Safety and Injury Prevention
In collaboration with the Safe Community Coalition of Madison and Dane County, the Madison Department of Public Health ran a series of listening sessions to determine the safety and injury concerns of Madison residents and to generate ideas of how to address these concerns.
The concerns expressed by the community at the listening sessions (perceived community needs) have played an important role, along with injury data, in determining the injury prevention activities of the Safe Community Coalition. Almost all of the original 36 neighborhood associations, who voiced these concerns, have become involved with injury prevention work and have continued to stay active with the Safe Community Coalition’s work.
Many of the listening session neighborhood associations have helped develop ideas and have remained involved with traffic safety issues that were identified as the top concern.
The listening sessions provided an opportunity to generate community interest in safety and injury prevention and to mobilize the neighborhoods to take action. Continually soliciting ideas has been important to sustain interest and recruit new neighborhoods.
See the 9th Edition, December 2002 for examples of continual involvement.
Were the Safe Community Coalition’s traffic safety campaigns effective at reducing speeding, red light running and hazards to pedestrians? Efforts were made to evaluate the effectiveness of three traffic safety campaigns. Madison Public Health coordinated the evaluation efforts, with evaluation design oversight given by the Safe Community Coalition’s Data Committee.
1. "Slow Down Yard Sign" Campaign
Were people aware of the campaign?
Did the campaign reduce speeding in Madison neighborhoods?
See 9th Edition, December 2002, "Progress Report: Safety and Injury Prevention," page 4, for a summary of the evaluation.
See "Slow Down Yard Sign" Campaign Evaluation Report for details.
2. "Stop On Red" Campaign:
Did the "Stop on Red" Campaign reduce red light running at Madison intersections?
See 9th Edition, December 2002, "Progress Report: Safety and Injury Prevention," page 5, for a summary of the evaluation.
See "Stop On Red" Campaign Evaluation Report for details.
3. Walk Our Children to School Campaign:
Were parents aware of the campaign?
Did children increase their knowledge of pedestrian safety?
Did the Walk campaign result in safer parent drop-off/pick-up behavior in school zones?
See 9th Edition, December 2002, "Progress Report: Safety and Injury Prevention," page 6, for a summary of the evaluation.
See Walk Our Children To School Campaign Evaluation Report for details.
Access to Oral Health Care
Work is underway to evaluate a small-scale pilot of a dental referral network (coordinated by Madison and Dane County Public Health). Please stay tuned.