Department of Public Health Sciences
Division of Social Medicine

Safe Community Monthly NewsIssue 28

November 2009
In this issue

Dear Colleagues,New Safe Community designation

1

News from New Zealand
Report from Australia

2
2

New Safe Community designation

3

Report from Hong Kong

3

Report from USA

3

Forthcoming Conferences

4

We are proud to introduce you another new Safe Community.
We have reports from USA, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea.
Safe Communities movement is now its full pace!
All the designated Safe Communities are advised to submit their annual re‐ports.
News and reports of this issue are appended below. Same issue is also avail‐able at our WHO Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion
website: http://www.phs.ki.se/csp/who_newsletters_en.htm
With warm regards
Leif Svanström, Responsible Editor
Koustuv Dalal, Editor

Madison/Dane County, Wisconsin, Joins Safe Communities InternationalNetwork
Madison/Dane County, Wisconsin, celebrated its induction into the International Safe Communities Network on
October 13, 2009. They are the 160th Safe Community in the world, the 6th in the United States, and the first inWisconsin.
They also celebrated their ten‐year anniversary as a coalition working to reduce injuries and promote safety for the483,705 residents of Madison/Dane County. This special day was marked with a celebratory luncheon and awards
ceremony honoring notable community partners.
Over the last 10 years, Madison/Dane County has
worked to reduce injuries from falls, violence, andmotor vehicles. Their coalition works closely with
their police, fire, and emergency services and they
have developed successful programs for suicide
prevention, neighborhood and school safety, childsafety, to mention just a few.
They have measurable results including:
Increased safety belt use among young drivers by
4% in targeted school and faith communities . Built
a falls prevention network for Dane County older
adults and have trained over 120 healthcare
providers to deliver evidence‐based falls prevention
treatments. Educated over 500 people on how tohelp someone they know survive a suicidal crisis.
Reduced reported speeding by 79% as a result of
their “slow down yard sign” campaign Improved yield‐to‐pedestrian rate at hard‐to‐cross intersections by 89%
through their pedestrian flag and pedestrian zone program. Taught over 1,000 pre‐kindergarten children to be safe attheir Safety Town and Safety Sunday at the Madison Children’s Museum. Their designation was overseen by the SafeCommunities Foundation, New Zealand Certifying Centre. Their site visit and designation ceremony was conducted byinternationally trained certifiers from Safe Communities America.
Reporter: Donna Stein‐Harris, USAWaimakariri District, New Zealand: Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
In 1996 “Safe Rangiora” was set up as a Plunket‐driven pilot for the Safe Community Programme. Its brief was to de‐velop and deliver community‐based Child Safety interventions. The pilot proved to be a success in engaging the local
community to recognise the value of child safety, and the Waimakariri District was designated as 47th member of theSafe Community network in 1999; the second in New Zealand by only a number of weeks….and the 1st to be re‐designated in 2006!
10 years on, the Wai‐makariri District is now
recognised as not only
one of safest in New
Zealand, but also as aleader in Community
Development, bringing
the wider community
together to find local
solutions to local prob‐lems, related to inten‐
tional and unintentional
injury, road safety, alcohol, and a variety of other issues affecting community safety. We are proud of what has beenachieved, and look forward to being here again in another 10 years to celebrate what a great, safe community we live in.
Of course we still have some way to go. For our part, we at Injury Prevention Waimakariri, Road Safety and Safer
Community Council will continue to work with our community to help them to keep themselves and others safe while
they’re out enjoying what the Waimakariri District has to offer.
Reporter: Tessa Sturley, New Zealand

