Town Safety

Huron County Safe Communities

 

Huron Behavioral Health

Phone: 989-269-9293, ext. 429

E-mail: KATHIE@HURON.CMH.ORG

Contact: Kathie Harrison

Region: Huron County

Mission Statement

To improve traffic safety through education and awareness activities.

Coalition Background

The Huron County Community Health Assessment Initiative (CHAI) Workgroup of the Huron County Multipurpose Collaborative Body conducted the ACTS in 2002 as part of the county’s overall health assessment. Decreasing motor vehicle crash deaths became one of the Workgroup’s priority objectives, calling for the formation of the Safe Communities coalition to address this priority.

ACTS Information

The ACTS was completed for Huron County in fiscal year 2002. Results indicated the county’s top traffic safety deficits were an excessive older driver crash profile; an excessive fixed object crash profile; excessive alcohol related crash profile; and an excessive motorcycle crash profile.

Asset scores were highest in the enforcement and campaign categories. According to ACTS results, the community perceives a strong presence of standard alcohol enforcement and underage drinking/drinking and driving prevention campaigns. Asset scores were lower in the coordination and engineering categories.

 

Strategies to address traffic safety deficits

Initial focus involved the target audience

An early step was involvement of the target audience in their meetings. Kathie Harrison, Elderly Outreach Specialist at Huron Behavioral Health was appointed as coordinator of the coalition. This was important because Kathie was familiar with the subject audience and had already established a rapport with them. She quickly found that senior citizens were concerned the goal of the group was to get older drivers off the road, take their licenses away.

To ease their fears, Kathie invited some of them to a coalition meeting, and also invited other professionals who worked with older adults. Then she invited a Safe Communities Resource Consultant to provide a presentation from the Older Driver Toolkit. Through the presentation, fears were eased and interest was piqued because they learned that the real goal when addressing this issue is to get communities to look at how friendly their transportation systems are for older drivers.

 

Activities reflected a sustained, comprehensive focus on the issue

Engineering Practices – the coalition consulted professionals from the county road commission and MDOT to gain insight into traffic safety planning for the county, including making intersections safer by decreasing the clutter of signs and better placement of signs and signals.

Enforcement/Adjudication Assets – personnel from the Michigan State Police Post and the Huron County Sheriff’s Department have been active with the coalition from the beginning. A Deputy from the Sheriff’s Department was very instrumental in helping the coalition conduct or co-sponsor programs, such as AARP’s 55 Alive Program. He has been a source of information to the coalition and a mobilizer in the community on the older driver issue. An MSP Post trooper consulted with the coalition to develop a brochure for older drivers titled, How’s My Driving? Simple tips for maintaining driving skills. She also connected the coalition with the MDOT representative and other resources in the community.

Behavior Change Campaigns and Policies – a staff writer for a local newspaper is an active member of the coalition. He has written articles to promote the coalition’s activities, and has helped the coalition set a tone in the community for helping seniors to be safe drivers, and for promoting the improvement of the driving environment for all drivers. Coalition members have participated in a round table session sponsored by a local radio station. The coalition has also partnered with Thumb Area Transit to provide bus vouchers for seniors. Last, the coalition participated in this year’s Drive Safely Work Week campaign by sending material to four local employers.

Education and Training Assets – the coalition obtained local foundation funding for, and partnered with other local groups and agencies to sponsor three AARP 55 Alive Programs in 2002. Because of the coalition’s involvement and promotion of the classes, participation increased 83% from the previous year it was offered. The coalition is now looking at providing the programs in other locations within the county to reach older drivers in outlying areas. The AARP presenter is considering tailoring the program to the workplace. In addition, the coalition sent mailings to local physicians, senior sites, and home care facilities to educate them on the use of alternative transportation forms and bus vouchers. They may also consider sending the same mailing to hospitals for discharge units.

 

Focus on coalition structures and processes

Developing leadership structures – early on the coalition appointed a coordinator, and a member volunteered to be secretary. Later in the year, another member was voted in as treasurer. In addition, a few other coalition members could be considered as "conveners" because they energize and mobilize community support for the coalition’s activities. Most recently, the coalition has decided on a committee structure to begin addressing other community safety concerns in addition to the older driver issue for 2003.

Coalition promotion – the coalition developed an organizational brochure that each member distributes in the community at events, meetings, mailings, etc. Their relationship with local media has been valuable for promoting their activities.

Funding – the coalition began seeking local sources of funding early in their meetings for the activities they identified. According to their Resource Consultant, Mike Kearns, the coalition feels that local funding provides them better control over their own spending priorities. They secured a grant from a local foundation to help sponsor scholarships to the AARP classes, and received donations for the bus vouchers and door prizes for the classes from area agencies. Because of their success, the area Council on Aging has endorsed the AARP classes and will assist with future planning, and possibly with funding of the program.

 

Early outcome of this coalition’s yearlong efforts

1. The coalition has become a resource in Huron County! That is, other agencies and groups are approaching the coalition to collaborate or partner on safety projects for the community. When a community comes to view a coalition, group, or agency as a resource – a place to turn to for help or information – that is an outcome worth celebrating. It shows that their steady, focused use of energy and resources has put them on the Huron County map.

2. During one of their coalition meetings, members gave feedback to local traffic safety engineers about a dangerous intersection. The engineer passed the information along to decision makers, and now changes are planned for that intersection. A great outcome and success story for this coalition!

Congratulations Huron County Safe Community Coalition!