Welcome to ECIC News! Please see our highlights from the last Quarterly Meeting and specific core updates below. Don't forget to come to the next Brown Bag Lecture on Poisoning Surveillance and Epidemiology March 22nd during National Poison Prevention Week!

• We discussed President Obama's proposal to reduce gun violence, specifically ending the freeze on gun violence research. 

• ECIC's 2nd Holiday Networking Mixer was a lot of fun! We enjoyed appetizers, drinks, and good company at the Miller-Ward Alumni House. Thank you for donating items to the DeKalb Rape Crisis Center.

• Thank you to everyone who filled out our practitioner needs assessment survey. Your answers helped inform the topic and structure of the Practitioner Training Program. 

• ECIC submitted a proposal for an Injury and Violence Prevention Certificate Program to the Laney Graduate School for doctoral and MPH students.  

• Ms. Lisa Dawson, Georgia Department of Public Health's Director of the Office of Injury Prevention and ECIC Co-Associate Director of Community Outreach, gave us an overview of the Georgia legislative process and gave us a review of the injury-related bills to track during this session. 

Education & Training

• Practitioner Training Program: We hosted our 3rd Practitioner Training on March 12th at the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH). Dr. Kirsten Rodgers, Training Team Lead for Emory's Prevention Resource Center and faculty at RSPH, led a fantastic workshop: Program Planning: Using Evidence-based Strategies for Effective Injury Prevention.

• Brown Bag Lecture Series: Georgia was the first state to write a suicide prevention plan. Dr. Carol Koplan's Brown Bag Lecture: The Growth of Suicide Prevention Activities in Georgia taught us about the severity of this type of violence and gave us a great overview of Georgia's prevention initiatives. Don't miss the next lecture on March 22nd: Poisoning Surveillance and Epidemiology with Dr. Joshua Schier from CDC's National Center for Environmental Health. Come learn about the epidemiology of our nation's prescription drug abuse problem and learn how the CDC uses the National Poison Center Reporting Database for public health surveillance! For more information and to listen to recordings visit our website.  

• Social Media Lecture Series: This new series continues to be a success! On Feb. 26th we heard from Kate Finneran, Public Health Program Associate from RSPH, on: Using Facebook to Recruit Hard-to-Reach Participants. Kate shared the pros and cons (scientific and financial) of using Facebook to recruit specific populations and opened our minds to so many possibilities. Join us April 29th for the 3rd Social Media Lecture focused on: LinkedIn with Carolyn Bregman and Stacey Gall from Emory's Alumni Association.  Come learn how to expand your community and professional network by creating and using LinkedIn groups.  

• Faculty Mentorship Program: The 6 mentor/mentee pairs are building upon each other's strengths and experiences in this structured 7-month program. The mentoring pairs come from 5 different institutions all with goals and objectives to advance scholarship of the faculty mentee. The mentor pairs came together in October during the Kick-off event and have 2 formal workshops focused on professional development with a celebration event in May. Learn more here.  

• Summer Student Scholarship Program: Now accepting applications! This is a great opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students interested in injury and violence prevention. This scholarship helps support injury-related projects over the 2013 summer. Download an application and learn more here. 

Research
ADVANCE

• WestJEM: A big thank you to everyone who submitted or reviewed a manuscript for our 4th ECIC special issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (WestJEM). This year's topic is Multidisciplinary and Novel Approaches to Injury and Violence Prevention Research, and it's looking to be another great edition. We expect this issue to be published
  
  in Summer 2013. Links to the three prior ECIC issues are on our website.  

• RespectCon 2013: ECIC will be at RespectCon 2013 on April 12th. This conference is hosted by Emory's Respect Program and focuses on sexual violence prevention on college campuses. Register and be a part of this exciting event! 

• GPHA Conference: The Georgia Public Health Association's Annual Meeting and Conference is coming up April 22 - 23 at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta. Don't forget to register and when you're there stop by ECIC's exhibit table and say hello! 

• Safe States/SAVIR Conference: The Safe States Alliance and the Society for Advancement of Injury Research (SAVIR) will host their 2013 National Meeting June 5 - 7th in Baltimore, MD with Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. ECIC will be presenting: Strategies for Promoting Injury Prevention Messages Using Social and Major Media Outlets. 

• ASC Conference: We are excited that this year's American Society of Criminology conference will be held right here in Atlanta, November 20 - 23, 2013. Members of the ECIC community hosted a panel at last year's conference and plans to host another titled: Innovative Partnerships and Strategies to Reduce Violence in Georgia. This is a fantastic conference, so we really encourage more of the ECIC community to get involved this year! Visit the ASC website for more information.

ECIC Associate Director of Research 

Community Outreach
PRACTICE

• Save the Date: The Division of Aging Services will host their annual Healthy Communities Summit June 4 - 6 at the Marriott Macon City Center, Macon, Georgia. This year's theme is Expanding Our View of Healthy Communities. CEU credits for dietitians, social workers and health educators will be available. Please mark your calendars for this informative event.

• Rural Roads Initiative: We are thrilled to share a great Injury save! Our Jesup field office administers Drive Alive, a teen program to increase seat belt use among rural teens. The program, part of the Rural Roads Initiative, is funded through the Governor's office of Highway Safety and includes education, incentives, programs/activities, and law enforcement support. A high school student in Appling County was driving home from a school event and crossed lanes. She hit a culvert and flipped her car. Her seat belt prevented her from being ejected from the vehicle. The student credits the Drive Alive program with encouraging her to wear her seat belt. Check out the full story here, as reported by Baxley News.   

Ms. Lisa Dawson
ECIC Associate Director of Community Outreach

Policy
CHANGE

• Georgia's Legislative Session: We are currently in the 153rd legislative session which began Jan. 14th and will adjourn in April. Please visit ECIC's GA Policy News page for specific injury bill tracking information. 

• Crossover Day: March 7th was Crossover Day, the last day for legislation to pass the chamber in which it was introduced and transfer to the other chamber for consideration. Below are some injury-related bills that made it through.

• Protection of Disabled Adults and Elder Persons (HB78): This bill would expand the protection of older adults, revise definitions of elder abuse, and prohibit exploitation of disabled adults, elder persons and residents in long-term care facilities. 

• Safe Carry Protection Act (HB512): This bill would change the provisions relating to carrying weapons in unauthorized places. It would allow firearms to be carried in government buildings, places of worship, and bars, among many other changes relating to weapons licensing and changing safety zones. 

Next Meeting: April 24th
CONNECT

 

Sincerely,

 
Brown Bag Lecture Series

Congratulations to Dr. Claire Sterk!

 
Read more...

Community-Based Participatory Health Research: Issues, Methods, and Translation to Practice is a great new resource. Check out Chapter 2 written by ECIC Associate Director for Community Outreach, Dr. James P. Griffin, Jr.

Kia Colbert joined us last year as Project Coordinator for the WIC IPV Kiosk Study and we are thrilled she is now  Coordinator for ECIC's Research and Administrative Cores.