Fall 2021
Quarterly Newsletter
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How the Positive Culture Framework Can Help You in Your Work |
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Often those working in the field of health and safety / prevention / health promotion can feel overwhelmed trying to pull all the moving pieces of a successful effort together. This is where the Positive Culture Framework (PCF) is so helpful to those embarking on (or in the midst of) a behavior change effort or any sort of health and safety endeavor. The PCF provides a process or a way to organize all of the strategies, programs, stakeholders, etc. involved in improving health and safety. The PCF can help you be more effective at improving health and safety.
Certain unique tenets are foundational to the PCF framework, setting it apart from other programs or efforts. First, the PCF focuses on growing positive shared values and beliefs that support health and safety. Whatever your focus topic or issue, we would help you identify the positive values and beliefs that exist surrounding that issue to improve the health and/or safety of your community or organization. This does not mean that we ignore or minimize the harm or risks that exist, but it does mean that we rely on hope to foster change rather than fear appeals.
Second, the PCF spans the social environment or the social ecology, as we refer to it. This means we would help you look for ways to impact the values and beliefs across the layers of your community’s or organization’s social environment so that a truly cultural approach would be applied.
Third, through the process laid out by the PCF, your efforts would be guided, and critical skills would be developed. Improving health and safety is in itself an act of leadership where you lead people to make healthier and safer choices. Leadership skills are critical for effectiveness. Another essential skill for efforts to improve health and safety is communication, and the PCF will help you use communication to grow shared purpose and understanding, raise hope and concern, and motivate action. Ultimately, the PCF recognizes that no one strategy or program is going to be your silver bullet, so it addresses the complexity of working across the social environment with numerous stakeholders pulling multiple strategies together into a manageable portfolio by developing your skills of integration. Successful integration can increase your resource utilization, reduce competition and encourage cooperation, align purpose, and increase the effectiveness of your efforts.
If you are a leader, manager, practitioner, or stakeholder working in any area of health and safety (public health, traffic safety, child abuse prevention, domestic violence prevention, etc.) the PCF can help you in your work. It applies to a wide variety of issues at the local, state, national, and organizational levels. See different ways the PCF has been applied to improve health and safety across the country https://www.CHSCulture.org. |
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We Are Seeking Authors for a Special Edition of the Journal, Frontiers in Future Transportation, Vision Zero: The safe system approach and traffic safety culture
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Center for Health and Safety Culture Director, Nic Ward, will be a featured guest editor for the special edition of Frontiers in Future Transportation journal to be published in summer of 2022. The research topic for this special edition is “Vision Zero: The safe system approach and traffic safety culture.” As many within the U.S. and internationally adopt a vision of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2050, the Safe System approach and creating a positive traffic safety culture remain a research focus in reaching that vision. This call for research is open to contributors from different countries, disciplines, and safety-related domains. Abstracts will be accepted until November 21, 2021 and manuscripts until February 28, 2022. For more detailed information, https://chsculture.org/general-news/seeking-article-submissions-for-special-edition-traffic-safety-journal or contact Nic Ward with your specific questions.
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Examples of possible topics include (we are also open to other relevant ideas):
- Definition, history, and forms of “Vision Zero” and “Safe Systems” across countries (and industries).
- Processes for adopting and implementing the “Safe System” approach.
- Processes for adopting, implementing, and growing a positive “traffic safety culture.”
- Relationship between the “Safe System” approach and “traffic safety culture.”
- Moral and ethical basis of Vision Zero.
- Definition and role of “equity” in Vision Zero.
- Definition and role of culture in support of paradigm shifts and change management.
- Role of kinetic energy in Vision Zero.
- Changing role of enforcement.
- How to create effective stakeholder consortia to support the Safe System approach.
- Metrics to measure success with the Safe System approach and growing a positive traffic safety culture.
- Modal affordance and mechanisms for achieving a “Safe System” beyond a dominant automobility.
- … (other ideas)
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Together for Life Utah Project Expands Website With New Tool and Additional Rural Counties |
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Together with the Utah Highway Safety Office, the successful project to increase seat belt use in rural Utah continues to grow. At the beginning of August, the TogetherforLifeUtah.org website got a fresh new look to highlight the expanded tools, resources, and media for nine rural counties engaged in the project. The new website is open to all Utahns, so the tools and media are accessible for anyone to promote seat belt use.
