DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics and Energy Information Administration projections, the mining industry is expected to grow and diversify its workforce over the next ten years due to expanding opportunities for exploration and production, retirement of veteran miners, and a generation of new and foreign workers. Significant and immediate labor needs will attract younger, inexperienced employees who represent a change in culture and increased risk in the safety and health environment. With fatality and injury rates declining in the past due to strengthened regulation, enforcement and training, employers are encouraged to continue seeking ways to reach a "zero" culture in order to sustain these improvements. These challenges present the need for refined training approaches and the capture of worker experience so critical to the mentor - prot�g� relationships that readily exist i the mines. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) team proposes to design, produce and deliver a Leadership Development Course for 1st Line Supervisors to address the immediate needs of supervisors facing a new dimension of workers. By incorporating best practice adult learning principles and a systems approach, the course will focus on the fundamental development of leaders in the mining workforce, strengthening existing on-the-job-training (OJT) practices with train-the-trainer (T3) concepts, and enabling the occupational culture to pursue a prevention practice that will move the industry closer to accomplishing "zero". In addition, this proposal will produce and distribute a new documentary titled Fire in the Wilberg Mine which occurred in 1984 with the loss of twenty-seven Utah miners. Through interviews with workers who directly experienced and investigated the disaster, this documentary will facilitate the transfer of knowledge by communicating those events to the audience. We will draw from an experienced team of trainers and video documentary producers to successfully deliver these new training products to miners in the Western U.S. over the three year project period.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Development and Delivery of Multimedia Miner Health and Safety Training Narrative The goal of this project is to develop and deliver an instructor-led Leadership Development Course for 1st Line Supervisors throughout the Western United States that will reach workers challenged with safety in high-hazard mining environments, as well as build and distribute a new documentary titled Fire in the Wilberg Mine designed to enhance the sharing of the mine worker and first responder experience of a disaster. The use of innovative and effective adult learning methods to enhance safety training in the mining industry will lead to a decline in injuries and fatalities and an increase in public health awareness.