Mission:

Safe Kids Maryland (formerly known as the Maryland SAFE KIDS Coalition) is a statewide coalition which exists for the purpose of reducing childhood disabilities and deaths due to unintentional injuries.

Safe Kids Maryland State Coalition is a non-profit, statewide, umbrella organization seeking to coordinate the efforts of childhood injury prevention agencies, organizations, and advocates.

The Problem:

• Preventable injury is the leading cause of death among children ages 14 and younger in the United States.

• Each year, some 5,300 children ages 14 and younger are killed and nearly 115,000 children are disabled by preventable injuries.

• One out of every four children, more than 14 million children ages 14 and younger, sustains injuries that are serious enough to require medical attention. These injuries have enormous financial and emotional effects on not only the child and family, but the community and society as a whole.

• Children primarily are at risk of unintentional injury-related death from: motor vehicle injuries which include children as occupants, pedestrians, and bicyclists; fire and burns; drowning; suffocation; choking; unintentional firearm injuries; falls; and poisonings.

• Every day, more than 39,000 children are injured seriously enough to require medical treatment, totaling more than 14 million children each year.

• Every year, injuries to children ages 14 and younger result in 233,000 hospitalizations, more than 6.4 million visits to emergency out-patient facilities, more than 2.3 million visits to hospital out-patient departments, and more than 17,000,000 visits to physicians’ offices.

• Among children ages 14 and younger, treatment for injury is the second leading cause of hospitalization and the leading cause of visits to hospital emergency departments.

The Goal:

Safe Kids Maryland State Coalition, in conjunction with Safe Kids Worldwide (formerly known as the National SAFE KIDS Campaign), have set goals to:

• Raise awareness among adults, especially parents and caregivers, that injuries are the leading health threat facing children today and that they are not random events but are preventable through behavioral, environmental, and legislative interventions;

• Build grassroots coalitions to implement childhood injury prevention strategies in each of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City;

• Educate adults and children about specific injury prevention techniques and emergency responses;

• make childhood injury prevention a public policy priority for federal, state, and local lawmakers, thereby increasing monetary and other resources allocated to childhood injury prevention programs and activities;

• Work for change in products, advertising, and the environment that will reduce the causes of injury.

Action Plan :Action Plan:

To accomplish these goals, in January, 1991, the Maryland SAFE KIDS Coalition (now Safe Kids Maryland) was established as an umbrella organization to serve as a clearinghouse and a resource center for unintentional childhood injury prevention agencies, organizations,
advocates, and local Safe Kids coalitions. Therefore, Safe Kids Maryland seeks to:

• Establish an organizational structure for planning, implementing, and evaluating Safe Kids local and/or state coalition activities;

• Institute a process of coordination with other organizations in order to plan Safe Kids local and/or state coalition activities;

• Work as a team to raise funds and in-kind contributions;

• Designate a Safe Kids coalition coordinator to work on local and state coalition activities on behalf of each of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City; and

• Revisit our mission statement and action plan yearly to assess our needs/programs and modify each as is deemed necessary.

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