Safe Rhode Island:  
Violence and Injury Prevention Program

Safe Rhode Island Strategic Planning

Injury Prevention Strategic Planning Process

Rhode Island Injury Advisory Council (IAC) Purpose:

The IAC is charged with setting state level priorities for preventing injuries that are promising and guiding the development of a state plan reflecting statewide, population-based level recommendations.

Proposed IAC Membership, Structure, and:

The IAC is a “Blue Ribbon Panel” of 5-7 individuals. :The first meeting of the IAC took place in October 2003. Three follow-up meetings were scheduled to set overall priorities for Rhode Island.

1. Meeting 1 Work Plan: The first meeting of the IAC took place in October 2003. An orientation to the CDC funded injury prevention program was provided along with a broad overview of RI injury data.

The group decided on three broad injury categories:

• Motor vehicle crashes
• Falls
• Suicides

2. Follow up meeting Work plan: The next two meetings of the IAC took place January and February 2004. The IAC reviewed state injury data briefs addressing each of the broad categories and selected specific subcategories within each based on the following criteria:

   • Responding to data based need
   • Reflective of RI political priorities
   • Known/proven effective interventions
   • Feasible

Data briefs included breakdowns within each category. For example, within the broad category of motor vehicle injuries information was presented on motor vehicle occupants, bicyclists, pedestrians, etc.; on risk factors such as, alcohol involvement, use of protective devices; and demographics, such as age, gender, geography, ethnicity. With this information, the IAC set priorities and benchmarks within each category.

3. Task forces consisting of key stakeholders were convened between April - December 2004 for each of the priority areas. Task forces were based on existing groups, such as the Highway Safety Coalition, the RI Fall Prevention Partnership, and the Suicide Prevention Planning Team.

4. The task forces were staffed by Safe RI and included key stakeholders in the identified priority areas. Task Force representatives presented recommendations to the IAC for review and approval:

   • The Motor Vehicle / Transportation Injury Prevention Task Force met April through July 2004. All recommendations were accepted by the IAC.
   • The Falls Injury Prevention Task Force met September – December 2004. All recommendations were accepted by the IAC.
   • The Suicide Prevention Task Force met December 2004. All recommendations were accepted by the IAC.

The Rhode Island Injury Advisory Council Final Report is available here.

The state plan is available at here.