I'm a Regional Safety Manager on the largest college bond project in the country, BUILD LACCD (Los Angeles community college district).We have 9 campuses throughout Los Angeles and I have responsibility for three campuses and all construction projects on those campuses.

In 2014 I joined the program and thought the Stand Down for Fall Prevention would be a good way to show my involvement with our contractors by working with their safety teams to set up training and stand downs on our larger projects. In 2014 only our major GC's were willing to take time out of the day or put any effort into joining the stand down.

Awards, food - and a whole week

Last year in 2015 all of my projects large and small joined into the campaign and did it willingly. The GC's brought in vendors, gave away awards and food for the Stand-Down.

This year we already have plans of declaring a whole week as Safety Week with different topics each day.

Keeping the ball rolling

It's one thing to read about statistics and numbers that were projected or tallied by others, but I am a witness to the success of this campaign and proud to do my part with educating workers. It's the responsibility of us safety professionals to make sure to keep the ball rolling. We need to do whatever we can to keep the training fresh and introduce new ideas, methods and equipment . We must make sure the information is current and not redundant.

We have to keep up the momentum and not look back.

Note: This was a response to an article we posted about the 2016 Safety Stand-Down, which will be held May 2-6.