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Safe Communities is a World Health Organisation (WHO) endorsed approach that originated in Sweden in the 1970's and the formal approach began in 1989. A Safe Community can be a country, city, local government area or a district focused on safety promotion, injury, violence and suicide prevention, covering all age groups, genders and areas and is a part of an international network of accredited programs. [23]
"The safe community model aims to understand injury and intervene at a community level. By involving the community in finding its own solutions, it aims to be a catalyst for environmental, structural, sociological and political change that empowers the community, and ultimately the individuals within the community to change their environment and their behaviours to reduce the risk of injury and increase the perception of safety." [24]
To become a designated Safe Community, communities need to meet the following six WHO Safe Community Indicators which can provide a useful guide for community action to prevent injury/promote safety:
However the Safe Community approach is more a process than a program and designation more a commitment to the ongoing process of becoming a Safe Community, than a statement of what the community has achieved at the time of designation. [25]
A Cochrane review: "The WHO Safe Communities" model for the prevention of injury in whole populations: conducted in 2005, concluded that "evidence suggests the WHO Safe Communities model is effective in reducing injuries in whole populations. However, important methodological limitations exist in all studies from which evidence can be obtained. A lack of reported detail makes it unclear which factors facilitate or hinder a programme's success". [25]
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