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Anchorage Safe Communities Project

Brian Saylor, PhD, MPH
Keith Busch, CPA
Stacy L. Smith, MFA

The Anchorage Safe Communities project was funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a project to demonstrate the ability of community coalitions to help reduce the incidents of motor vehicle crash injuries and fatalities. The coalition began operating under the grant on October 1997, two years after its inception in November 1995.

The Anchorage Safe Communities grant was awarded on September 30, 1997 for a sum of $379,214. The Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies was awarded approximately half of this amount ($189,530) to evaluate the process and outcomes of the Anchorage Safe Communities program. The goals of the grant were:

1. To engage the community in addressing motor vehicle crash injuries and death by expanding community influence of the Anchorage Safe Communities program;
2. To develop and implement a series of interventions to reduce motor vehicle injuries and deaths;
3. To develop a data system that will support the ongoing monitoring of the nature and extent of motor vehicle injuries and deaths and support program evaluation efforts.

The following intervention projects took place:

• Child Safety Seat Focus Groups

• Motor Vehicle Crash Costs

• Teen Driving Focus Groups

• Pedestrian Safety Study