiative doesn’t stop at the station. According to the Handle with Care website, if a law enforcement officer encounters a child during a call, that child’s information is forwarded to the school before the school bell rings the next day. The school implements individual, class and whole school trauma-sensitive curricula so that traumatized children are “handled with care.”

If a child needs more intervention, on-site, trauma-focused mental health care is available at the school, according to the website.

“We’re meeting these children,” Martin said about the bags. “They see us in a positive light instead of a negative one.”

For more information on the Handle with Care initiative, visit safe2helpil.com/handle-with-care.