Cerritos, Artesia Supervisor Plans Awareness Campaign for 'Safe Surrender' Program

Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents both Cerritos and Artesia, announced Thursday an expansion of outreach efforts to spread word of the Safe Surrender program that allows parents to turn over unwanted newborns with no questions asked.

"The new Baby Safe Surrender campaign will expand the program’s outreach to communities across Los Angeles County by launching in multiple languages, collaborating with community-based organizations and relying on a mix of traditional and grassroots awareness efforts," an announcement from Knabe's office stated.

Knabe, who has championed the program since its inception, said that while 109 infants have been turned over through the program, the recent abandonment of a baby in South El Monte showed there is still more work to do.

"So the whole message of this is there's a better choice to safely surrender your baby," Knabe told KNX Newsradio in advance of a Thursday afternoon news conference. "We're going to put it out in multiple languages. We still have our hotline 24/7, bumper stickers, billboards, brochures, laundromat posters, Metro buses, trains, as well as an updated website."

At his afternoon event, Knabe will help celebrate the fourth birthday of Nicholas, who was safely surrendered as a baby.

The Safe Surrender program was established in 2001. It allows a parent or legal guardian to surrender an infant up to three days old to any hospital emergency room or fire station in the county.

– City News Service contributed to this report.