USC was designated as an “international safe community” by the World Health Organization Collaboration Centre on Community Safety Promotion in 2010; a strong network of collaboration that works toward the safety and wellness of a community. USC has educated students, faculty and staff on what to do in a natural disaster, how to be safe in an urban environment, how to stay healthy mentally and phys
ically. The university’s effort coincided with a campaign to reach the same goals in the surrounding communities.
“What is a safe community? Of course it’s about personal safety. But it’s more than that,” USC President C. Max Nikias told the crowd gathered in Hahn Plaza around Tommy Trojan.
“It’s about helping each other to flourish. It’s about looking out for each other. By giving our entire community – faculty, staff, students and neighbors – the resources they need not only to survive but to thrive. By preparing them for emergencies. And by protecting the most vulnerable among us.”
USC is the first university in the world to obtain the International Safe Community designation from the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion. With the honor, USC joins a network of more than 200 communities around the world (only 11 in the United States) that have met the organization’s standards to promote safety and health initiatives. The university has achieved a “culture of safety and wellness,” said Todd Dickey, USC senior vice president for administration. The crowd featured officers from the USC Department of Public Safety who patrol the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. Staff members proudly donned green vests that identified them as trained members of the Campus Emergency Response Team. More than 30 children and parents wore bright yellow shirts promoting Kid Watch, a USC initiative that recruits volunteers to look out for children on their way to and from school. After the ceremony, the USC Office of Fire Safety and Emergency Planning hosted a Campus Safety Fair for the community.
“You have truly engaged the community,” said Paul Kells of Safe Communities Canada, which led the certification process. “There is no power greater than community.”
The designation process for USC began with the U.S. National Safety Council, an affiliate support center of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, which invited USC to undergo the review process. The review team visited USC and reviewed the university’s current safety efforts in student and residential life, fire safety and emergency planning, public safety, wellness programs, risk management, laboratory safety, patient care and research operations, and health and counseling services. Safe Communities designees must demonstrate leadership, partnership and collaborations with all community sectors as they establish long-term programs covering all ages and targeting high-risk groups.
“A safe community brings all residents together,” said Donna Stein-Harris, director of the National Safety Council’s Safe Communities America. “This is the picture of a community in action.”
USC officials now will participate in national, regional and international Safe Communities activities and share best practices.
“Together we will explore innovative ways to make the community stronger,” Nikias said. “On this day we commit to always improving, to expand the work we do to advance the public good. And we redouble our efforts to strengthen USC as a beacon of safety and as a role model for other universities and communities around the world.”
- See more at: http://news.usc.edu/ #!/article/26340/USC-Named-a-Safe-Community-by-World-Health-Organization
