Providence, RI - The Rhode Island Hospital Injury Prevention Center, in conjunction with its community partners, has received an International Safety Media Gold Award for its Newspapers in Education supplement on gun safety. The award was presented at the Eighth World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Durban, South Africa.
The Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital partnered with the Providence Journal, Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, Justice Assistance and RDW Group to develop the gun safety supplement for the Providence Journal's Newspapers in Education program. MET School student intern, Laura Holt, of Cranston, designed the 16-page gun safety supplement through an internship at the Injury Prevention Center with help from the center and its partners.
The insert provided tips for parents and children on gun safety at home and school, facts about guns and gun-related deaths and injuries, and tips on what to do if a child encounters a gun in various situations. Designed for teachers to use in their classroom lessons, the newspaper insert was distributed to middle school students throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts in Spring 2005.
The first International Safety Media Award contest was open to safety promotion organizations and students around the world to recognize excellence in safety and injury prevention messages and to share messages with others in the field. The Injury Prevention Center received the gold award for print publications, competing against magazine or newspaper advertisements, posters, brochures, photography and paintings from countries around the world, including Serbia, Cambodia, Canada and the Philippines. The Eighth World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion focused on enhancing specialized expertise in the field of injury prevention, designing a strategy to prioritize issues on violence and injury prevention, and gathering support for safety promotion and policy.
Founded in 1863, Rhode Island Hospital (www.rhodeislandhospital.org) is a private, not-for-profit hospital and is the largest teaching hospital of Brown Medical School. A major trauma center for southeastern New England, the hospital is dedicated to being on the cutting edge of medicine and research. Rhode Island Hospital ranks 13th among independent hospitals who receive funding from the National Institutes of Health, with research awards of more than $27 million annually. Many of its physicians are recognized as leaders in their respective fields of cancer, cardiology, diabetes, orthopedics and minimally invasive surgery. The hospital's pediatrics division, Hasbro Children's Hospital, has pioneered numerous procedures and is at the forefront of fetal surgery, orthopedics and pediatric neurosurgery. Rhode Island Hospital is a founding member of the Lifespan health system.