The holidays are a time of joy and celebration for constituents of all backgrounds, all across the country. The season is marked with many local celebrations that take place; friends and family gather from all around to get together.
However, with increased travel and celebration comes a rise of potential safety hazards throughout your community. These risks can include but are not limited to, increased travel, winter weather conditions, and over-crowded holiday events.
A significant challenge of local governments is mitigating these winter hazards so that constituents stay as safe as possible despite seasonal obstacles that may arise.
Due to the nature of these potential safety concerns being largely unpredictable, the best thing local governments can do is prepare. Luckily, this article will highlight all the best ways to keep constituents safe and healthy during the happiest time of the year.
What Are Holiday Safety Best Practices?
While ‘best practice’ is a term used consistently in government circles, the definition may be fuzzy to some. Best practices ensure that your government is utilizing the most efficient and impactful measures possible to achieve any given task.
When it comes to holiday safety best practices, this means implementing the most effective and preventative measures with the sole intention of ensuring your constituents are out of harm's way.
Some common best practices for the holidays include keeping local streets safe for travel, sending out emergency weather alerts, and ensuring an air-tight crisis communication plan, just in case it’s needed at any point during the winter.
Learn How To Help Citizens Prepare For Severe Weather This Winter in our resource!
The Basics of Holiday Safety Communication
Holiday safety communication is more important and should be handled slightly differently from typical government communication strategies. There are a few notable holiday safety practices that may seem basic, but actually get overlooked more often than they should by local governments nationwide.
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Ensure Clear and Consistent Messaging
While your local officials might think they are keeping constituents on the same page with safety practices, often local governments utilize out of date methods of communication that don’t work very well.
Frequent and automated updates based on weather, or necessary local alerts should be sent out regularly to constituents' smartphones to ensure safety is top-of-mind. While posting updates on your local government website is vital since it serves as an information hub for citizens, it’s equally important to get the information right in front of their faces!
Utilize social media to connect more directly with constituents and check out GovPilot’s Local Government Social Media Strategy!
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Provide Emergency Contacts and Resources
If your local government should focus on one thing during the winter season, it’s making emergency contacts accessible to every constituent through various methods. This means that ensuring emergency food, shelter, travel, and health services are available even during a winter crisis such as a snowstorm.
Just ensuring these services exist doesn’t cut it. Governments need to put their effort into ensuring constituents are aware of where they can actually find this information. Invest in digital solutions to share these contacts as well as manual ones, for constituents that are less tech savvy to access.
This could mean posting these all across social media platforms, and mailing out flyers with complete contact lists for elderly community members or ones without internet access before an emergency strikes.
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Promote Safe Travel
In inclement weather that always arises in the winter, especially in the northern U.S states, safe travel has to be a basic and top priority of government officials! Constituents are going to travel to see family, friends, and even to holiday parties where they may be drinking.
In situations like these when potential impairment could be heightened by slippery, snowy roads, proper signage, street lights, and snow plowing equipment need to be ready to deploy before constituents are traveling.
Learn Ways Your City Officials Should Connect With Their Constituents here!
A Deeper Understanding: Tools for Effective Safety Communication
Effective safety communication is critical for municipalities aiming to protect their residents from potential threats or safety concerns. By leveraging digital tools, local governments can keep their communities informed and safe.
Here are three key tools municipalities can utilize to improve public safety communication:
1. GovPilot’s Report-a-Concern Tool
Getting ahead of local safety hazards and concerns is a need for your municipality. In fact, empowering residents to take an active role in public safety is the best way to identify and address hazards before they can escalate.
Allow constituents to report unsafe conditions that they experience throughout the community with GovPilot’s Report-A-Concern feature. Before the government can notice every little safety hazard, citizens are the ones bumping into them regularly. By giving your constituents the power to address concerns directly, through a simple mobile form called GovAlert, your municipality will receive organized and pre-routed submissions that the correct department can address.
Learn everything about How to Report Concerns & Issues to Your Local Government here!
2. Email and Text Alerts
Old-school and outdated municipalities often overlook the power of direct communication with constituents. In today’s modern world, directly communicating urgent safety information to citizens has never been easier. Email and text alerts can be automated with programs like GovPilot, that allow citizens to opt-in to receive important alerts about weather, traffic conditions, and even emergency response teams.
3. GIS Mapping for Road Conditions
GIS mapping is a powerful tool that has the ability to show geographic data about your community on a digital, real time, manipulatable map. With the ability to layer data and information to reveal exactly what your government needs to know about the community, real-time road safety data can be provided for travelers venturing into the weather for holiday plans.
Check out How Municipalities Need to Use GIS Maps here!
Reminders For Local Governments To Keep In Mind During The Holidays
While the basics and some tech tools have been covered so far throughout this guide, it’s also vital that local government officials keep in mind that certain circumstances arise in the holidays that may require special attention as well.
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Holiday Parties Can Create Unsafe Situations
When partying, celebrating, and drinking are involved in holiday settings, these factors likely make citizens who are partaking less aware of best safety practices. It is ideal that local governments place reminders about drinking and driving throughout the community, alongside speed checks and adequate emergency response teams.
Check out our guide to Managing Local Holiday Events In Your Community here.
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Constituents Mental Health Can Suffer In The Winter
While the season is supposed to be full of joy, often the holiday season can bring up some challenges for citizens who are lonely, sick, or even negatively impacted by the change of daylight savings time. The holidays can be stressful, and it’s important that local leaders ensure adequate mental health resources are given to constituents who may be struggling.
Learn about more Cutting-Edge Features For Local Government to help in the winter here!
Implement Best Practices Into Your Community Before The Holidays Really Start
Municipalities that prioritize safety communication foster trust and confidence among their residents that don’t just make them physically safer, but also helps them feel protected and secure.
By utilizing tools like GovPilot’s Report-a-Concern system, email and text alerts, and GIS mapping for road conditions, local governments can ensure their communities remain informed and safe throughout the entire holiday season.
To learn more about how GovPilot’s suite of tools can enhance public safety communication, explore our resources and book a consultation with one of GovPilot’s experts today!
Holiday Safety FAQs
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What are the most common holiday safety concerns?
Common holiday safety concerns include an uptick in holiday travel safety incidents due to increased traffic and icy roads. There are also elevated community fire safety risks from overloaded electrical systems, holiday decorations, and space heaters. Additionally, cold weather often brings seasonal illnesses, putting a strain on public health resources.
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How can municipalities efficiently share safety information?
Municipalities can enhance municipal safety communication by using email and text alerts to share urgent updates with residents. Real-time GIS mapping provides critical information on holiday travel safety by displaying road closures and hazardous conditions. Encouraging community members to report hazards through tools like GovPilot also strengthens overall community fire safety and public awareness.
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