Special Edition - Safe States 2024 Annual Conference

In this episode, host Mighty Fine is live at the 2024 Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, asking participants how they are "blazing trails in injury and violence prevention," following the conference's theme.

Transcript

Mighty Fine  0:04  
Welcome to the Injury and Violence Prevention INdepth podcast.

My name is Mighty Fine, and I'm the host of this Safe States Alliance production. In this space, we'll engage in dialog with IVP professionals on a variety of issues to help inform our listeners on the latest trends and hot topics in injury and violence prevention on today's episode, we're coming to you live from Safe States 2024 Annual Injury and Violence Prevention Conference being held in Portland, Oregon. This meeting is a premier event for injury and violence prevention professionals working across a variety of settings to connect and learn from one another for three days, hundreds of professionals and advocates from state, local and tribal health, hospitals and healthcare research, academia, community based organizations and the federal government come together to share best practices and innovative solutions, discuss emerging issues and new research and really get a chance to hone their competencies in injury and violence prevention. So I say, if you haven't come before, you're definitely missing out, and you should consider coming. The opening keynote focused on healed people and recognizing that healed people can heal people a holistic approach to community violence. And we closed the conference with a session focused on climate resilience and community safety, injury and violence prevention in a changing world. In between those bookends, there was so many other topics discussed, from safe sleep and ACES program evaluation, addressing root causes for gun violence, engaging folks with lived experience intervention design and so so, so much more also in between those two, the opening session and the closing session, I had the privilege of stopping participants and having some time to talk with them about the theme for this year, which is blazing trails of progress and innovation. So they talked to me about how they were blazing trails and what innovation looked like to them from their different purviews. And it was a good conversation, and I look forward to you all getting a chance to listen in, but before you get a chance to listen in, I want to take some time to thank all of our conference sponsors and those sponsoring the podcast today, they include the Alaska Division of Public Health, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American trauma Association, children's safety network and Community Led Suicide Prevention at Education Development Center, Faegre Drinker, Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention, Safe Kids Worldwide, Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research, Society for Public Health Education and the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center. So again, a virtual round of applause and a hearty thank you for you all sponsoring again this episode of the podcast, and most certainly the annual conference. 

Thanks again for agreeing to be on the podcast. For our listeners, please tell us your name and the organization that you're representing today.

Jarmel Bell  3:13  
My name is Jarmel Bell. Work with founder and owner of Bell's Education. Okay,

Mighty Fine  3:20  
All right. I look forward to learning more about what you're doing. You know that the theme for this year's conference is blazing trails of progress and innovation, so I want to hear from you and your work that you're doing. How are you blazing trails? Or are thinking about innovation in your work?

Jarmel Bell  3:36  
Thank you for that question. One of the things Bell's Education does far as blazing the trail is we have an IME program, okay? We really work with youth and young adults in the areas of prevention. When it comes to the role of identity. We think when people understand their identity, it really starts to form and take shape of their behavior, and also just allows them to have a clear and confident sense of self. And so in our ime program, we really push forward the self identity of self respect, respect of others and leadership. It's like just a three pillar program, and from that, once a person really can gain that awareness of themselves, it really boosts their self esteem and and allows them to make much more healthier decisions. And so when trauma hits and and they're thinking about self harm or harming others, they're able to make better decisions.

Mighty Fine  4:36  
Yeah, I love that. I think that's so important, because you see yourself right, you value yourself, and you recognize how you operate within your community. And then what sounds like to me, what you all are instilling in those what's called Kids, the youth, right? They then are passing that on to the other spaces with that they occupy. So I would imagine their families, their friends, classmates. The like,

