Get Alarmed, Virginia!

Virginia State Dept Of Health, Richmond VA

Investigators

Abstract

The Virginia Department of Health, Center for Injury and Violence Prevention[unreadable] will implement Get Alarmed, Virginia!, a smoke alarm installation and fire safety education[unreadable] program, in two selected high-risk communities for each year of the five-year project in the[unreadable] Commonwealth of Virginia. These high-risk communities will be selected through the[unreadable] State's competitive negotiation process. High-risk communities will be identified as areas[unreadable] whose populations are less than 50,000, have mean household incomes below the poverty[unreadable] line, and fire-related fatal and non-fatal injuries and/or fire mortality and fire incidence rates[unreadable] above the State and National averages. In addition, households with children under 5 and[unreadable] elderly 65 and over will be targeted.[unreadable] The Get Alarmed, Virginia! program will mobilize both public and private[unreadable] organizations in a collaborative effort to reduce the number of residential fire-related injuries[unreadable] and fatalities in identified high-risk communities and increase the capacity of local fire safety[unreadable] education programs to address the prevention of fire-related injuries in their areas. Each[unreadable] year, selected communities and local coordinators will organize community-based fire safety[unreadable] coalitions and will develop and implement smoke detector installation programs for high-risk[unreadable] populations in their area. Key personnel, both paid and volunteer, will be trained in fire -[unreadable] safety education, proper installation, placement, and maintenance of smoke alarms.[unreadable] Community-specific analyses will be conducted, which will include a map of all[unreadable] fires, source of fires, fire injuries and fire deaths that occurred during the project period in the[unreadable] target communities. Outcome and process evaluation will be conducted using a pre- and[unreadable] post-survey tool, fire-incidence data, and grantee progress reports.