[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE MID-SOUTH SAFE KIDS COALITION

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. HAROLD E. FORD, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 16, 2002

  Mr. FORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding 
achievements of the Mid-South SAFE KIDS Coalition and to pay tribute to 
this organization for its tireless dedication to preventing childhood 
injuries.
  Each year 6,700 children in this country die from preventable 
injuries while another 120,000 suffer permanent disabilities. In the 
Mid-South region alone, 20 children die each month due to injury, while 
at the Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, TN there are 
more than 12,000 children admitted to the hospital due to preventable 
injuries every year.
  The Mid-South SAFE KIDS Coalition, housed at the Le Bonheur 
Children's Medical Center, has for the past ten years sought to reduce 
these unnecessary tragedies by sponsoring a variety of outreach 
programs designed to educate parents and caregivers about safety and 
injury prevention.
  Established in 1992 as part of the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, the 
Mid-South Coalition is part of the first and only nationwide childhood 
injury prevention effort. The Coalition has combined community action, 
public awareness, and public policy initiatives to bring about a 
systematic, ongoing response to child injury in Mid-South Communities.
  Recently, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign signed a formal agreement 
with the Mid-South Coalition and the Le Bonheur Children's Medical 
Center to help build and sustain a broad-based children's injury 
prevention effort designed to reduce the number of preventable injuries 
affecting children in the Mid-South.
  Through this agreement, the Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center has 
become one of the nation's leading childhood injury treatment centers, 
providing services from pre-hospital care, to in-hospital treatment, to 
outpatient follow-up care.
  In addition to treatment services, the Mid-South Coalition provides 
equally valuable prevention services including initiatives like the 
Buckle Up program, Cycle Smart, Project Get Alarmed, and Safety in the 
Home.
  The service the Mid-South SAFE KIDS Coalition provides to local 
children's safety is immeasurable, although a recent study of childhood 
injuries published in the August 2002 issue of Injury Prevention 
Journal noted that the implementation of the Mid-South SAFE KIDS 
Coalition was associated with a 30 percent decrease in the rate of 
severe motor vehicle occupant injuries treated at Le Bonheur.
  Before the establishment of the Coalition, severe unintentional 
injury rates in Shelby County mirrored national rates, yet, the 
decrease in Shelby County injury rates after the establishment of the 
Coalition was markedly greater than national averages.
  The results of this study were so significant that the researchers, 
including Susan Helms, the coordinator of the Mid-South Coalition have 
been invited to present their findings before the National SAFE KIDS 
Leadership Conference this week here in Washington.
  The Mid-South SAFE KIDS Coalition has proved to be an invaluable 
asset to my district and the Mid-South region. Its efforts to prevent 
childhood injury have directly led to a substantial increase in safety 
education and a vast reduction in preventable injuries to area 
children. They have truly provided a model for other children's 
protection agencies to emulate.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to honor the Mid-South SAFE KIDS 
Coalition today for its unbounded dedication to the prevention of 
childhood injury and its innumerable services to area children.

                          ____________________