New info kit makes ‘home safe home’ for baby
A free information kit giving new and expectant parents
the power to provide a safer home environment waslaunched in August at The Royal Children’s Hospital Mel‐bourne.
The RCH Safety Centre’s Bringing Baby Home info kit
contains comprehensive safety tips on nursery furnitureand safe sleeping, kitchen safety, choking and suffocation,
fire safety, preventing falls and car passenger safety.
The kit also includes the Child Safety Commissioner’s tip
sheet on choosing a babysitter, as well as a DVD to guideparents in their choice of a person, service or organisation
to care for their child.
“Keeping children safe has to be the top priority of allparents, but sometimes they need help to achieve this,”
said Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary OAM.
Mr Bernie Geary OAM Child Safety Commissioner, Charles Charalambous“The Bringing Baby Home kit enables parents to identify
Consumer Affairs, Department of Justice, Lisa rood Community Relations
and reduce hazards. It also helps them to feel more empo‐Manager, Exxon Mobil Australia, Roz Howe Program Manager Productwered in choosing appropriate people to care for their chil‐
Safety Branch: Market Monitoring, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Departmentof Justice. Barbara Minuzzo Senior Project Coordinator The Royal Chil‐dren,” he said.
Bringing Baby Home is proudly supported by ExxonMobil dren’s Hospital Safety Centre, Christine Withers Manager, Promotion,
Policy & Projects Office of the Child Safety Commissioner, Helen Rowan
Australia and the Office of The Child Safety Commissioner.
Operations Manager Family Services and Volunteers The Royal Children’s
Hospital, Ron Rienten Safety, Health, Environment and Security ManagerThe kit will be distributed in hospitals, maternal and child
ExxonMobil Australia.
health centres, prenatal and antenatal classes, and local gov‐ernment community safety offices.
Contact: Barbara Minuzzo The Royal Children’s Hospital Safety Centre (03) 9345 5085
http://www.rch.org.au/safetycentre/info/index.cfm?doc_id=1731
Reporter: Barbara Minuzzo, Australia

Cheonan City, Korea: the 169th International Safe Community
Cheonan City has a total population of 547,662 residents, living in 209,512 households. Safe Community project wasstarted as a promise project with citizens from 2006, the preliminary community survey was implemented in 2007, theunder preparation Safe Community registered to WHO
Collaborating Center on Community Safety Promotion in 2008, andan application report for designation was submitted in March 2009.
From 22nd to 23rd April 2009, two days on‐site evaluation wasconducted successfully by the expert team and on 27th October 2009,
Cheonan City was designated as 169th International SafeCommunity.
The Guests from domestic and abroad were very impressed by its
well organized infrastructure with strong support from the mayor
and the city council, innovative programmes with multi‐sectors
cooperationandcommunityparticipation.

Theyappraised

Cheonan City’s efforts in pursuing to become the member ofInternational Safe Community Network and hope to play an

Sung, Moo‐Yong, Mayor , Cheonan City, Korea. Yu, Pyung‐Yui,Chairman, Cheonan City Council, Korea. Joon Pil Cho, Chair,important Role in future.

Certifying Center for Safe Community, Ajou University School

Related to designation ceremony, there was a conference on“Safety Promotion through Intersectoral Partnership” withparticipation of the experts, health professionals and community
practitioners in Korea.

of Medicine, Suwon, Korea & Leif Svanström, Chair, WHO
Collaborating Center on Community Safety Promotion,
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Reporter: Juhee Hong, Soth Korea.

