Student essay focuses on code officials on the front lines working to improve community outreach

 

Meghan Chudasama is the winner of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development's first annual Building Safety Month essay contest

 
 SHARE             
 
 
This year, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) established its first Annual Building Safety Month Essay Contest centered around the 2017 Building Safety Month theme Code Officials — Partners in Community Safety and Economic Growth. The Virginia Department of Education publicized the contest to high schools and universities throughout the commonwealth. Interested applicants were invited to submit a 1,000-word essay illustrating how code officials promote community safety and economic growth in their community. Almost 40 essays were submitted in response.

Meghan Chudasama, a rising senior at Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Va., wrote the winning essay. Her submission, entitled "Code Officials — Partners in Community Safety and Economic Growth", was unanimously chosen by the contest's selection committee. She will receive a $1,500 scholarship from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to go towards her upcoming educational expenses. Read the winning essay here.

Drawing from "Who Needs Building Codes?" published by the International Code Council, "Advancing Resilience through Building Codes and Standards" published on the White House blog, and "An Introduction for Building Codes for Property Owners" by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Chudasama lays out a concise and thoughtful rationale for the increasing need of code officials to interact with local communities, constituent citizens, locale businesses, builders, suppliers and insurance companies to promote resilient construction, public health and safety.

"First and foremost, code officials are on the front lines of ensuring that local building codes that promote public health and safety by working with constituent citizens and businesses to tailor model codes to meet local requirements," Chudasama writes. "Code officials define and help enforce standards that ensure the health and safety of those that live, work and travel within their areas of jurisdiction. Today, the work of code officials is perhaps more critical and complex than ever due to climate change impacts, particularly along our coast. Code officials communicate what has worked (and not worked) within their community 'up the chain' to affect model code updates so that communities can help each other."

As public safety remains central to the mission of code officials nationwide, a majority are evolving their approach to support economic growth through partnering with various stakeholder groups. Engaging these groups helps code officials understand the real-world needs of each, identify opportunities, and stay current with advances in building science, materials and methods.

Last year, International Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims stressed the critical need to increase community resilience during the White House Conference on Resilient Building Codes, May 10, in Washington, D.C. The conference highlighted the importance of public- and private-sector leaders, elected officials, communities, local jurisdictions and code officials working together to seek solutions through the adoption and enforcement of building codes and standards, which provide a strong foundation for safety, health, welfare and protection. This cooperation is especially important when considering the future impacts of climate change on construction, community resilience and the code and standards developed to address potential natural disasters.

"The community resilience framework should reflect the strengths and weaknesses of a community, its trajectory, and its ability to positively respond to and rapidly recover from disruptive events," stated Sims. "It should be as palatable, constructive and inclusive as possible."


Founded by the International Code Council, Building Safety Month is celebrated by jurisdictions worldwide during the month of May. It is a public awareness campaign to help individuals, families and businesses understand what it takes to create safe and sustainable structures. The campaign reinforces the need for adoption of modern, model building codes; a strong and efficient system of code enforcement; and a well-trained, professional workforce to maintain the system.

The campaign is presented by the Code Council and its 63,000 members worldwide along with a diverse partnership of professionals from the building construction, design and safety communities. Corporations, government agencies, professional associations, nonprofits and more come together to support Building Safety Month because they understand the need for safe and sustainable structures where we live, work and play.