The department is taking part in a telemarketing fund-raiser that will begin today for the RadKIDS Safety Program. The monies raised will be used to train West Warwick Police Officers in the RadKIDS program and purchase the necessary equipment for officers to host seminars for West Warwick children in the RadKIDS Personal Empowerment Safety Education Program, according to West Warwick Police Sgt. Joseph Gemma.

RadKIDS is a national leader in children's safety education and a nonprofit educational organization. The program emphasizes essential decision-making skills as well as physical resistance options to escape violence, according to Gemma.

The program will be available for children from ages 5 to 11.

"It is a unique, hands-on educational program that empowers and provides realistic options and choices for children to recognize, avoid, resist and if necessary escape violence, abduction and harm," said Gemma.

Gemma provided statistics that emphasize the need and importance of the program including: over a 1/2 million suffer from abduction or attempted abduction each year in the United States; 165,000 children miss school each day due to bullying and fears of violence; and 1/3 of all sexual assaults reported to law enforcement today involve children under the age of 12.

If you receive a call from a telemarketer for this program and have any questions about their legitimacy, the telemarketer will give you a phone number to call, according to Gemma. The number will put you in contact with retired Providence Police Department Lt. John Reis. He is the president of Friends of RadKIDS and is coordinating the fund raiser. People can also call Gemma at 822-9299.