Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre
National Safety Council, Safe Communities America
Country: USA
Number of inhabitants: 299,439,503 (US Census Bureau, 8/10/2006)
Program started year: NSC was founded in1913 using a cross sectoral approach to safety and began expanding our reach to local communities through our local Chapter network in 1914. We identified and labeled this approach as the Safe Communities model in 2006 as we began to encourage US communities to seek designation.
Affiliate Safe Communities Support Center designation year: 2007
www.nsc.org
www.safecommunitiesamerica.org
Full application report
Further information contact:
Donna Stein-Harris
National Safety Council
1121 Spring Lake Drive (Headquarters),
Itasca, Illinois 60143
USA
(also have offices in Washington, DC, Syracuse, NY, and Chapters around the country)
Phone: +1 630.775.2555
Fax: +1 630.775.2310
E-mail: harrisd@nsc.org
www.nsc.org
1. The provision of Centre programs and services utilize multidisciplinary and cross sectoral approaches.
Currently the National Safety Council’s 300+ nationwide staff develops programs and services in the areas of workplace, transportation, home, and community safety and health promotion.
The Council also has an internationally respected Research and Statistics Department that provides injury related data to government agencies, health departments, and other safety professionals.
The National Safety Council is a membership organization of over 18,000 companies in 52,000 locations in the United States. Our members are served by Council Chapters that cover all 50 states. Many of our Chapters have extensive community outreach/engagement programs fostering a collaborative approach to reach community safety goals. Two of our chapters spearheaded the development of a Safe Community in their service area – Omaha, Nebraska, and Springfield, Missouri.
Recognizing that the United States covers a vast geographical area and each state, and within each state, each community, has its own unique profile, the Council and its Chapters understands that the needs of each community, whether it be a small town, a city, a region, or a state, must be incorporated into its planning and execution of programming.
The Council’s current key issues are off-the-job safety – working through business and industry to deliver home and community safety training; falls prevention at the workplace and also for older adults in their home and community; and, poison prevention – particularly to create awareness and work with other organizations to develop long-term solutions to drug (over the counter, prescription, and illegal) interactions and overdoses that have resulted in the rise of fatalities over the last few years.
The National Safety Council is committed to preventing injuries and reducing deaths through public education, training, research, and partnership development. We have made a commitment to the Safe Communities movement because of our fundamental belief that prevention happens at the local level where a community through the sum of its parts works to together to effect change.
2. The Centre provides a framework for promoting collective action which includes involvement with community networks.
Through its extensive portfolio of programs and services, the National Safety Council is positioned to be of assistance to any community that seeks a Safe Community designation. The Council has established Safe Communities America to create a national framework that will help facilitate this process in a proactive, structured manner.
Currently the Council is an active member of the Falls Free Coalition, the National Council on Aging, Fire Prevention Council, the Skin Cancer Prevention Council, Poison Prevention Council, the Skin Cancer Prevention Council, Poison Prevention Council, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, STIPDA, Coast Guard, Homeland Security, Alzheimer’s Association, Prevent Blindness America, Citizen’s Corps, Underwriters Laboratory, Consumer Product Safety Commission, NHTSA, Health and Human Services/HRSA/Poison Control Centers. Each of these organizations has national and local presence and can guide programs and resources to local Safe Communities. This combination of community organizations, government agencies, and injury prevention organizations, will provide a framework for collective action at the national, state, and local levels.
Safe Communities Canada has provided guidance in our initial stages of development, NSC has developed a comprehensive Web site, www.safecommunitiesamerica.org, that takes a prospective community from initial interest to designation, a guidebook that presents a blueprint for becoming a Safe Community. The Guidebook provides a step-by-step process including, but not limited to, building a community network, getting established, choosing the safety activities that are right for the community, and sustaining their safety network.
3. The Centre provides consultative support to communities in the establishment of Safe Community initiatives.
The National Safety Council will serve as a resource to both its Chapters, and to the Safe Communities themselves in need of extra support.
Training will be provided at both levels to get them started and to sustain their programs. In addition, Chapters that have been particularly successful will provide guidance by sharing their experiences and mentoring other communities.
The Council appreciates and applauds the success of the International Safe Community movement in reducing injuries and injury related deaths worldwide. This approach, based on the WHO concept of Safe Communities will be used as a model to guide us.
4. The Centre facilitates and supports community-based strategic planning processes.
The National Safety Council, through its Safe Communities America Network, will encourage and require any community seeking Safe Community status to use local injury data in determining their programming targets. Because of NSC Headquarters and Chapters’ familiarity with injury data and other information sources (including NSC’s own research), sharing that information will be very straight forward. Council training will include developing and using evaluation strategies. Documentation templates will be distributed and be part of an annual reporting requirement.
