City of Bondurant, IA

Bondurant Safety Connecting

Population less than 10,000

As one of the fastest growing communities in the State of Iowa, Bondurant is continually faced with ensuring the public receives necessary education and training on staying safe in the community and their everyday lives. As new residents continue to arrive, the need for a combined educational program taking into account health, safety, wellness, and community engagement. Bondurant Safety Connecting coordinates existing city efforts, as well as developing new ones, to ensure all community members have access to education and resources.

Bringing Programs Together

In order to address community needs, the City of Bondurant realized they needed a coordinated program to ease communications and interactions between different agencies. The multi-agency collaboration allows the City to meet the diverse needs of its growing population from multiple angles.

One of the main programs under the Bondurant Safety Connecting initiative is Safety Village. This takes place annually and allows community members to interact with local law enforcement and emergency services. The engagement helps community members to feel more comfortable and confident about interacting with law enforcement and emergency services while also providing important education around fire safety, rules of the road, and bike safety. The event is designed to encourage families to participate and provides tangible resources in addition to educational opportunities.

The Certified Crisis Response Canine was added to the Bondurant emergency services team to provide emotional support to first responders and engage with the community by making school visits, attending community events and being directly involved in crisis situations.

Youth Safety is key to the success of Bondurant Safety Connecting. Through workshops such as Babysitting Basics and Home Alone Awareness, young adults are equipped with the skills they need to stay safe in their homes.

While these programs are critical to safety, the B Safe Bondurant Public Service Information Program provides education from another angle. It focuses on three key information initiatives: being safe in parks and on trails, being safe while traveling, and being safe at home. These initiatives include topics such as outdoor emergency preparedness, traveling safely, and gun safety and home security.

Lastly, the Bondurant Safety Connecting program makes sure that community members of all ages stay safe online and children learn personal safety skills through community-based programs hosted at the local library.

Community Partnerships

Bondurant is able to provide a wide range of services at little to no cost due to its effective use of community partnerships. Each of the previously mentioned programs has a community sponsor which reduces costs for the city and the community members. From other agencies such as the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Polk County Health Department, and the Emergency Services Department to local hospitals and universities to business partners and nonprofit organizations, each program is run with a partner organization. This ensures that the programs are run by subject matter experts, and it expands the reach of local government services through utilization of partner organizations’ networks.

Role of the City Government

The coordinated program demonstrates the central role of local government in improving community health and safety and ensuring residents are educated not only about city services, but also about keeping themselves and their families safe. Local government managers facilitated the numerous community organization partnerships and played a pivotal role in ensuring processes were streamlined so that bureaucracy did not bottleneck engagement. The city government provided opportunities for residents to engage directly with local government personnel to foster trust and build relationships. The outreach helps community members see the local government as responsive, approachable, and invested in community wellbeing. Bondurant Safety Connecting created a cohesive approach to public health, wellness, and safety that has had an immediate impact on residents while also ensuring health and safety education is woven into the fabric of the community for years to come.