Town Safety

The Safe Community Strategy

When community members think of safety, their needs are simple. They want to live, work and shop in an environment free from drugs and alcohol, crime and violence and risky driving. One highly effective approach to preventing substance abuse, vehicle crashes and violence is called Safe Communities. Since these challenges overlap for communities, it is important to build assets, or best practices, that work together to prevent them. Communities have found that focusing on the positive behaviors that prevent safety risks encourages more collaboration among prevention and enforcement agencies and community groups.

The resources in this Townsafety web site were created to help communities build the assets they need to confront their safety challenges. Listed in this site are two assessment tools and a comprehensive guide of Michigan resources that can be used to build safe communities.  

Michigan Safe Communities

Texas Safe Communities Link to tx.townsafety.com "Texans Discovering Traffic Safety Solutions" In cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation

ACTS: Assessing Community Traffic Safety. These pages contain information and instructions for conducting a comprehensive assessment of a community’s traffic safety assets and deficits

ODT: Older Drive Toolkit. The goal of the toolkit is to help Safe Community Coalition members and older driver advocates assess how friendly their community's roadways are toward older drivers

CADY: Community Asset Development for Youth. This tool helps communities address substance abuse and violence challenges. The CADY process is described and contact information is provided.

Resources: This page links to a variety of resources offered by departments and units of state government. This is a guide to prevention programs that address unintentional injury (traffic crashes), intentional injury (violence), and substance abuse issues. The Resource Directory also lists contact persons to learn more about the programs and strategies.