Jarmel Bell  5:00  
Yes, that's what tends to happen. Sometimes people hear about it, generational curses and things of that nature. And that's what happens when some people make the statement, hurt people, hurt people, kill people, help people. But I kick back at those statements sometimes, because even people may even say, you can't pour from an empty cup. Yes, but what happens when you really start to identify with who you are? And what happens some some people gain strength by just giving with and even when they've been depleted and have nothing left, they can find strength in giving to others, and so when they able to give back, and that's why it's so important to like know who you are, know what your triggers are, things of those nature. And once a person starts to understand their trauma and things that trigger them, it allows them to be able to give and so we can break those generational curses, those things and family violence, history and things and other stigmas that may be placed on people. So

Mighty Fine  6:01  
yeah, I like that you said that, because when you think about it, I heard that phrase time and time again. Hurt people hurt people. It's almost as as if we're seeing it as inevitable and not preventable, like you're saying like you can actually interrupt that cycle, right? We recognize that, but it doesn't have to be that way, you know? 

Jarmel Bell  6:19  
So I appreciate you making that, that call out and that distinction, This wasn't easy. The work that we do here is hard, and it gets taxing for the people that love what we do. And so sometimes it's easy to get behind some of these cliches, sayings, and then, and then throw our hands up, and then you allow people to have excuses or crutches or to continue a cycle. And so to break that, you have to sometimes challenge the ideology of how someone's thinking

Mighty Fine  6:52  
Yeah, and so, how we've been taught and sort of perpetuate without even realizing what we're doing. So again, I applaud that that redirection that sounds like that you all are doing. Is this your first year at Safe States?

Jarmel Bell  7:06  
Second year. Really enjoy myself getting a chance to watch some of these amazing presenters, amazing conference they're putting on. And I just love work and collaboration and their work. So yeah, and then I wouldn't be here with you

Mighty Fine  7:22  
Yes. Hey, I appreciate you being here with me. Ifully appreciate that. And then I think you're a testament to the folks listening in who have yet to come to a meeting. It's like, once you get in here, you realize the value. You don't keep coming back. So thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.

Jarmel Bell 7:32
Thank you for having me, 

Mighty Fine 7:34
Of course!

Mighty Fine 7:36
 Thank you for joining us for today's episode, very special episode, I think, live and in color from Portland, Oregon. So our listeners know who you are, tell us your name and your organization. Hi.

Jennifer Schusterman  7:52  
I'm Jennifer Schusterman, and I work with the New Mexico Department of Health and the childhood injury prevention coordinator. 

Mighty Fine  8:00  
Thank you. Welcome Jennifer. So you know that the theme this year for the conference is blazing trails of progress and innovation. So I love to hear from you how you think the work that you're doing is blazing trails. 

Jennifer Schusterman  8:11  
That's a very good question. And I really like the theme this year for my specific position, we're really looking at an equitable lens, and making sure that our our children in New Mexico are safe, and some of the themes that we've been looking at specifically this year are safe sleep, and making sure that people can sleep safely with their child their own way. And we have a website that we've created, and we work collaboratively, breaking down silos within different agencies and then with nonprofits that also support infant safe sleep. So that's one of the things we've been working on, and recently I've also been working on a project for childhood passenger safety. Motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of death in children, so I've generated a report using data from our vital records and hospital I'm looking at all those pieces of data and then looking at our legislation and saying, How can we possibly change what we're seeing as far As our childhood injuries and fatalities as a result of a traffic collision. And another thing that I've been really proud of this year was we collaborated with the Department of Game and Fish. New Mexico is a rural state. We do a lot of outdoor activities, just like in Oregon, but we also were seeing a lot of injuries and fatalities in off highway vehicles. So collaborating with Department of Game and Fish to promote what type of trainings and classes they have, and they're actually pretty reasonable in price. They if the kids pass the class, they get a free pair of goggles to protect their. Eyes while they're going out on their highway vehicles a good incentive. Yeah, yeah. So it's been really wonderful to be able to trailblaze by working with other entities in the state, whether it's another government agency or if it's a nonprofit, to make sure our kids are safe.

Mighty Fine  10:20  
Got it! Well, thank you for blazing trails. Thank you for joining us at this year's conference, and keep up the fantastic work that you're doing. 

