Local Notes

Volume 5, Number 2 - Spring 2002

Citizen Involvement in Onondaga County

Citizen involvement is one of the more challenging elements of the Safe Communities model. The Onondaga County [New York] Traffic Safety Program engages citizens through a fairly unique strategy that could serve as an example for efforts in other communities.

When a local hospital closed in the mid-1960s, the hospital's volunteer Auxiliary turned its enthusiasm to the Onondaga County Health Department. This began a long relationship, throughout which the Auxiliary has provided the health department with volunteers and funds raised through such events as raffles and "silver teas"-traditional tea combined with tours of local homes and bed and breakfasts. The funds raised by the Auxiliary allow health department programs to purchase items or provide services that are otherwise unaffordable. At any given time, between 75 and 100 Onondaga County residents are active Auxiliary members.

In 1982, when New York State's mandatory car seat law went into effect, the Auxiliary founded the Onondaga County Car Seat Program. This program is staffed by a full-time coordinator with help from Auxiliary volunteers. The Car Seat Program rents child safety seats to county residents with low incomes. Rental fees range from $6 to $20 a year, depending on the renter's income and the type of seat. The program also offers rentals for up to 30 days for $10 to anyone who needs a child safety seat on a short-term basis. The program does outreach to and gets referrals from Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Department of Social Services, health care clinics, hospitals, and pediatricians. The Car Seat Program also sponsors fitting stations and child safety seat inspection clinics. Operating costs are paid for by grants, and rental fees filter back into the program. During Child Passenger Safety Week in February 2002, the Car Seat Program inaugurated two new programs: a low-income car seat sales program and a campaign to encourage booster seat use.

The Onondaga County Traffic Safety Program also operates a program to teach children about seat belt use, works with the county's Stop-DWI program, coordinates educational efforts with other health department units, distributes low-cost bicycle helmets, and conducts pedestrian safety programs for preschool- and elementary school-age children.

For more information about the Onondaga County Traffic Safety Program or the Health Department Auxiliary, contact Debbie Kogut at (315) 435-3280. For more information about the Car Seat Program, contact Cheryl Herzog at (315) 435-8485.

Maryland Safe Communities

Maryland Safe Communities operates on a unique model in which four regional Safe Communities Centers (SCCs) established by the Maryland Highway Safety Office provide resources and technical assistance to community-based traffic safety programs within their catchment areas. All of the SCCs are located on college campuses. The services the SCCs provide to local programs include assistance with compiling and interpreting motor vehicle-related injury data, and developing traffic safety products for regional and statewide use.

One of the ways that the SCCs foster the work of local programs is by convening and facilitating regional meetings, which often include representatives from organizations that are not traditional partners for traffic safety efforts. These meetings bring together Safe Communities and other community-based traffic safety programs around specific issues. For example:

• Local traffic safety coordinators take part in Regional Roundtables, at which they share best practices and plan collaborative regional activities.
• College staff concerned with traffic safety issues take part in Regional College Consortiums, which promote traffic safety activities on college campuses; the consortiums also apply for the mini-grants that are available to assist colleges in reducing impaired driving by students.
• Those concerned with the safety of pedestrians participate in ongoing Regional Pedestrian Work Groups.

The SCCs also provide training to members of their constituencies. SCC-sponsored training programs include Child Passenger Safety Technician certification, Bystander Care for Motor Vehicle-Related Crashes, and Focus Group Methodology. Although focus group training is restricted to safety professionals, the other programs are open to medical and health care providers, law enforcement, fire and EMS professionals, and, in the case of Bystander Care, high school and college students and other community members, in addition to safety professionals.

For more information on Maryland Safe Communities, contact Robert E. Deale Jr., who serves as the Safe Communities and Community Traffic Safety Program coordinator at the Maryland Highway Safety Office. Telephone: (410) 787-4075; e-mail: rdeale@sha.state.md.us.

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