When you watch a child’s creativity come to life, you can see how their imaginations help them describe the world around them. Through their artwork, they can share their thoughts and ideas with a peer, parent, or teacher. They can express their feelings and their important lessons in life.

If you give a child the opportunity to teach others about safety in their own words and images, you give them a way of reaching out in original and imaginative ways! With this in mind, CDC’s Injury Center is launching the Be Heads Up Poster Contest, which asks kids and teens (ages 5-18) to Draw, Paint, Create— Be Heads Up about concussion safety at school, home, or play!

Injuries and violence kill 180,000 people each year.  Motor vehicle crashes, falls, homicides, and other types of injury events kill more people in the first half of life than any other cause — including cancer, HIV, or the flu. And they cost more than $406 billion in medical care and lost productivity each year. If you yourself have not been seriously impacted by injury or violence, you probably know someone who has.  

But what does that mean for public health? Where do injuries and violence fit into the plan to help people be able to live their lives to the fullest potential?

I still vividly remember my days working at a trauma center, treating victims of violence and traumatic events and working with communities to help prevent violence and injuries from happening in the first place.

I can clearly recall the faces and voices of children who came to the emergency department with injuries, and can still see the reactions of the parents who were told that their child had died from injuries; injuries that could have been prevented.  

Guest Blogger: Wendy Holmes, MS

Back-to-school season seems to usher a school bus load of paper into our home. It starts with a cheerful postcard showing my child’s new teacher. Then comes the packet with the welcome letter, transportation form, lunch form, contact information form, medical information form, the Parent Teacher Association form, the…well, you get the idea.