Source: By Ashley Halsey III, Published: August 28 2012, The Washington Post

Crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths, and teens are more likely to die in them than any age group other than those over 80.

The good news in a report released Tuesday by State Farm Insurance was a greater awareness among teenagers of the risk posed by using mobile devices to text or talk while driving.

“It was very promising to see so many teens voice their concerns about this issue and see that the drivers listened to them and took action,” said research director Chris Mullen. “Research tells us that texting while driving can be just as dangerous as drinking and driving. More education and conversations need to occur so teens understand that no one can handle driving distracted.”

A federal survey done in December found that 11 percent of drivers age 18 to 20 said they were sending or receiving text messages when they crashed. But the federal report also discovered that drivers in that age group were more likely to recognize the risk than those age 21 to 24.

The new State Farm report said that four out of five teen passengers said they scolded a driver for texting. One Pennsylvania teen, Navea Frazier, told the insurance carrier: “When I’m in a car with my friends or family, I say, ‘Hey, don’t do that. I’ll text for you.’ I’m the designated texter.”

Late last year, YOURS initiated the Embrace Life Campaign. This unique photography competition illustrated how young people from over 50 countries are ’embracing life’ and consequently commit to road safety to preserve it. The winners of the competition won a small grant to implement a road safety project in their neighborhood. Nine months later a Training of Trainers has been implemented on the ground and the first wave of trainers ran their first road safety sessions. We are pleased to report back on this first success.

Objectives of this call for proposals
Road crashes are still the biggest cause of death and disability for young people, in both the world and Europe. 19% of road fatalities in the EU in 2010 affected young people aged between 18-25 years old (although this age group comprises only 10% of the total population). This means that those aged between 18-25 face almost twice as high a risk of dying in traffic accidents.

In April 2007 within the framework of the European Road Safety day, a first Youth Forum was organized to support the continuous effort by the European Commission to reduce fatalities of youngsters on the roads. Up to now, this event was organised 4 times in Brussels by the European Commission.

The objective of the present call for proposals is:

1. To promote the establishment of an EU-wide network of youth organisations by pooling resources with a view to maximise the impact of the road safety Youth Forum at local, regional and European level.
2. To perpetuate the youth forum by opting for an approach which involves directly youngsters and organisations active in the area of the fight against the causes of accidents among this category of road users from the planning to the implementation of the event.
3. To involve young people as ambassadors in the fight against road fatalities using the European youth networks and to give them the opportunity to be active players in improving road safety.
4. To trigger and promote dialogue between young people from different cultures, youth organisations, enforcement bodies, policy makers and practitioners, in relation to road safety and young road users.

Budget
The estimated total amount is € 150 000. The European Union co-funding will be up to 50% of the total eligible costs. The closing date for submissions of applications is 31.10.2012.

For more information please visit the website of the EC: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/grants/2012_10_31_en.htm.

Good luck to all of you who will apply!

Sheila how did you find the training?
I thought it was very informative, engaging and encompassing. Did you enjoy it too? Very much. We had new ideas of engaging the children on road safety and by the fact that we had practical sessions to emphasize further made it a full package.

And Peter how was it working with young children in Kenya and seeing the newly trained facilitators in action?
The young children in Kenya were very attentive and enthusiastic to learn about how they should keep themselves safe on the road. They asked many questions and participated widely.

It was great to see the newly-trained road safety instructors teaching pupils independently. Towards the end of the training they needed little to no supervision and had brought their own talent, ideas and enthusiasm to the project, making the lessons fit the cultural and national context in Kenya.

Sheila, what is next now that you are a trainer of the See and Be Seen program? The ‘next’ is a rather a late question because we have already started spreading the ‘See be seen’ program. Members of the YOURS-Kenya team visited a children center which is also an education center to pupils of around 200 in population. We engaged 50 pupils in the ‘See be seen ‘program. I would like to share a  remark of the Executive Director for Hamomi, Sussie Marks  “I do not know how best to thank you but the smile on my children’s face will tell you how wonderful and useful your program is to our children. Please come back again to engage us more in road safety”.

Back to Peter, what are some of the things young people can/should do to improve road safety in Africa?
Young people should take precautions when it comes to road safety by practicing safe and responsible behavior when using the road or when they are near the road. For example older youth can take leadership by helping children to cross and use the road safely. An older youth might hold the hand of a child while walking across the road, or might instruct a child to use the road more safely. Lastly, older youth could engage in peer to peer education to spread their knowledge and skill set with one another.

To you both, what are your views of the ‘Embrace Life’ campaign that initiated this project? Should we do more of them?.
Peter: The Embrace Life Campaign gives young people the opportunity to share the problems they face concerning road safety in their locality and raise their awareness as far as road safety is concerned. Amend is very supportive in campaigning and advocating for, and promoting increased awareness and action on road safety. We believe that initiatives such as the Embrace Life Campaign should be spread throughout Africa.

Sheila: It was a unifying campaign, engaging, fun and most importantly passed the message of road safety. For my 26 years of life, I have never participated in such an interesting campaign. The only challenge was that it could have limited those who could not access internet, low internet to upload their photos, no cameras and language barriers. My suggestion for this would be that YOURS provides an alternative, like send through the post office or some central place by liaise with road safety organizations within respective countries safety to be the central collection point of items like photos to send or even upload for them. 

On the question if YOURS should run more international awareness campaigns: definitely, yes! The international campaigns give people a platform to participate in road safety even if they are already engaged in other sectors. It spreads the news of road safety to the wider audience and identifies issues of road safety in different parts of the world.

The European Commission (EC) published a call for proposals for the organisation of the next EU Youth Forum for Road Safety. The EC intends to award a grant to reduce road casualties among young people. This action is part of a campaign to sensitise to the causes of road crashes and to their prevention by mobilising young road users, as a group particularly at risk, to take action.

Objectives of this call for proposals
Road crashes are still the biggest cause of death and disability for young people, in both the world and Europe. 19% of road fatalities in the EU in 2010 affected young people aged between 18-25 years old (although this age group comprises only 10% of the total population). This means that those aged between 18-25 face almost twice as high a risk of dying in traffic accidents.

In April 2007 within the framework of the European Road Safety day, a first Youth Forum was organized to support the continuous effort by the European Commission to reduce fatalities of youngsters on the roads. Up to now, this event was organised 4 times in Brussels by the European Commission.

The objective of the present call for proposals is:

1. To promote the establishment of an EU-wide network of youth organisations by pooling resources with a view to maximise the impact of the road safety Youth Forum at local, regional and European level.
2. To perpetuate the youth forum by opting for an approach which involves directly youngsters and organisations active in the area of the fight against the causes of accidents among this category of road users from the planning to the implementation of the event.
3. To involve young people as ambassadors in the fight against road fatalities using the European youth networks and to give them the opportunity to be active players in improving road safety.
4. To trigger and promote dialogue between young people from different cultures, youth organisations, enforcement bodies, policy makers and practitioners, in relation to road safety and young road users. 

Budget
The estimated total amount is € 150 000. The European Union co-funding will be up to 50% of the total eligible costs. The closing date for submissions of applications is 31.10.2012.

For more information please visit the website of the EC: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/grants/2012_10_31_en.htm.

Good luck to all of you who will apply!