Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe is pleased to announce the County’s Safe Surrender Program celebrated success for the sixth time this year with the report of a safely surrendered newborn baby boy. This most recent safe surrender occurred on September 17, 2013 at a hospital in Van Nuys.
As is standard practice, the newborn is in protective custody and will be placed with families approved for adoption by the Department of Children and Family Services.
This latest Safe Surrender comes as Los Angeles County prepares to launch a new public awareness campaign for the Safe Surrender program next week.
“Our new campaign will expand the program’s outreach to the communities of Los Angeles County by launching in multiple languages, collaborating with community-based organizations and relying on a mix of traditional and grassroots awareness efforts,” said Supervisor Knabe. “Recent events such as the discovery of abandoned baby in South El Monte and the subsequent Safe Surrenders of two newborns are a reminder to us that we have much more work to do to spread the word about the program. The Safe Surrender program was created to give a mother, no matter the situation, a safe, secure and anonymous way to get her child into safe hands—No shame, No blame, No names.”
This is the sixth Safe Surrender in Los Angeles County in 2013, and the 109th since the program began over twelve years ago. The program was initiated by Supervisor Knabe and approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in 2001. It allows someone to surrender an infant that is no more than three days old, as long as the infant shows no signs of abuse.
To learn more about the Safe Surrender Program, visit http://youtu.be/_EGoPXD23G0.