• What is ACTS?
• What assets and deficits are included in ACTS?
• Why was ACTS created?
• Is a community coalition needed?
• How can we develop a successful community coalition?
• Can I review my county's traffic crash injury data?
• What steps are necessary to implement the ACTS process?
• How do we get started collecting the data?
• What are some tips for completeing the surveys?
• How do we market the ACTS concept to the community?

Assessing Community Traffic Safety (ACTS) is intended to be the first step in problem and solution identification. It gives Safe Community coalitions a means of identifying their resources (or assets) to address traffic safety problems (or deficits). It is important to learn what resources or best practices communities can access, and how they will use them to address key injury problems caused by traffic crashes. From the "Help" menu on the home page, download the ACTS Workbook for a complete explanation.

From the home page, review the site links on the left side of the page. Click on the words: "assets" and "deficits" to review the list. Notice that the assets are divided into five categories: coordination, engineering, enforcement, campaigns, and education. For the 19 deficits, 11 focus on crash-injury data for each county, and the other 8 are perceptual measures of problems in a community.

Many communities across the state need a tool to better understand traffic safety challenges and to implement strategies capable of addressing these challenges. They are attracted to ACTS (Assessing Community Traffic Safety) because it provides a template for thinking about the complex issue of traffic safety. And, it provides specific recommendations about where communities should begin to address their traffic safety problems. ACTS is easy to use and informative.

The first key to making ACTS work is having a strong, active coalition that is committed to traffic safety. One officer or health professional working alone is unlikely to be successful with ACTS. A coalition is needed to gather the support and resources necessary to implement any community-wide programs to address traffic safety deficits.

From the Home Page, click on the "Help" link. From there, download the module focusing on coalition building. That module will explain how to start a coalition, and how to energize it.

Yes, you can review your county’s crash data by clicking on the "Data" link on the home page. Then, click on the county you want to examine. The data will list 11 injury parameters. The overall rank refers to where the county is relative to the whole state. Any parameter that places the county in the top 25% of the state is an injury challenge for that county. To understand how the data in the other columns are determined, read the ACTS Workbook found in the Help menu.

1. Key community leaders form a Safe Community Coalition.

1. The coalition leadership then asks community members to complete the ACTS tool.

2. The coalition leadership enters the data into the ACTS web site.

3. The coalition then meets to review the scores by focusing first on the deficits, and deciding what deficit areas to address. Clicking on the deficit area creates an "Asset Development Plan" which identifies assets that are needed to offset the deficit area.

4. At the bottom of each Asset Development Plan page is an "Action Plan" form that the coalition can complete to create their Action Plan. Refer to the ACTS Workbook for an explanation of how to complete the Action Plan.

5. The coalition then implements the Action Plan and evaluates its effectiveness.

The ACTS tool contains 25 short surveys. They seek to gather information from specific individuals about their perceptions of the traffic safety assets and deficits in their community. The surveys do not need to be filled out in any particular order. Completing all within about 60 days will provide a good understanding of resources and problems. Certainly, more information about each resource and problem can be gathered, but remember, the goal is to get a good snapshot of what is going on.

Tip 1: All surveys should be completed by a specific person in the community with the exception of the Youth and Community surveys. These two are distributed to large groups of youth and community members, respectively, to get their opinions about traffic safety. About 300 Youth and Community surveys should be completed. Print out the questionnaires and distribute them.

Tip 2: Someone must be named as the Project Director, and the surveys must be returned to that person. It is essential to keep the process organized at all costs. If more than one person directs the data collection process, surveys will get lost.

Tip 3: The Survey Director should keep a notebook of all the persons who have been contacted to complete questionnaires. Who has been contacted, who has completed a survey, and who has not completed one? Again, keep this process organized.

Tip 4: The Survey Director should use the following steps to distribute the surveys:

Step 1: Identify the person(s) who should complete the survey. The intended subject is listed at the top of the survey. The coalition should prepare a list of individuals whose opinion about traffic safety is important. Who are the stakeholders that must be aware of the coalition and its efforts?

Step 2: Call the person, then send the survey. Call the person, and ask that individual to complete the survey in one to two weeks and return it, or fax it back to the Project Director. If the survey is not returned, then follow up. Instructions for completing the Youth and Community surveys precede each of those surveys in the ACTS Workbook from the Help Menu.

Step 3: Enter the surveys in the ACTS website. At the home page, find the section that says, "Create a new survey." Select the survey you want to complete, and click "go." Then, click on the answers reflected in the paper survey you are entering. At the end of the survey click "Save." Once the large survey data are summarized, it should take only a few hours to enter all the surveys into the software.

Step 4: Create the Action Plan. Once the data are entered, you can prepare a final one-page Action Plan that lists the assets and deficits revealed from the data. That report is best completed by clicking on the "Deficits" page. That page lists all 19 deficits, and each is scored from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means that the deficit scores are well below state averages. A score of 100 means that the deficit is significantly higher than state averages. Clicking on a deficit reveals the Asset Development Plan (ADP) that clusters the assets best capable of addressing each deficit. Next to each asset on that page is the asset score. A score of 100 means that everyone agrees that the community currently practices or demonstrates the asset. A score of 0 indicates that everyone agrees that the asset is not used. Notice that all assets and deficits higher than 75 are highlighted. These are the deficits and assets that should draw your attention.

The ADP provides suggestions for which assets should be used to fight the specific deficits. It is generally useful to select perhaps the asset with the lowest score in each of the five categories and begin building that asset. To learn how to build the asset, simply click on it and the asset is described along with program options capable of building that asset.

Step 5: Construct a Traffic Safety Action Plan. Once the asset-deficit report is complete, the Safe Community committee should meet and create an Action Plan. The committee should complete the Action Plan form at the bottom of each Asset Development Plan for each deficit area. Refer to the ACTS Workbook to develop the plan.

It is important to recognize that the ACTS Concept must be marketed to the community. The concept of assessment can be sold by pointing out the value of understanding what challenges or deficits the community has, and what resources are available to address them. Try the following steps in marketing ACTS:

Step 1: Give the coalition a brief training session on ACTS. Distribute the ACTS brochures. Point out the value of completing the process, and the ease of collecting the data. Indicate that doing the assessment also advertises the coalition and its mission.

Step 2: Give the coalition a sample report from the ACTS website. Ask them to pretend the data are their own, and ask what they would do to begin constructing a Traffic Safety Plan.

Step 3: Create a sample Plan on a flip chart. Ask the group to think about how they would implement a program that builds the assets. They can use the Traffic Safety Plan Worksheet if they like.

Step 4: Help the group determine how they might begin. Groups may want to start the process soon. What should be their first step? Make sure you identify your role in helping them. Present information about Module 5 if necessary.