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Welcome to the Safe Communities community page.
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What is Safe Communities?
Safe Communities (formerly Safe Community Coalition of Madison and Dane County) is a local public/private partnership that sustains joint action by area agencies, businesses, and neighborhoods to reduce injuries and injury-related costs. Over 200 organizations are active members of Safe Communities.
Promoting traffic and pedestrian safety, preventing accidents at home, and keeping children injury-free are all on the Coalition agenda. The Coalition is a dynamic organization that makes our community safer by promoting effective projects and programs, and by increasing public awareness about how all of us can help prevent injury.
Why is the Coalition's work important?
In Madison and Dane County, serious injuries are far too common and have tragic consequences:
- Unintentional injuries are the number one cause of death for children under age 14, each a terrible loss for affected families and our community.
- Falls are the number one cause of injury-related deaths among older adults. Dane County's elderly fall at an alarming rate in relation to the rest of the nation.
- On average we lose 60 people each year in Dane County traffic crashes. These deaths are all the more senseless because most could have been prevented through use of safety belts and avoidance of drinking and driving.
- In one year, hospital charges alone resulting from injuries sustained by Madison and Dane County residents were nearly $54.5 million. This figure excludes doctor bills, nursing home care, and rehabilitation services, lost wages, and other injury-related costs.
- No one agency can address the staggering human and financial toll taken by injuries. We need a coordinated, community-wide effort that draws resources and expertise from diverse people and agencies. This is why the Safe Commmunities' work is so important.
How does the Coalition bring organizations together to prevent injuries?
Safe Communities coordinates county-wide, collaborative campaigns that educate residents about how to prevent injuries, and that encourage them to change behavior that could result in injury.
The Coalition builds partnerships among diverse organizations to conduct these activities. To date over 200 organizations (police and fire departments, hospitals and health care organizations, neighborhood associations, public health agencies, elder- and youth-serving agencies, utilities, and insurance companies) have actively participated in Coalition projects. We estimate that since 1999, the Coalition's collaborative projects directly improved the personal safety of more than 25,000 Dane County residents, most of them children and older adults.
What is the future?
We envision a future with far fewer injuries. Safe Communities strives to significantly reduce the incidence of injury in our community through a continuation and expansion of our collaborative activities.
A safer community is within our reach.
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