5. The Centre demonstrates leadership and stewardship in addressing priority injury issues, high risk, and vulnerable groups.
The National Safety Council has been a leader in addressing and seeking solutions to injury related injuries and deaths in the United States since its inception. NSC has led the charge in defensive driving, teen driving, including graduated driver licensing, CPR/emergency care, emergency preparedness, seat belt and child safety seats, elderly falls, and workplace safety.
The Council trains 1.5 million drivers worldwide annually through its 28 defensive driving courses geared toward reducing traffic injuries and fatalities among high-risk populations.
In addition to hosting an Off-The-Job Safety Symposium and publishing a how-to Off-The-Job Safety Manual, the Council is currently working on reducing off-the-job injuries by partnering with industry leaders in off-the-job safety. An Off-The-Job Safety Advisory Panel has been formed to examine current off-the-job safety programs. The Panel, safety professionals representing NSC business and industry partners, will develop model off-the-job safety programs that can then be shared with all interested workplaces. This work is being evaluated and supported, in part, by the National Center for Injury Prevention of the CDC.
6. The Centre provides expert services and knowledge in the area of injury data and injury surveillance issues.
Every year the National Safety Council publishes Injury Facts, a well respected statistical report on unintentional injuries, their characteristics and costs. Included in the 2005-2006 Edition is: occupational injury and illness profile data for 16 industrial sectors based on the North American Industry Classification System; adoption of Fatality Analysis Reporting System data for the Motor Vehicle section; and national health interview survey data on medically attended injuries by place of occurrence and activity; choking deaths involving children; falls death involving the elderly, general mortality data, nonfatal poisoning exposures by age group; sports and recreation injuries; home fires data; state-level data, and more.
7. The Centre demonstrates a long term commitment to supporting Safe Communities and the Safe Community Network within their organizations strategic plan.
The National Safety Council’s vision: Making our world safer.
The National Safety Council’s FY08-11 Strategic Plan states:
Continue to increase public awareness of the NSC’s leadership role in “off-the-job safety,” elderly falls, teen driving, changing workforce, and emergency and disaster preparedness.
Broaden NSC’s reach into the home and community arena by initiating programs, such as Safe Communities America, that helps to identify the National Safety Council as a leader in injury prevention and health promotion and an integral and vital part of every community
Maximize strategic partnerships by creating and implementing an integrated process for identifying, categorizing and effectively managing the relationships for opportunities.
Investigate and define opportunities for advocacy programs that influence public policy and awareness to support the workplace, transportation and home and community venues.
Continue to enhance Government Day activities to promote recognition of NSC and its chapters with members of Congress and encourage support for NSC advocacy initiatives.
Deliver models and publish results of advocacy programs that influence public policy and awareness on the economics of safety and health.
Develop and execute comprehensive advocacy programs that further influence models and results on the economics of safety and health initiatives.
8. The Centre supports those responsible at the community level to utilize appropriate indicators to evaluate community processes, effects of change and injury rates.
The National Safety Council encourages communities to document and evaluate their progress in addressing safety issues within their communities. Council training will include using local community injury data to determine direction and developing and using evaluation strategies. Documentation templates will be distributed and be part of an annual reporting requirement.
9. The Centre disseminates their experiences both at national and international levels.
NSC annually convenes one of the largest international safety conferences in the world. The NSC’s 2008 Safety Congress and Expo will take place September 19-22, in Anaheim, California. The expected attendance is around 17,000 people – safety professionals, government agency representatives, community groups, health departments, NSC members, and international guests.
International Support:
The National Safety Council also has an international division that services Latin America, Europe, and China. We provide workplace safety training and education as well as consulting services.
National Support:
During National Safety Month, every June, thousands of companies, government agencies, community groups and organizations participated in efforts to distribute NSC safety and health information that focused on the leading causes of injury and death. NSM promotion resulted in an unprecedented 50,000 visitors to the NSM Web site and 1.9 million exposures to NSC Internet syndicated safety tips. More than 33,000 posters and tip sheets were downloaded and some 400 organizations ordered more than 2,100 community outreach programs on a wealth of safety and health topics developed through the NSC’s Safety and Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
10. The Centre reports on their Safe Community activities and research efforts.
The National Safety Council will proudly report on its Safe Communities activities to the world Safe Community network.
Publications and Information material
Currently we publish an annual edition of Injury Facts, monthly editions of “Safety & Health Magazine”, quarterly editions of “Family Safety & Health”, other books and manuals, safety supplements, safety tips, and “5 Minute Safety Talks,” maintain a Safety Video Library with 2000 titles in English and Spanish, and more. A complete list of publications, research activities, safety fact sheets (for the workplace, home and community and transportation issues), and safety features can be found on the Council’s Web site, www.nsc.org.
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