Erie County was named a World Health Organization "Safe Community" during a recent signing ceremony.
Safe communities come together to promote safe and healthy behaviors that protect people from hurt and harm in all aspects of their lives. ECDH staff have worked with WHO and the National Safety Council to support our mission to become and remain a safe community.
Sit and think for a minute, are we as safe as we could be? What can be done to make Erie a safer community? What are we doing now, and how do we sustain that? It can change your life, and those of your loved ones.
ECDH staff have worked diligently to obtain this designation since September 2008. We submitted our application to the World Health Organization were visited and reviewed by WHO and National Safety Council staff.
Donna Stein-Harris from the National Safety Council presented Erie County government with the Safe Community designation. Dr. Mark Lovell, UPMC, gave Keynote speach. State Senator Jane Earll, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett attended the ceremony in appreciation of the deisgnation.
Pictured left to right are Patty Puline, Erie County Safe Communities Coordinator; Jack Daneri, Erie County District Attorney; Andy Glass, Director of the Erie County Department of Health; and Donna Stein-Harris, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for the National Safety Council and representative of the World Health Organization signing our charter.
District Attorney Jack Daneri championed the Safe Communities Task Force Groups through the District Attorney's office, Jack has several programs related to safety
under his jurisdiction, Erie Weed and Seed, Project Safe Neighborhood, Erie County Crimestoppers, Cybersafety, and many others.
At this signing ceremony, all four representatives signed the charter. Copies were sent to Safe Communities World Headquarters in Sweden, as well as to the National Safety Council in Washington DC and Chicago. A copy of the charter will also be kept at the Erie County Department of Health in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Mark Lovell, UPMC, keynote speaker on Injury Prevention,
Mark R. Lovell, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized sports concussion expert and founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Sports Medicine Concussion Program. The program is the first and largest program of its kind to both clinically manage and scientifically study the neurocognitive effects of sports-related concussion and develop better methods of post-concussion evaluation to determine when it is safe for an athlete to return to sports following a concussion.
Dr. Lovell developed and implemented league-wide neurocognitive testing for both the National Football League (NFL) and the National Hockey League (NHL) during the 1990s. He currently serves as a consultant for the NFL, NHL, NASCAR, Indianapolis Racing League, Major League Soccer and the US Ski/Snowboard Teams.
Donna Stein-Harris, Jack Daneri, Patty Puline, and Janet Vogt, Director of the Health Education Program for the Erie County Department of Health.
Janet Vogt worked with the Safe Communities team, giving guidance, direction, and used her years of grant-writing expertise to write the final application that resulted in Erie County's designation as a Safe Community.
More About Safe Communities
Read about Safe Communities at www.safecommunitiesamerica.com.
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