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A Message from Board President Tom Manion
Not Just a Statistic
Hello again from the Partnership for a Safer Maryland! Here at PSM, we've recently been talking a lot about data. Whether your role in injury and violence prevention comes from a place of prevention, intervention, policy, or some combination of those, data plays a vital role in your work. Data can answer questions for us like: What age group is most at risk for suicide and self harm? What percentage of motor vehicle crashes in the state are related to alcohol? Is there a particular County or municipality that sees lower rates of fire-related injuries than other jurisdictions? With the answers to questions like this, we are able to tackle our work in an informed, and ultimately more successful way.
That's why PSM has partnered up with the wonderful folks at the Maryland Department of Health to create the Data-to-Action Webinar Series, which is scheduled to run from December 2023 through April 2024, and hopefully beyond! These free webinars, which will be co-presented by one data expert and one program expert, will focus on Maryland-specific data and how to apply that data to develop strategies to prevent injuries and deaths. We currently have sessions scheduled on Intimate Partner Violence, Suicide, Violent Deaths, Distracted Driving and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
For many of us, it may seem like data and statistics are detached from the front line prevention, intervention and policy work, but the reality is that every single data point represents a person. A human life which has been somehow impacted by injury and/or violence, people in our state who we strive to protect in our work every day. The truth is that you can't have effective intervention, prevention or policy without data, and data cannot be compiled and updated without assistance from folks developing and running programs on the front line. So I hope you'll consider attending our Data-to-Action Webinar Series, beginning this December and continuing into 2024.
Thank you all for your continued partnership, engagement and support. We have lots more coming in 2024. Happy Holidays!
Stay Safe,
-Tom
Tom Manion, President
Board of Directors
Partnership for a Safer Maryland
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