Moving Forward in Region III
From Summer 1996Volume III, Number 2
In February, NHTSA's Region III office convened a Motor Vehicle Injury Control/Prevention Summit to develop collaborative partnerships among the region's traffic safety and medical agencies. Sixty participants, representing the highway safety and medical fields, gathered in Greenbelt, Maryland, to discuss the impact of traffic crashes and to broaden injury prevention efforts in the region. Dr. Ricardo Martinez, NHTSA administrator, delivered the keynote address, discussing the relationship between injury control and Safe Communities.
Tilman Jolly, M.D., an emergency physician at George Washington University Medical Center and co-chair of the summit, noted, "We brought together a lot of people who live and work near one another, but who didn't know the others existed." On the second day of the summit, Dr. Jolly encouraged participants to generate recommendations on combining efforts in the fight against motor vehicle-related injuries. The group developed a number of strategies, including conducting peer-to-peer training among medical professionals, providing technical assistance to states in developing partnerships with medical professionals, promoting and providing technical assistance for Safe Communities, and providing medical testimony in support of traffic safety legislation.
Participants also identified resources they would need to continue their involvement in collaborative activities. According to Dr. Jolly, one of the primary needs identified was a way to keep professionals abreast of traffic safety activities in the region: "A number of community-based projects were presented at the conference and gave participants an opportunity to learn what had worked in these communities. There are all sorts of community-based programs-at schools, at hospitals, at police departments-that we're not always aware of. We need to find some way to keep informed of each other's activities so that we can share resources and expertise." Conference participants also recommended that the regional office work with medical professionals to develop a presentation package that medical professionals can use to teach their peers about injury control activities.
The summit also attracted the interest of the Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Unable to participate because they were attending the Third World Injury Conference in Australia, representatives from Johns Hopkins requested a post-summit meeting to discuss ways they can work with NHTSA and others in the region. Dr. Jolly accompanied Lorraine Novak from the regional NHTSA office and representatives of the Maryland Highway Safety Office to the meeting. The group decided that the Johns Hopkins IPRC will serve as one of four Maryland Safe Communities resource centers and provide outreach and technical assistance to community traffic safety programs in that state.
Dr. Elizabeth Baker, chief of the Maryland Highway Safety Office, was pleased with this outcome. "We had the rest of the state covered geographically," she said, "but needed a Safe Communities center in the Baltimore area. When Johns Hopkins, which has a national reputation for injury research, wanted to get involved in programs, we jumped at the chance."
Under a cooperative agreement with the Region III office, Dr. Jolly will follow up on progress made at the summit by conducting site visits to each state in the region. His extensive experience with coalition building makes him an important resource for organizations attempting to create effective partnerships. He warns that collaborations should begin with realistic goals: "Early in the formation of a state or local coalition, it is important to start with one or two issues that are doable. Don't try to do 20 things at once or divide into 15 committees. Instead, pick a clearly defined goal that can be reached and that will bring the group together."
The combination of a facilitator experienced in collaboration, a major school of public health, and the region's state and federal traffic safety agencies should be a potent force for traffic safety and injury prevention.
More information on Safe Communities can be found in the spring 1996 issue of Building Bridges. Information on the IPRCs can be found in the spring/summer 1994 issue.
|
Building Bridges Home Page |
http://www.edc.org/HHD/csn/buildbridges/bb3.2/movfwd.html
Revised: October 25, 1996
