WCB Wins National Silver Leaf Award

SAFE Manitoba nets national award for innovative Spot the Hazard youth campaign

(WINNIPEG) - Turns out toxic fog, the slicer and the cutter carved out a place in more than just Manitobans’ minds this year.

SAFE Manitoba’s Spot the Hazard campaign – the interactive series of choose-your-own-ending webisodes featuring horror stories from real-life workplaces – has been awarded the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Silver Leaf Award of Excellence.

The Silver Leaf is the highest accolade in the Canadian communications industry and IABC received hundreds of entries this year.

“Achieving this honour shows that innovation really can make a difference,” says Workers Compensation Board Director of Communications, Warren Preece. “It’s been a tough year for Manitoba youth and we can only hope their overwhelming response to Spot the Hazard sparks a shift in attitude and behaviour over the coming months.”

The award comes after a tragic summer that saw two young Manitobans lose their lives in workplace incidents. The Spot the Hazard campaign is just one of the many ways SAFE Manitoba is promoting change by spreading the SAFE Work message to youth.

The campaign, which can still be viewed at www.safemanitoba.com , was created by ChangeMakers Marketing and Communications and targeted workers aged 15 to 24 in hopes of lowering injuries across the province.

Visitors to the site were asked to spot hazards and find safer work practices for three young employees who encountered three potentially deadly obstacles in their daily work tasks. Successful visitors were entered to win an iPod touch.

In their feedback, IABC judges complimented SAFE Manitoba’s innovation and commitment to changing the way young people view workplace health and safety practices.

“It’s encouraging to know our efforts are being acknowledged by the people who recognize solid strategies for this market,” says Preece. “We need to make changes amongst our youth and their employers and it seems we truly have them spotting the hazard with this campaign.”

SAFE Work was also recently recognized for its effectiveness in changing public behaviour toward safety at work. The program received a coveted Canadian Public Relations Society Award of Excellence in the Advocacy and Social Marketing category earlier this year.

For more information contact:

Warren Preece

Director of Communications

Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba

(204)-954-4113

1-800-362-3340

Email: wcb@wcb.mb.ca

SAFE Manitoba is a joint effort between the Workers Compensation Board and Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health. Its goal is to reduce injuries by creating a safety culture where workers Spot the Hazard, Assess the Risk and Find a Safer Way – Everyday.