Volume 1, Number 4 - April/May 1998

Injury prevention programs in state health departments are another valuable resource for Safe Communities coalitions. Every state has a designated Injury Prevention Director and many have full-time staff who address traffic safety issues. The New York State Department of Health uses a state traffic safety grant to support a four-person traffic safety program, which includes projects targeting such issues as child occupant restraints, bicycle safety, and drowsy driving; sends monthly mailings to more than 1,500 traffic safety and public health professionals; and presents six annual regional trainings.

These trainings began four years ago as an attempt to encourage county traffic safety and public health professionals to work together. Sixty percent of the counties had a traffic safety and public health representative at the first training, which focused on using local data. The audience for subsequent trainings has expanded to include representatives from trauma registries, hospitals, insurance companies, youth development agencies, and the local cooperative extension program, among others. The theme of the second training was the Safe Communities model. The third training focused on social marketing, including the use of focus groups and how to avoid stereotyping certain populations, such as the elderly and adolescents. The fourth training focused on evaluation.

Susan Hardman, director of the New York State Health Department's Bureau of Injury Prevention, points out that "As the state health agency, it is our role to provide these resources to local constituencies, including Safe Communities Coalitions. This gives us the opportunity to meet directly with people and to forge lasting connections that benefit traffic safety programs at every level."

To locate the Injury Prevention Director in your state, contact Claudia Vousden, State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors' Association (STIPDA), 1256 Cobb Parkway, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30066. Telephone: (770) 792-8700; fax: (770) 792-8707; e-mail: vous100w@cdc.gov; WWW: www.stipda.org/. A list of injury prevention staff in state health departments can also be obtained from the Children's Safety Network National Injury and Violence Prevention Resource Center, Education Development Center, Inc., 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02158-1060. Telephone: (617) 618-2207; fax: (617) 527-4096; e-mail: csn@edc.org; WWW: www.edc.org/HHD/csn/.

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