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NIOSH Publication No. 2005-134:Working Together for Safety — A State Team Approach to Preventing
Occupational Injuries in Young People |
May 2005 |
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DisclaimerMention of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In addition, citations to Web sites external to NIOSH do not constitute NIOSH endorsement of the sponsoring organizations or their programs or products. Furthermore, NIOSH is not responsible for the content of these Web sites. Ordering InformationThis document is in the public domain and may be freely copied or To receive documents or other information about occupational safety and health topics, contact NIOSH at NIOSH Telephone: 1–800–35–NIOSH (1–800–356–4674) or visit the NIOSH Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh AcknowledgementsThis report describes the Northeast Young Worker Resource Center, a project located at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), and funded (1998–2001) by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), through award number U60/CCU116091–03. Raymond Sinclair is the NIOSH project officer. At EDC, Christine Miara is the project director and Susan Gallagher the principal investigator. This publication was written by Marc Posner, with graphic design by Ronnie DiComo, both of EDC. We wish to thank the members of the State teams and community projects upon whose work this publication is based and who provided documents and materials, allowed themselves to be interviewed, and reviewed drafts of the manuscript. Anne Stirnkorb, Vanessa Becks, and Susan Afanuh provided editorial and graphic assistance. IntroductionMost young people work at some time during high school. Although working can be a positive experience, it also has risks. The Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor reports that 50 percent of youths between ages 15 and 17 work at some time during the course of a year and that 80 percent of students work at least some time during high school. Every year, at least 100,000 of these young people seek treatment in an emergency room for a work-related injury. Every year, at least 70 young people are killed on the job. Young people are injured in the workplace at twice the rate of adult workers. Yet no single agency has the ultimate responsibility for protecting young people from workplace hazards. What is needed is an approach that brings coherence and coordination to this mission. A State team for young worker safety is a coalition of agencies and organizations whose goal is to protect the safety and health of young people in the workplace. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a team as “a group organized to work together.” This definition goes to the heart of the State team approach. A State team is not a committee, task force, or blue ribbon panel. State teams do not exist to make recommendations, issue reports, share information, or discuss issues—although they can do all of these. State teams exist to work on concrete projects that protect young people from injuries in the workplace. Over the past 5 years, several of the States in the Northeastern part of the United States have successfully used the State team approach to improve their capacity to protect young workers. History of Young Worker State Teams in the NortheastThe efforts described in this publication build on the work of three community projects funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1995:
Northeast Young Worker Resource CenterNIOSH staff attending the meeting at EDC recognized that the State teams presented an important way of building State capacity to protect young workers. Thus, NIOSH funded the creation of the Northeast Young Worker Resource Center (NYWRC) at EDC. The purpose of the NYWRC was to facilitate the development and ongoing work of the State teams with technical assistance and resources, and thus to bring the experience of the three pilot projects to a broader audience. The assistance and resources provided by the NYWRC to the State teams and their community projects included the following:
OverviewWorking Together for Safety: A State Team Approach to Preventing Occupational Injuries to Young People was developed by EDC with funding from NIOSH. It begins with two case studies that demonstrate the value of the State team approach. The remainder of the document describes the experiences and activities of the State teams in the Northeast; the products developed by the teams for teens, parents, employers, school staff, health care providers, and others who can help protect young people from injury on the job; and key resources for other States interested in creating their own State teams. This publication reflects the hard work of a large number of dedicated people. We hope you will take advantage of their efforts and experience by using the strategies and activities described in these pages to prevent injuries to working youth in your State. Note: No Federal funds were used to support or participate in any of the advocacy or legislative activities in any of the States. |