Jennifer Schusterman  10:28  
Thank you so much for having me 

Mighty Fine  10:29  
Of course!

Mighty Fine 10:33
Thank you so much for joining us for this live edition of IVP in depth, so the folks at home know who you are. Tell us your name and your organization.

Victoria Green  10:39  
 Of course, my name is Victoria Green, and I am with the Montana Violent Death Reporting System Program. I have been a project coordinator for the program as of May 2024 Okay,

Mighty Fine  10:52  
So sort of new, right. Yes, awesome. I work closely with folks at the national level for NVDRS. So glad to be chatting with you today. So as you know, the theme for the conference is blazing trails of progress and innovation. So thinking about the work that you do, talk to us a little bit about how you're blazing trails of progress and innovation in your work,

Victoria Green  11:15  
Certainly. So we are blazing trails of Montana's the DRS program because we are one of the few states where we are criminal justice recipients within our state. Okay? So that means that the governor signed an executive order allowing our program to be able to receive data a lot easier when it comes to toxicology law enforcement reports as well as the death certificates. And so because of that ability, we're able to get data from multiple sources and actually be able to take that de identified data and put it into our system, our VDRS system. So because that, we have better data quality, and it's a lot easier for us to communicate and have these conversations with our data providers about receiving data, kind of

Mighty Fine  12:05  
Yes. I mean, I'm a fan of data. I'm an epidemiologist by training, so I appreciate it, and I recognize how useful it is as we're thinking about not only providing data for the VDRs or NVDRS broadly, but also as those data are being analyzed to help us think about prevention and intervention when we're thinking about ways to thwart violent death or suicide, etc. So so thank you for the work that you're doing.

Victoria Green  12:31  
Thank you. We actually are launching a new death case management system, okay, in September, and we hope that with this system, will be able to receive even higher quality data, and hopefully down the line, this system will be able to communicate with other death case systems, so that it can be a lot less repetition for some of our data providers. When it comes to giving us this information, we've also had the luxury of being able to create a violent death reporting dashboard, and so yes, it's open to the public, and it allows individuals to go on to the site and explore, really, what is the causes or some of the factors, I should say, associated with deaths. You can see if, at the moment of the investigation, if they had found drugs on the same What kind of drugs, if the individual had certain drugs, ecology report, whether or not they left a suicide note or not, and other things such as that,

Mighty Fine  13:33  
I love that because it allows folks who have an interest in the issue area to engage with it differently than someone who's crunching the numbers or contributing the data. So I love that. It provides access to everybody, and they're unable to understand, as I say, and look beyond the numbers and getting into the data and getting a more complete picture of what's happening in their locality. So kudos to you all for that.

Victoria Green  13:58  
Thank you. It's really thanks to our epidemiologist, as well as our VDRS data abstractor, they work really hard to make sure you have everything

Mighty Fine  14:07  
Those abstractors. I mean, sheesh,

Victoria Green  14:11  
Yes, they do a lot of the hard work. Absolutely. I appreciate our abstractors attention to detail, and she's really make sure that we have clean, accurate data, and

Mighty Fine  14:22  
We love that, right? Well, thank you again, so much for stopping by. It's been a pleasure. 

Victoria Green  14:27  
Yes, thank you

Mighty Fine  14:28  
Of course! 

Mighty Fine 14:30
Thank you for joining us, and so our listeners know who I'm talking to tell us your name and your organization. Yeah,

Alanna Truss  14:35  
I'm Alana Truss, and I am here representing Be Smart, which is a program developed by Every Town for Gun Safety Support Fund with the goal of bringing together parents and really all adults to have a conversation around secure firearm storage in order to keep our kids and communities safe.

Mighty Fine  14:51  
Awesome. And as you know, we're here at the annual conference in the theme this year is blazing trails of progress and innovation. So I. Already have my thoughts about how you're innovating in your work, but I think it would be better for us to hear from you and tell us how you're blazing trails and all of those things for sure.

