Keshia Pollack, MPH, PhD, assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, was a featured speaker at One Less Car’s 13th Annual Smart Transportation and Bicycle Symposium, held February 3rd in Annapolis, MD. One Less Car is Maryland’s statewide advocacy voice for promoting safe and accessible biking, walking, transit and carpooling as alternatives to cars. Speaking in front of several hundred advocates, planners, state and local officials, and community leaders brought together by a common desire for more bike lanes, better sidewalks, more trails, and a statewide Complete Streets policy, Dr. Pollack discussed how the design and construction of our transportation systems have a profound impact on the public’s health. She described the inextricable link between transportation and health, highlighting pedestrian-related injuries, physical activity and obesity, and disparities, as well as stressed the importance of partnerships and collaborations to ensure transportation and public health are considered together. For more information on the Symposium, please click here.
Identifying the public health and safety needs of children from low-income communities may be accomplished through art, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and University of Pittsburgh. Their paper, published in the current online issue of Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, describes the success of Visual Voices, an arts-based program that engages community members as partners in research. The study was based on Visual Voices programs conducted with 22 children ages 8 to 15 in two low-income and predominantly African-American communities in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. During the Visual Voices sessions, participants created paintings and drawings to share their perceptions, both positive and negative, of community safety and violence, and their hopes for the future. Afterward, they combined their individual art projects into two “visual voice” exhibits. Pieces of the artwork are currently on display at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Andrea Gielen, ScM, ScD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine used qualitative research methods to review and code the participants’ art projects for themes. Factors that participants identified as important to safety included school and social networks—family, friends and the local community. Places that they identified as unsafe were corner stores, streets and alleys with poor lighting and abandoned houses. Other contextual factors identified as unsafe were drugs, guns and violence, smoking, drinking and gambling. “This project allowed us to hear directly from Baltimore children about issues in their communities that concern them, including neighborhood safety and violence,” said Gielen. “Garnering this type of information is instrumental to developing public health programs and interventions that are appropriate for specific communities.”
A new Center publication, “Preventing Injuries in Maryland: A Resource for State Policy Makers” is now available for download. The Resource is designed to provide Maryland policy makers, advocacy groups, members of the media, researchers and the general public with easily accessible and understandable information on specific injury problems in Maryland, and offer solutions on how they can be addressed through policy decisions. “This Resource allows us to deliver on our mission of closing the gap between research and policy to reduce the burden of injury,” said Andrea Gielen, ScM, ScD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy. “We already know that many of the issues covered in the book, such as distracted driving and alcohol and injuries, are likely to be key issues in the 2010 Maryland General Assembly. I look forward to seeing its impact and contribution to the field of knowledge translation.” For more information on the Resource, and to access an electronic copy, please click here.
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