Financial Street Safe Community Resource Center
Since becoming a member of the International Security Community Network in June 2007, the Financial Street Commu‐
nity has been keeping the concept of constant improvement in mind. At the end of 2008, the Financial Street Security Com‐munity Cultural Center was established, bringing more and more happinesses and safety to all inhabitants here.
As the security information platform for the inhabitants, the Financial Street Security Community Cultural Center mainly
aims to enrich the inhabitants’ cultural life and to provide them with some help and support on knowing the security pro‐tection information and strengthening their self‐protection ability in case of hurt by accidents.
The Center consists of the Room for Lute‐playing, Chess, Calligraphy and Painting, the Dancing Room, the Red Cross
First Aid Training Room, the Multi‐functional Hall and the Exhibition Room for Interaction Experiencing which is divided
into nine exhibition rooms and one experiencing area for quick answer questions onsecurity knowledge. The mentioned nine exhibition rooms are respectively named
the Financial Street Security Theme Showroom, the Elderlyʹs Safety Showroom, theHome Safety Showroom, the Children’s Safety Showroom, the Occupational Health& Safety Showroom, the Nutritional Health & Safety Showroom, the OccupationalTools Showroom, the Fire‐protection Safety Showroom and the Campus SecurityShowroom.
The Cultural Center provides such security information as the elderly’s health &safety, the home safety, the children’s safety, the occupational health & safety, thefire‐protection safety and the campus security. Inside the exhibition room, the security knowledge & culture are popular‐
ized to the inhabitants there by all kinds of means as popularization & training, physical exhibition, live simulation exhibi‐tion, on‐site experiences.
Reporter: WS Tang, Hong Kong

News from National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter
On the eve of ’Fall Prevention Day September 22, 2009 for Home Safety’ National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter
has distributed 10,000 copies in the Greater Omaha Sfe Communities area (5 counties, 650,000 population) and it is also up
on You Tube. Our Home Safety and Modifications task group as part of our F1RST program (Fall Intervention, ReachingSeniors Together) developed it. This is the URL ‐ Please take a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FEP8YwbztA

Forthcoming Safety and Injury Conferences
2010
 RoSPAʹs 75th Road Safety Congress 22‐24 February, 2010 Stratford‐upon‐Avon, UK www.rospa.com/road E‐
mail:events@rospa.com Abstract deadline: 19 September 2009
 19th International Safe Communities Conference Sustainability of Safe Community Programs23‐ 26 March, 2010
Suwon, Korea
First Announcement www.2010safecom.com/pdf/1st_Announcement.pdf
http://www.2010safecom.org/web_mail/web_mail.html
www.2010safecom.org
Abstract deadline: 31 December 2009 . For information: jpcho@ajou.ac.kr
 The Second European Regional Safe Community Conference Incorporating the 7th Nordic Conference on SafeCommunities How to develop Safe Communities in Europe using the Nordic experiences, re‐establishing a European Network of Safe
Communities. 19‐20 May, 2010 Reykjavik, Iceland First Announcement (short version; long version) www.publichealth.is/SC‐
2010Iceland Contact: Rósa Thorsteinsdóttir E‐mail: rosa@publichealth.is Tel: +354 5800900 / +354 8400906 Fax: +354 5800901´
Public Health Institute of Iceland, Laugavegur 116, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland
Registration & call for abstracts are open now.
 2nd South Eastern Europe Safe Community Conference
15 ‐17 September, 2010. Sibenik, Croatia
Conference web page:
http://www.sigurnezajednice.hr/The_2nd_Southeastern_Europe_Safe_Communities_Conference_SibenikCroatia2010/Home.html Venue: Hotel Solaris http://www.solarishotelsresort.com/
Contact: Tanja Pekez Palisko
E‐mail: tashamed@gmail.com
 10th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion 21‐24 September, 2010 London, UK
The first formal announcement for Safety 2010 will be issued in January 2009
Call for abstracts: closing date will be Friday 15 January 2010, 17:00 hrs
http://www.safety2010.org.uk
Early bird rate before 30 April 2009 £450.00
Contact: Karen Hughes
Email: k.e.hughes@ljmu.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 151 231 8723
Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Kingsway House, 5th Floor, Hatton Garden, Liverpool L3 2AJ, UK .
Tel: +44 (0) 151 231 4510 | Fax: +44 (0) 151 231 4515

WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Safety Promotion
Karolinska Institutet
Department of Public Health Sciences
Division of Social Medicine
Norrbacka 2nd Floor, SE‐171 76, Stockholm, Sweden.
Communication: Koustuv Dalal, PhD. Editor (Email: koustuv.dalal@ki.se )