As many of us are aware, the African continent has 2% of the world’s registered vehicles but pays the price of 20% of all road deaths. Road safety is a massive deal in Africa and the African Youth Forum for Road Safety is addressing road safety on a regional basis next month in Niger. YOURs believes that it is young people themselves that can be at the forefront of making a difference in theses statistics which is why it is supporting the African Youth Forum in it entirety and will be on hand in Niger to help facilitate the forum.

The World Youth Assembly for Road Safety 2007, provided a unique opportunity for young people from around the world to collaborate on global road safety issues and work together to address road safety. At the Assembly, young leaders were inspired, empowered and encourgaed to serve as ambassadors at home and abroad by advocation for road safety in their country, region and the global community at large. This Assembly was the starting point for a lot of young people to start work in road safety.

On the principles of the World Youth Assembly, YOURS believes that the organization of the African Youth Forum for Road Safety will work to encourage young people to come together and collaborate on these issues to make positive steps in improving the road safety problem in Africa. This will be the first ever forum of its kind in wider Africa. The event is being Coordinated by Mr Aliou Oumarou of ONG FONDEI MA BORI and over 15 countries from Africa will be in attendance.

YOURS is aiding in the coordination of regional youth assemblies for road safety around the world and recently faciliated the Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety in the Middle East, which took place in Oman. The African Youth Forum will host similar outcomes of the Assembly in Oman whereby;

The main outcomes of the Assembly were that the participants:

• learnt how to advocate for Youth and Road Safety issues
• shared their road safety knowledge and experiences from other countries
• acknowledged the importance of capacity development and identified their current skills and capacities and how they can be improved
• listened and worked on research methods for their road safety projects
• agreed to form a regional network that will feed into the global youth network of YOURS

In YOURS style, we will be reporting from the Assembly with pictures, written reports and videos and a whole host of resources. You can expect to see a full report towards the end of October 2011.

Shortlisted candidates for the Coordinator of the Regions position for the YOURS CORE Group are to be interviewed next week in a string of international interviews as YOURS continues its selection process for the group. We have seen a high standard of applicants making the position extremely competitive.

As YOURS continues its search for the Coordinators of the Regions for the CORE group, we are all set to undertake interviews next week to grill our candidates for their chance to be a member of the CORE Group. We are interviewing candidates from around the world through an online interview format and candidates will logging in from Africa, Western Pacific, South East Asia and other continents streching accross many countries and nations.

The successful candidates will be published in due course and all successful candidates will be invited to a CORE Group meeting that will take place in Europe and supported by the World Health Organization. This will give successful candidates a chance to get a ‘feel’ for the work of YOURS and meet other CORE Group members to harmonize network expansion around the world.

Coordinator of the Global Youth Network for Road Safety, Manpreet Darroch said, ‘The process has been extremely competitve with candidates exhibiting a vast array of road safety experience. This has made the selection process very difficult and we have had to turn down applicants who are very experienced and highly committed. We can be assured, however, that the successful candidates will be very special’.

As we continue our selection process, YOURS is excited to speak to many candidates in person for the first time. Watch this space as new CORE Group members are chosen very soon! 

YOURS strongly advocates the use of creative campaigns to raise awareness about global youth and road safety issues. Last year, we initiated The World Crossing Campaign, which was highly successful and saw lots of young people from around the world coming together and standing strong for youth road safety. This campaign was our maiden global campaign and the energy, commitment and fun conveyed by the young people taking part was testament of young people’s growing effort and attention to global road safety.

In this campaign, young people recorded their own 10 second clip as part of a wider video illustrating that young people call upon their peers, loved ones and decision makers to ‘make the world’s road safe for young people’. The end result saw a video showcasing diversity and creativity in the ‘eternal road crossing’ where young people crossed the road together holding a sign showing their commitment to improving the road safety situation.

The World Crossing Campaign video reached a global audience across the internet and social media as well as being showcased at the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration meeting where global decision makers in road safety watched the film and praised its outcomes. Additionally, YOURS granted the best entry an award of 1000 euros which contributed towards a unique youth led road safety project in the Gambia. This project helped raise awareness about road safety to young people and the wider public in The Gambia, the project undertaken by the winning entry team can be read here.