Alanna Truss  15:09  
Well, I think you know, before we think about what we're blazing trails and looking at the data a little bit, we know that in 2020 firearms became the leading cause of death for youth in America. I'm here from Tennessee, and Tennessee is unfortunately outpacing those national averages, so there's definitely room to think about, how can we come together in community and keep our kids safe from gun violence? Tennessee can be a hard state to talk about guns in, at least. That's what I thought. Okay, what I've realized is the Be smart approach to this message is nonpartisan. It's shared values based approach. When you can talk to parents and adults about, hey, we all really want our kids and communities to be safe, let's talk about some ways we can do that. Yes, you put yourself on the same footing, and you can have a really meaningful conversation about the role of secure storage in that, and

Mighty Fine  15:57  
It removes any sort of judgment, right? This is a situation. How do we address it?

Alanna Truss  16:03  
And part of you know be smart is that education around if you are a firearm owner, how and why do you go about storing but there's also a component that is about, even if you're not a firearm owner, how do you talk to your neighbors, the grandparents, the places your kids go and spend time? How do you ask in a positive, non judgmental way. And we encourage families to use that assumptive language of, hey, you know my kids coming over to play. I know we talked about your pool already and your pets. If you are a firearm owner, would you mind just letting me know how those firearms are stored? My kid is so curious, and I guarantee you he will probably find So really taking that shared for parents. And we love our kids. Yes,

Mighty Fine  16:41  
I love that. It just reminds me of sort of the conversations that I've had when we talk about firearms, irrespective of your positioning on firearm ownership, but linking it to motor vehicles and recognizing that there were, you know, challenges with the vehicle, right? Yes, so do you remove the car from the road? No, we figure out a way to operate safely in a world with guns, with cars and the like. So I think this approach not apples to apples, but it sort of lends to that same ideologies. This is a situation that we have. How do we keep people as safe as possible, particularly children in this case, well, and

Alanna Truss  17:16  
I love that you mentioned motor vehicles, because when we look at those trend lines, right, motor vehicles were the number one vehicle or number one killer of children for so many years, and that number has plummeted because of that, we took a public health approach, and there's no reason we can't take that same approach with firearms. In Tennessee, you know, I started doing this work, tabling at community events, having those one-on-one conversations with families, which I love to do. That brings me so much joy. When a family says, Can I take one of those cable gun locks? You're like, yes, you please take multiple. Do you have someone else who might use one? But in the last couple of years, and what brought me to Safe States this year I forged a partnership with our Tennessee Department of Health. I said, How can we reach more people than those just those smaller community events and through some serendipitous connections and partnerships and relationships. And really this works all about relationship. This past year, we trained all of the evidence based home visitors across the state of Tennessee, so they fall under that Department of Health umbrella, and they are now taking that message into homes to families that they're working with. They're already asking about safe sleep and lead paint, okay, and nutrition. So rolling in this firearm conversation in an approachable way has been wonderful, and the feedback we've gotten from those home visitors who are initially like, you want me to talk about what their comfort go up, their effectiveness go up, and they're getting positive response from the families they work with and

Mighty Fine  18:41  
I love that, because it normalizes it we're asking about risks and all these other categories. Why not add that to the fold as well? Yeah, so you certainly are blazing trails, and I appreciate you stopping by to chat with me today. 

Alanna Truss  18:54  
Thanks for having me 

Mighty Fine  18:55  
Of course.

Mighty Fine 19:00
Thank you for listening to IVP INdepth and this very special episode, be sure to subscribe and listen to us on Apple podcast, Spotify or Google podcast. You can also follow Safe States on Twitter/X at Safe States and the same for LinkedIn. Don't forget to check out our website at safestates.org, for more injury and violence prevention tools and resources. Again, I'd like to thank all of our sponsors for this episode and the conference and helping Safe States to create space for programs such as this. With that, this is your host, mighty fine. Signing off and until next time, stay safe and injury-free. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai