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SAFE CAMPUSES NOW
The Governor's Office of Highway Safety has awarded Safe Campuses Now funding for the fifth consecutive year in a partnership that uses innovative and effective techniques to make high school and college-age citizens aware of drug and alcohol-related injuries and fatalities, as well as pedestrian safety. Through the 2007-08 grant, new poster designs pertaining to alcohol and pedestrian-related injuries will be designed, with expert help from local advertising SnowdenTatarski, and added to the existing designs. Two new billboards will be combined with existing designs for outreach in Athens through apartnership with Fairway Outdoor Advertising. Safe Campuses Now is an Athens-based nonprofit organization dedicated to crime awareness, education and prevention for high school and college students.

- Athens Banner Herald
- Quick Glimpse

Local Non-Profit to begin alternate safety campaign
A new round of alcohol awareness posters could be coming to a bar bathroom near you.

Safe Campuses Now, a local nonprofit focusing on crime awareness and prevention, soon will use a $36,000 grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety in a campaign featuring posters, magazine advertisements and billboards.
The grant program, in its fifth year, reaches out to schools, housing facilities, restaurants and bars in an effort to educate young people on the importance of drinking responsibly.

"We're getting calls from (other colleges) wanting these materials to help complement what they're already doing," said Keith Sims, executive director of Safe Campuses Now.

Tosha Roundtree, co-student director of Safe Campuses Now, said the organization works on the poster campaign for the better part of the year - narrowing many ideas down to 13 final selections.

The nonprofit works with Snowden Tatarski, a local marketing consulting company, to design and produce the finished products. Fairway Outdoor Advertising then provides billboard space for several designs.

Safe Campuses Now uses seven area billboards, and expects to gain two additional spaces for this year's ads, slated to be unveiled in March 2008.

In addition to student volunteers, Sims said Safe Campuses Now makes use of court-appointed volunteers in designing posters. Most of these volunteers have been convicted of alcohol-related offenses, Sims said.

"We love being able to incorporate their input and their insight," she said.

Sims expects Safe Campuses Now will distribute more than 40,000 posters in the next year. The organization, which also holds educational programs and events throughout the year, reached 123,000 students last year through 150 programs, according to a news release.

The $36,000 grant gives a monetary boost to the nonprofit, which Sims said has an annual budget of less than $100,000.

Sims said Safe Campuses Now submitted a 120-page grant proposal to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, and has benefited from close relations with the state agency in the past.

"We absolutely are willing to jump through whatever hoops are necessary," she said.

Student representatives from Safe Campuses Now will attend a youth conference at Callaway Gardens this weekend to meet other students active in crime awareness and prevention, Sims said. Students will conduct a workshop and distribute posters there, she said.

"Having funding again to produce these posters is going to be huge because it helps us solidify our reputation across the state," Roundtree said. "I think that's a huge accomplishment for Safe Campuses Now."

- Red and Black
- Brian Mink

Donations to fund SCN fall programs

The University of Georgia Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council have donated $1,000 to Safe Campuses Now to help fund alcohol education programs, including Tailgate Safety events scheduled for 1-4 p.m. Sept. 27 on Tate Student Center's lawn.

Tailgate safety events are held on the Thursdays before home football games, either at Tate or in the East Campus Village Dining Hall.

The donations also will help fund event the organization plans for "Safety Week" in October, including a Fall Break Safety Block Party from 1-4 p.m. Oct. 23 at Herty Field.

Safe Campuses Now is an Athens-based nonprofit organization dedicated to crime awareness, education and prevention for high school and college students.

- The Athens Banner-Herald

Safe Campuses Now gets program funds

Leon Farmer & Co. has donated $10,000 to Safe Campuses Now for general operations of the nonprofit crime awareness organization.

Leon Farmer, a local division of Anheuser-Busch, also sponsors WatchDawgs, an organization that provides rides home from downtown Athens for University of Georgia students. Safe Campuses Now will use some of the money for a poster campaign. New poster designs will be unveiled March 1 at The Ritz, 346 E. Broad St.

- The Athens-Banner Herald