Partners & Collaborators

World Health Organization - Safety Community Designation
Recently, through the efforts of a collaboration of organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Omaha Metroplex and lead collaborator, the National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter, a WHO "Safe Community". At the time of the recognition, Greater Omaha was only the fourth American community to receive this prestigious recognition.

This prestigious designation launches eastern Nebraska and western Iowa - not just Omaha - into the ranks of such diverse locales as Rotterdam, Netherlands; Melbourne, Australia; Suwon, Korea; Calgary, Canada; and Bergan, Norway as well as the handful of American cities who have previously received the designation: Dallas, TX, Anchorage, AK, and Springfield MO.

Being designated a "Safe Community" doesn't mean that everyone here is perfectly safe, or that the work of the community is done. Rather, it is recognition of the community's efforts to work towards an overall climate that encourages, respects, and rewards safety, at work, at play, at home, and all points in between.

Working together, the Greater Omaha Community will continue this collaboration for a "Safe Community." As a member of this global initiative, we will participate in conferences, and share our findings, our research, and our expertise. Our five county area will benefit as we learn from those with similar missions in the United States and all across the world.

Partners for Child Safety

With a growing concern and significant investment by Children's Hospital, Kohl's Department Store and the National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter a partnership was formed in 2005 to reduce injury and fatality of children birth to age 14. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death and hospital discharges for children under 14 in the U.S. and in Nebraska. Annually an average of 40,000 children to age 14 is seriously injured. Most of these injuries were preventable.

Because of the tremendous investment by the partners; fathers, mothers, children, grandparents, caregivers, and families have learned about the multitude of big and small things that they can do in daily life to reduce the risk of injury to children. They learned through health fairs, special events, brochures, flyers, articles, news reports, talk shows, magazine articles, television and radio. There were hands-on demonstrations, activity oriented learning, practice makes perfect events, and classroom and parent education.