The official newsletter of SMARTRISK
Nov. - Dec., 2010 |
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ABOUT HEADS UP!
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Heads Up! is the official newsletter of SMARTRISK, delivered six times per year.
If you wish to unsubscribe, please use the link at the bottom of this email. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your own copy, join our mailing list, above.
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SMARTRISK announces new CEO
Director of research and evaluation appointed
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 SMARTRISK is pleased to announce the appointment of its new President and CEO, Philip Groff, the organization's director of research and evaluation for more than nine years. Dr. Groff succeeds Robert Baker, who has left for another position in the charitable sector. The board of directors unanimously took the decision, entrusting Dr. Groff with enacting SMARTRISK's mission and vision while continuing to pursue merger discussions with its national injury partners.
The chairman of SMARTRISK's board, Edward (Ned) Levitt, says the decision was an easy one. "Phil has been an integral part of the organization and a key member of the management team since the beginning. He understands the field of injury intimately and the various challenges injury organizations and SMARTRISK, in particular, face. The board knows Phil very well and has great confidence in him. We're very pleased he has agreed to take on this role."
Dr. Groff has a PhD in psychology with a specialty in human neuropsychology and cognition. He has led SMARTRISK's research and evaluation department and managed the Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre. He will ensure SMARTRISK continues to work towards empowering youth to recognize and manage their risks of injury in the smartest ways possible. Dr. Groff will also continue to work closely with injury partners Safe Communities Canada, Safe Kids Canada and ThinkFirst Canada, as they study how best to unify their efforts to advance the cause of injury prevention.
"I am tremendously grateful for the confidence the board has shown me by making this offer at such a crucial time in our organization's history," Dr. Groff said."I am confident that with the ongoing support of the extremely talented staff and dedicated volunteers at SMARTRISK, we will succeed at supporting the growth and success of our core SMARTRISK programs while achieving our overriding goal of bringing the four injury organizations together as, One Voice, Safer Canada."
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Robert Baker, former SMARTRISK CEO, bids farewell |  By the time you receive this in your email box, I will have moved on to a new position in the charitable sector, helping a growing community to build its own hospital. I leave with many fond memories of the people I met and worked with during my two-plus years at SMARTRISK: our dedicated board members, our great staff team and volunteers, our many committed sponsors and donors, the students who participated in No Regrets and our partners in the injury field.
You may remember I shared my goals for SMARTRISK with you two years ago in this newsletter. I wrote of expanding our reach to all high school students and their parents, convincing the federal government to adopt and fund a national strategy for injury prevention, bringing greater visibility to the injury issue, developing a sustainable funding model and building a grassroots model to expand our programming.
I am pleased to leave SMARTRISK knowing that we have made substantial progress in all these areas. First, we've doubled the number of schools we're training in No Regrets this year. We are starting to use a "train the trainer" model in some areas to bring in interested local partners to help fund and run No Regrets in their communities. As our relationship strengthens with injury partner, Safe Communities Canada, we expect our local connections to get even stronger and easier to make.
We updated and redesigned our travelling Heroes road show for youth and re-launched it as No Regrets Live, giving it the capability to reach many more students in a given year at a much reduced cost, thus allowing us to charge lower fees to schools. With State Farm's support, we redesigned our No Regrets website to make it easier for students and teachers to work effectively in our programs.
We continue to work closely with a number of provincial governments and injury bodies, many of whom were pleased to receive The Economic Burden of Injury in Canada report last year, which contained, for the first time, provincial breakdowns in addition to national figures. We were thrilled when the federal government announced its intention to pursue with injury partners a national strategy on childhood injury prevention and we anticipate hearing more soon.
There is still a great deal of work to be done. Injury continues to be the number one killer of Canadian teenagers, taking the lives of 700 youth every year. There are more than 16,000 hospital visits annually as a result of preventable injuries. And let us not forget that the cost to the Canadian economy for injury approaches $20 billion annually.
In closing, I am particularly pleased that we were able to stabilize the finances of SMARTRISK, while at the same time double our program reach across the country. We re-energized our Board with new and committed individuals who will steward SMARTRISK effectively to its new destination. Finally, we are playing a leadership role in bringing the key national injury organizations together to collaborate and begin to advance the injury cause in Canada.
I look forward to watching SMARTRISK from a new vantage point, as it continues to work on this most important cause. I thank you all for your support and I wish you the very best.
Robert A. Baker, President & CEO
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