Injury & Violence Prevention Programs

Mission

To build solid infrastructure to improve the health of Kansans by increasing awareness and action to reduce injuries and violence.

Vision

To provide technical assistance to local and state partners to assess the burden of injury and violence, assure interventions, and facilitate policy development.

Injury & Violence as Public Health Issues

Public health focuses on the wellbeing of entire populations by seeking to understand the roots of a problem and then prevent it from occurring. The public health approach to injury and violence prevention involves:

  • Injury and Violence Prevention Programs Public Health ApproachIdentifying and defining the problem
  • Identifying risk and protective factors
  • Developing and testing prevention strategies
  • Assuring widespread adoption of effective strategies

Instead of focusing on the treatment of individual injuries as they arise, public health focuses on broad causes and prevention solutions.

History & Funded Programs

The Office of Injury Prevention and Disability Programs was established in 1993 within the Bureau of Health Promotion at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). A disability grant and the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (PHHSBG) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided initial funding for the office. The office has evolved into KDHE Injury and Violence Prevention Programs and now includes the following funded programs:

  1. Safe Kids Kansas
  2. Sexual Violence Prevention & Education Program
  3. Kansas Violent Death Reporting System
  4. Kansas Essentials for Childhood Initiative
  5. Zero Suicide in Health Systems

Safe Kids Kansas

The Safe Kids Kansas Coalition, established in 1993, is a nonprofit coalition of statewide and regional organizations and businesses with the mission to prevent unintentional childhood injury to Kansas children ages 0 to 19. The coalition network includes 30 local coalitions covering 36 counties and 74.8% of the Kansas child population. In addition to CDC funding through PHHSBG, Safe Kids Kansas also receives funding from governmental and private sources to support their work in primary prevention of childhood injury.

Safe Kids Kansas has received several awards for their work including the following:

  • Outstanding Safe Kids Day Event, Safe Kids Worldwide, 2015
  • Excellence in Communications, Safe Kids Worldwide, 2013
  • The first Dr. Robert Sanders Award for Outstanding Public Policy Achievement in Child Passenger Safety, Safe Kids Worldwide, 2006
  • Coalition of the Year, Safe Kids Worldwide, 2004