. TRIAD: It'll Put Hair on Your Head ___________________________________________________________ A.G. Bob McDonnell oversees Virginia's TRIAD Program. Coincidently, he has alot of hair. To begin, I'd like to offer my most sincere apologies to the "follicly challenged" visitors to our website.   I was exagerrating a little bit in this  article's header.  (Cue uncomfortably long period of silence.)  Alright............I was lying. But it was all for a good cause.  What I'd hoped to do was quickly snag your attention so that I could make you aware of an excellent initiative that our agency participates in, that helps protect the senior citizens and make communities safer.  It's called TRIAD, and if you like what you hear, remember that you can be a part of this iniative in your community. So what's a TRIAD? Actually, the better question is what are TRIADs? TRIADs are local partnerships that are established between groups such as senior citizens, law enforcement officers and human service providers for the purpose of making communities safer.  These partnerships are facilitated by the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, whose mission is, in-part, to help assure the safety and protection of the Commonwealth's most "distinguished" citizens. By way of monthly meetings attended by members of the aforementioned groups, TRIAD provides an effective means by which older Virginians can stay informed of their rights and "reconnect" with their law enforcement.  At a "big picture" level, some important objectives of TRIAD is to develop, expand and implement effective crime prevention and safety remedies for older Virginians. At the local level, TRIAD partnerships attempt to improve the quality of life of older Virginians by providing a face-to-face forum for the exchange of information between law enforcement officials and the community at large. Why TRIAD?  TRIADs work. Yet beyond that, the benefits of these partnerships are many-fold.  One of the more obvious benefits is that communities will enjoy new opportunities to become more closley knit, and as a result will position themselves to more effectively enhance public safety through effective crime prevention activities. As well, community feedback on the effectiveness of existing service or law enforcement policies provides a new means of evaluating what the public is getting for it's money (tax dollars).  In an age of tightened budgets and "incognito funding cuts" (flat-funding for programs), consumers should not underestimate the importance of such feedback. Do We Really Need Another "New" Program? First, TRIAD isn't a program. Second, TRIAD isn't new. In fact, TRIAD has had a track record of success nationally going back 20 years. Actually, TRIAD has been around since 1988, when three national organizations agreed that older people could better be protected through cooperative efforts. The relationship was cemented when the organizations - the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) - signed a cooperative agreement. Here, in our Commonwealth, Attorney General, Robert F. McDonnell has pledged to continue the mission of TRIAD, which first made it's way to Virginia in 1995.  Over that period of time (and especially since the arrival of Director of TRIAD and Citizen Outreach, Jennifer Aulger-remember that name, folks), "TRIAD Virginia" has taken exceptional strides in constructively impacting the safety and well being of our most vulnerable citizens. The Best is Yet to Come. Going forward, under the creative leadership of Bob McDonnell and Jennifer Aulger, there's every reason to believe that these iniatives are on pace to do more than just grow. Some contend that "TRIAD Virginia" is blosoming into the model that other states will look to when making determinations about how to facilitate their TRIADs and how to allocate resources. In fact, as of 2008 there are now over 200 counties, cities, and towns in our Commonwealth that have signed TRIAD Cooperative Agreements. TRIAD Really is a Grass Roots Movement TRIAD is a "Johnny Appleseed" initiative in the truest sense of the phrase, as supporters of the program go from community to community dropping seeds, giving them water and praying for their survival.  Yet what sells the program the best is the fact that it really works . We want your support to take this concept as far as it will go. A Safer Future Begins in the Present. The communities that we live in can be thought of as conceptual representations of homes we must all build for our old age.   Ironically, the beginning of these efforts is often the most challenging time of the process, as it's then that we are forced to confront our own biggest enemy; apathy. To that end, we must remember to exercise extreme care in the execution of our plans (should we have them) so as to ensure a strong foundation upon which we can continue to build. Every day thereafter must yield another thoughtful contribution, because one day we must stop building.   And it's on that day that we must move in. What will be the state of your house? For more information on the TRIAD program and live in an area served by our agency, please contact me via email (djrsadowski@cdaaa.org).   If you interested in the program yet reside in another area of the Commonwealth, please contact your local law enforcement agency/agencies  for more info or email Jennifer Aulgur, Director of Triad and Citizen Outreach at the Virginia Office of the Attorney General.