Since arriving at the Clayton County Board of Health (CCBOH) in
2010, few people have made as big of an individual impact as Enjoli
Jones.
As one of 25 people in the country selected in 2009 to
participate in the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) Public Health Prevention Service
Fellowship, Jones was assigned to Clayton County in order to
serve as CCBOH's Injury Prevention Coordinator. Since then,
she has spearheaded the Safe Kids Clayton County program, a
coalition dedicated to preventing unintentional injury among
Clayton County's children, particularly those ages 14 and
under.
"Our goal is to make our county safe for kids through
education, advocacy, and partnerships," Jones said. "We want
to prevent injury at home, at play, and on the way."
According to Jones, the top three unintentional injuries for
children under the age of 14 in Clayton County are motor
vehicle crashes, falls, and poisonings. The emergency room
visits resulting from those injuries place additional strain
on local hospitals, she said.
With no public funding to aid in her goal of creating a
sustainable injury prevention program in Clayton County,
Jones had to be creative. In 2011, after writing a
successful grant application, Jones made CCBOH one of 10
agencies in the United States to receive a $25,000 Task
Force Grant from Safe Kids USA and FedEx Corporation. She
used the momentum from the grant to establish the Safe Kids
Coalition in June of last year, as well as to fund the
coalition's first big tasks - locating areas in the county
where pedestrian safety for children could be improved and
targeting at least one of those areas for an improvement
project.
With the assistance of coalition partners such as the Clayton
County Police, Fire and EMS, Transportation and Development, and
Parks and Recreation departments, Safe Kids Georgia, and the
Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Safe Kids Clayton
County identified the Carl Rhodenizer Recreation Center as being
in need of pedestrian improvements. By the end of 2012, money
from the Task Force Grant will fund the installation of an
additional pedestrian crosswalk, flashing warning lights, and a
street light to improve visibility leading to and from
neighborhoods adjacent to the recreation center.
"There's a crosswalk at the traffic light which is on one side
of the center, but it's not convenient for people coming from
the other side," said Jones. "If a crosswalk isn't convenient,
people aren't going to use it. We want to make sure people
coming from north and south of the center have a safe place to
cross."
Jones' efforts haven't stopped at pedestrian crossings. In
July of last year, Safe Kids Clayton County and State Rep.
Sandra Scott (D-Rex) hosted a Health and Safety Fair in the
Rex area, which included personal health checks, diabetes
and bicycle safety education, arts and crafts, and free car
seat safety checks for parents with infant and child
carriers. In August and September, Safe Kids Clayton County
hosted successful car seat safety check events at Don
Jackson Mitsubishi in Union City and in Clayton County with
the Georgia State Patrol.
In October, Safe Kids Clayton County and Callaway Elementary
School in Jonesboro co-hosted an International Walk to
School Day event in which parents, teachers, and volunteers
accompanied children to school and taught them the tenets of
safe walking, such as never crossing between parked cars and
making sure all children under the age of 10 cross the
street with an adult present. Safe Kids is planning another
walking event with Callaway Elementary in March, with the
hopes of expanding the event to other schools in the area.
While entering year two of a two-year fellowship with CCBOH,
Jones hopes her work will contribute to continued efforts in
the county around injury prevention. "I want us to have a
sustainable injury prevention program in the county because
we don't have one currently. Safe Kids Clayton County is the
first step toward that."
