HARTFORD, CT - Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center was awarded a $21,600 grant from the state Department of Transportation for its Violence and Injury Prevention Program, Let’s Not Meet by Accident.
The grant provides funding for 15 sessions of the half-day Let’s Not Meet by Accident program for high schools in the Greater Hartford area.
Let’s Not Meet by Accident is a community outreach educational program that encourages teens to make healthy choices in risky situations. As part of this program, high school students come to Saint Francis for an interactive, hands-on experience. The focus is on the following programs: Buckle Up, Teen Driving; Traumatic Brain Injury; Drinking and Driving; Distracted Driving; Teen Dating Violence; and Internet Safety/Bullying.
Through the program, high school students participate in interactive, hands-on activities that include a LifeStar/Helipad demonstration, observation of a trauma surgeon leading a mock trauma in the Trauma Room, and a presentation from a speaker whose life has been directly affected by injury or fatalities suffered from a motor vehicle crash.
The Let’s Not Meet by Accident program impacts teens by engaging them and developing their skills in making healthy choices by using conflict resolution skills, humor, personal responsibility and positive peer pressure in a developmentally appropriate and socially acceptable manner.
“At Saint Francis we see the consequences of teenage choices firsthand in our emergency department,” says Marisol Felicano, Violence & Injury Prevention Program, Program Coordinator. “Sadly, these unhealthy decisions are life-changing and even deadly – not only for the teen but for all others involved, including their family and friends.”
During the 2011-2012 school year,15 high schools registered for 18 sessions of the program, which were attended by students ranging from 14 to 20 years old.
