Safe Communities

The mission of the Lexington Safe
Communities Coalition is to improve the health, safety, and quality of life of community members and visitors. This is
accomplished in part by addressing preventable injuries and increasing safety.

Major Medical Facilitates

Lexington boasts 6 regional
major medical including level one trauma hospital located within the city of Lexington.

  Smoke Free Lexington

Lexington-Fayette Urban County
Government was the first Kentucky community to enact a smoke-free ordinance in 2003, restricting smoking inside all buildings open to the public including restaurants and bars. The law went into effect in April 2004 after the KY Supreme Court upheld the ordinance. As Lexington is located in the burley tobacco belt, this event was a ‘sea change’ for the Midwest and Southern regions of the U.S. and a role model for other communities in Kentucky and the region. As of January 1, 2019, 51 KY communities have smoke-free laws. Lexington’s law was extended to restrict smoking in all workplaces (e.g., manufacturing facilities) in 2008 and to prohibit e-cigarette use indoors in 2014.

Online Wheelchair Fitness Class

Gathering Strength, Inc., is offering a 9-week interactive fitness class live on Zoom for people with paralysis. Each class is an hour long with interactive instruction and time for Q&A. No equipment is necessary.

It is a wheelchair-based, moderate to vigorous intensity, cardiovascular exercise class. The intensity and complexity of the exercise will increase as the class goes on to keep you challenged. ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER BEFORE BEGINNING ANY EXERCISE PROGRAM.

The class will be lead by Ben Clark, pictured above, who is a certified personal trainer with a C-7 spinal cord injury. He was a competitive swimmer before his injury, and has been teaching online exercise classes for 3 1/2 years. You can see his exercise videos on his Adapt to Perform Youtube channel.



 

     Sanders-Brown

The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) basic and clinical scientists work together to improve the health of the elderly in Kentucky and
beyond through research dedicated to understanding the aging process and age-related brain diseases, and education, outreach and clinical programs that promote healthy brain aging.

Lexington Parks

The city of Lexington boasts 120 city maintained parks including an equestrian program, a nature sanctuary, multiple ballfields and playgrounds, skate parks and trails.

     Fire Department

       Para-medicine

In 2018 The Lexington Fire Department launched a pilot program exploring Community Para-medicine, a new service that would enable firefighters to take a more comprehensive approach to the care of patients who have a high dependence on E-911.  This includes home visits,
education and individual assessment they help patients get connected with community resources, a primary care provided and other social services which helps create a better safer quality of life.

Crisis Intervention Social Workers

Lexington police will now have access to crisis intervention counselors to help with calls involving mental illness, addiction or people experiencing homelessness.
New Vista, the community mental health provider for Fayette County and the surrounding 16 counties, recently received a two-year federal grant for a crisis intervention team. That team can be called to help police with someone who needs mental health or other services. 

Laura Hatfield, director of One Lexington, a violence intervention program, told a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council committee on Tuesday a member of that crisis team could be available on the telephone, via telehealth or could go to scenes if needed.
“They can deploy an individual and support that person,” Hatfield said. “They have a full-time staff of five people.”
Hatfield said the police are aware of the new program but are trying to better publicize it. New Vista is producing a video that will be available soon and distributed widely so officers are informed of the new crisis intervention services.
In addition, Lexington police started last week to track calls in which a social worker or mental health professional would have been helpful, Hatfield said.
In 2016, the Alexandria police chief hired a social worker to help answer 911 calls after noticing nearly two-thirds of the 911 calls were not about potential lawbreaking. Most of the calls were for mental health problems.
Police were often repeatedly called to the same houses for noncriminal activity. Hiring a social worker to connect people with services they needed helped police officers focus on crime, said police officials in the Kentucky town south of Cincinnati.