Final report: review of Michigan's safe community program and recommendations for improvement

Abstract

Building on the recognition that injuries are preventable and that community-based approaches have the greatest impact on saving lives and reducing injuries, a national safety and injury prevention program, Safe Communities (SC), was developed under the support of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The program was made available to individual states and has been implemented in several, including Michigan. The objectives of the study were to: 1) review the current Michigan SC program and 2) make recommendations for how the program can be improved in the future. The project objectives were accomplished through the following activities: 1) gaining an overall picture of the Michigan program through review of written materials and interviews with selected individuals associated with the program; 2) examining the experiences of a small sample of other states in promoting SC programs through review of written materials and interviews with a small sample of program coordinators; 3) identifying successful approaches for community-based intervention through a brief review of relevant literature; 4) developing recommendations for how the Michigan program can be improved, particularly with regard to redesign or restructuring; and 5) translating the recommendations into specific objectives that must be achieved to improve program performance, and prioritizing the objectives.