The Together for Life project began in 2013 when the Utah Highway Safety Office focused efforts to address significant disparities in seat belt use rates between Utah’s urban areas where rates were at about 85% and rural area rates were as low as 55%. Since then, seat belt use has increased by an average of 20% in the initial seven focus counties compared to 7% in urban counties. Additionally, the numbers of unrestrained fatalities and serious injuries in these seven counties have also been lower. Recently two additional rural counties have engaged in the project.
A new tool designed to help individual users start the sometimes-tricky conversation of asking others to wear a seat belt joins the array of other tools and resources spanning the social ecology supporting the creation of workplace policies and family rules about always wearing a seat belt. To see more about the positive work going on in Utah, visit TogetherforLifeUtah.org. |
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July 29-30, 2021:
Jay Otto, M.S., conducted a 2-day Positive Culture Framework Communication Skills training for 33 employees at Idaho Transportation Department in Boise, ID.
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August 3-5, 2021:
Katie Dively, M.S., MCHES, hosted a 3-day Positive Culture Framework virtual training. According to Katie, this was an engaged group consisting of many people who work in traffic safety, NHTSA to be specific.
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August 17-18, 2021:
Annmarie McMahill, M.S., presented at the Montana Great Beginnings, Great Families Conference (virtually) where maternal, child and adolescent professionals, advocates, support staff, and providers come together for an innovative virtual conference to improve the health and well-being of Montanans by increasing the efficacy of maternal, early childhood and youth programs throughout the state.
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September 8, 2021:
Jay Otto, M.S., presented a webinar, “Guidance on Messaging to Avoid Psychological Reactance and Address Moral Disengagement.” This webinar summarized the findings of a project sponsored by the Transportation Pooled Fund on Traffic Safety Culture (lead by the Montana Department of Transportation), which explored whether psychological reactance or moral disengagement is more prevalent among adult drivers who never or rarely wear their seat belts or who drive aggressively (i.e., speed, follow too closely, and pass excessively) and to identified potential messaging to minimize reactance and overcome moral disengagement regarding seat belt use and aggressive driving.
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September 15, 2021:
Kari Finley, Ph.D., conducted a Stigma training for the Teton County Health Department in Jackson, WY which included attendees in a combined face-to-face and virtual format.
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September 22, 2021:
Jay Otto, M.S., did a presentation on the Three Lessons of the Positive Culture Framework for the Tazewell County Health Department in Peoria, IL.
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September 24, 2021:
Jay Otto, M.S., presented a webinar, “Guidance to Promote Family Rules and Workplace Policies to Reduce Cell Phone Use While Driving and Promote Engaged Driving.” This webinar summarized the findings of a project sponsored by the Transportation Pooled Fund on Traffic Safety Culture (lead by the Montana Department of Transportation) that used surveys among parents with teens who were driving and supervisors who supervised employees who drove for work to better understand their beliefs about distracted driving and about establishing (or clarifying) expectations and rules about distracted driving.
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October 7-8, 2021:
Kari Finley, Ph.D., will be hosting our Stigma training virtually. Please check our website for more info on upcoming trainings.
October 19-21, 2021:
Katie Dively, M.S., MCHES, will be hosting another Positive Culture Framework (PCF) open training, but this round is full. Please check our website for more info on the upcoming early 2022 PCF training.
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The Center for Health and Safety Culture is an interdisciplinary center serving communities and organizations through research, training, and support services to cultivate healthy and safe cultures. We are dedicated to applying research to develop sustainable solutions to complex social problems. Our research focuses on understanding how culture impacts behavior – especially behavior associated with health and safety. Some of our services include: |
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- Conducting, Exchanging, and Applying Research
- Cultural Assessments, Surveys, and Evaluation
- Brief Video Spotlights
- Positive Culture Framework
- Communication Skills – Social Norms Marketing
- Leadership Skills
- Integration Skills
- Stigma Training
- Moving From Knowledge to Practice
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Feel free to contact us if you are interested in our services. We are currently offering virtual trainings and hoping for onsite trainings to resume in the future. |
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