April 25, 2022 | Kathleen Allen

SSPRD’s Risk and Compliance Manager, Jennifer King, is the latest Safety Hero

In August 2019, South Suburban Parks & Recreation District brought Jennifer King onboard to oversee their safety compliance and procedures in the role of Risk and Compliance Manager.

King moved to SSPRD after 26 years of working in the legal department for the Town of Castle Rock as the Senior Legal Specialist. There she handled contract administration for the organization, as well as property and liability claim management.

When she came to SSPRD, King says she was “very fortunate that South Suburban had a strong safety program in place when I arrived. I basically just took the reins.”

But not everything was perfect from the get go, even with the strong groundwork already in place. Even though the existing safety program was robust, there was no one point of contact when dealing with safety issues.

“The majority of the various safety management tasks were spread out between finance, HR and Administration,” King says.

Since then she has worked to not only unify the safety program, but also to become the necessary single point of contact for all areas of the safety program, including risk management, emergency planning, worker’s compensation and property and liability issues, as well as training.

In Jennifer’s tenure at SSPRD she has spearheaded efforts to, in her words, “communicate the District’s position on the importance and expectation of safety” from the very first day a new employee starts with the district.

King and their Communications Division created a safety training video at the end of 2021 that is now shown to all new employees on their first day.

She has also started sharing short safety tips in the form of safety reminders that are printed in the monthly employee newsletter.

Outside of becoming the “ultimate resource for anyone with safety needs,” in her own proud words, King also uses her skill and desire for instilling the highest standard of safety to prepare and update vital resources for District facilities.

Working first with South Metro Fire department to prepare the Emergency Response Plan for the new South Suburban Sports Complex, she moved on to update the ERPs for all District facilities.

And she’s not done yet. Safety takes top priority for King, and training is the best way to make it happen. King hopes that 2022 will be the year “to amplify our training program to include table-top emergency training at all of our major facilities.”

King does not take the strong culture of safety she was met with when she arrived for granted. Her plan for the future of her role at SSPRD includes taking current successes and improving upon them.

“I hope to build on the solid framework that was in place when I started and hopefully provide new and enhanced programs to continue to promote safety throughout the organization,” King says.

Jennifer King and South Suburban Parks and Recreation have come up before in our tireless pursuit of Safety Heroes. You can read more in our article from the Summer 2020 issue of the The Risk Management Review: South Suburban Receives CAPRA for Services