Children's Hospital becomes lead organization
for Safe Kids of Greater Knox Area

A wide variety of issues involve children and safety: passenger safety in motor vehicles, bike safety, poison prevention, water safety and fire safety, just to name a few.

At Children's Hospital, the health and wellness of the children we serve have always been tied closely to safety – and to educating parents, grandparents and caregivers about the often life-saving importance of safety and preventing unsafe practices. The hospital often reminds adults caring for children that safety applies to everyone and starts with the adult in the supervisory role.

Children's Hospital takes responsibility for providing education to area families about keeping children safe and well so that a visit to the hospital will not be necessary. One of the best ways to minimize the impact of injuries in children is prevention. When community organizations join forces, educating the public about safety and prevention can be accomplished at an even greater level.

For that reason, Children's Hospital is taking on a new role with an important area coalition: Safe Kids of the Greater Knox Area. The mission of the local Safe Kids coalition is to reduce unintentional injuries in children up to age 14 in the East Tennessee region by promoting awareness and implementing prevention initiatives. The local Safe Kids is part of Safe Kids Worldwide, a network of coalitions whose primary purpose is to prevent unintentional injuries in children by providing children and adults caring for them with information about how to stay safe.

While Safe Kids has been an active organization in the Knoxville area since 1999, the lead organization (which handles administrative coordination of activities and provides staff for the coalition) has changed several times. As 2007 ended, the Knox County Health Department, the current lead organization, requested that another coalition member take on this responsibility as the health department shifts some of its focus. The other three children's hospitals in the state are the lead organizations for their local Safe Kids coalitions, and Children's Hospital saw this as a similar way to extend our reach and service to the community we serve.

As the new lead organization, Children's Hospital will work with all the Safe Kids coalition members to ensure the Principles of Performance established by Safe Kids Worldwide are met:

• Develop an injury prevention plan based on needs assessments and ongoing evaluations.
• Comply with all procedural and reporting requirements within the organization and to relevant governmental or regulatory agencies.
• Conduct comprehensive outreach programs designed to reduce injuries to children in the communities served.
• Promote public awareness of Safe Kids and injury prevention through media and marketing.
• Advocate for injury prevention legislation, regulations and enforcement of existing laws.
• Secure resources and community support necessary to fund and enable the ongoing work of the organization.

Through Children's Hospital's leadership, Safe Kids also will pursue the reduction of injuries not just because it is a desirable public health goal, but because accidental injuries have a clear and serious financial impact on families. Injury prevention programs are cost effective because they employ relatively inexpensive interventions to avoid costly medical care. Such programs also require continued and often constant reinforcement because as long as there are children, there will be a need to remind them of ways to lessen the possibility of injuries.