Affiliate Grants Spur Projects to Reduce Impaired Driving

The 10 state and local Affiliates are recipients of 2003 grants from APHA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Affiliate work on raising awareness about impaired driving includes the following projects:

• The South Carolina Public Health Association is working closely with emergency medical services to support education opportunities to reach youth as well as co-sponsoring an unintentional injury conference.
• The Montana Public Health Association is working with American Indian youth, encouraging them to artistically express their experiences with impaired driving. A contest will be sponsored in which youth can create a poster-size drawing of their experiences, and the winner's poster will be placed on billboards.
• The Delaware Public Health Associatio n is partnering with community groups to implement a public awareness and professional education campaign.
• The Minnesota Public Health Association is creating a social marketing campaign aimed at two of the state's counties.
• The Louisiana Public Health Association is continuing its 2002 efforts to implement a social marketing and media campaign targeting graduations, festivals and other drinking-associated events in the state.
• In the nation's capital, the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Public Health Association is partnering with area high schools, school nurses, city police and the city's Transportation Safety Division to support student activities that promote safe driving.
• The Pennsylvania Public Health Association is working on a pilot project that assesses current practices in assessing alcohol use and abuse, the results of which will provide ways to improve interventions.
• The Illinois Public Health Association is partnering with the state department of health to enhance a project that provides education workshops at senior centers throughout the state. The Affiliate will also convene two policy summits to address the topic of impaired senior drivers.
• The Kentucky Public Health Association is collaborating with the state police, colleges and universities to fund student groups, which will develop and implement impaired driving campaigns.
• The New Hampshire Public Health Association is creating new connections around the issue of impaired driving by bringing together public health, public safety, emergency medical services and acute care representatives and jointly reaching out to the public.