This year, YOURS is launching its new campaign which promises to be highly participatory, engaging and fun while raising awareness about global road safety everywhere. The campaign will engage our Global Youth Network for Road Safety as well as all youth road safety enthusiasts around the world.

While we are not releasing full details about the campaign just yet, we can announce that our focus this year is on ’embracing life’ whereby young people will be encourage to take part under the sentiment of appreciating our lives while remembering those who have tragically lost their lives on the roads. Our campaign will also include a competition that will award a monetary grant just like last year. Budding photographers (and those who just love taking snaps) will be happy to hear that a part of the campaign will include a photo competition where we will encourage young people to take photos orientated on a given theme.

The campaign is an exciting prospect and a participatory campaign so watch this space for more details! We look forward to your participation!

YOURS has been through the incredibly difficult process of shortlisting all candidates for the YOURS CORE Group positions. The selection process saw lots of competition and a wealth of experience and commitment but ultimately, only a short group could be shortlisted for the final round to find our Coordinators of the Regions.

All applicants have now been contacted informing them of their current position in the process. Unfortunately, YOURS had to inform many candidates that they did not make into the shortlisting for the final round in our search for our Coordinators of the Regions. However, we were extremely pleased to see the high calibre of candidates and the level of commitment from all candidates in the area of youth and road safety.

It was incredibly inspiring to read about the amount of great youth and road safety projects taking place around the world. We have not shortlisted out candidates and will commence with the final round of recruitment which will include an interview. Once YOURS has found its successful candidates, the Coordinators of the Regions will meet to undergo a Welcome to YOURS and to briefed on their role in the organization.

YOURS is excited to continue into the second phaze of the selection process and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to apply and help us spread the word about the CORE Group!

The campaign, which features the Stay Alert, Stay Alive strapline from last year’s TT campaign, will see hard hitting images of real crash scenes from police archives being displayed around the Island.

Infrastructure Minister Phil Gawne MHK said: “The key message from the Road Safety Team to local and visiting motorcycle enthusiasts is to enjoy the grand prix but make sure that you stay safe on the Island’s roads and ride according to the conditions – and don’t drink and ride.”

Inspector Terry Stephen of the Roads Policing Unit, said: “We are expecting an increased attendance at this year’s Manx Grand Prix. With the increase in visitors on our roads comes an increased risk. Our aim is to keep the roads safe throughout the festival and we will be working closely with the Department of Infrastructure to do this.

“I would, as always, remind everyone that the Snaefell Mountain Road remains two-way throughout the fortnight and advise people not to travel over the mountain against the course unless they absolutely have to.

“The Roads Policing Unit will be working with increased numbers of officers in order to keep driving/riding standards high and road users safe. We will be strictly enforcing speed limits and looking to identify anti-social driving/riding at the earliest opportunity.”

Two large billboards have been placed at Ramsey Hairpin to remind motorists that the Mountain Road is two-way. Spectators are also reminded that some parts of the course are prohibited or restricted and as such these must be kept clear.

The Road Safety Team will be organising static displays at various locations around the Island during the Manx Grand Prix Festival where people can discuss any road safety issues they may have. These are: 

Sunday, August 28 – Jurby – VMCC meeting
Monday, August 29 – Grandstand – Race day
Wednesday, August 31– Creg-ny-Baa – Race day
Thursday, September 1 – Ramsey – Classic Sprint
Friday, September 2 – Grandstand – Race day

YOURS strongly advocated this stance on high level motorvehicle events and the promotion of road safety. In events where speeding and fast car driving is the sport, it is always important to reiterate that this driving is for the track only and in real life scenarios, driving safely is paramount. Additionally, it should be stressed that these drivers are sporting highly protective clothing and vehicles tested for these speeds. Visitors should never try to recreate the Grand Prix on the road and keep the sport to the race track.

Isle of Man.com

All members of the MINE Section are encouraged to login to their profile and update their projects and activities. You are also encouraged to update your organizational profiile!

YOURS is also encouraging new members to come along and sign up for the MINE Section. You can read all about joining our network by reading the benefits and criteria.

The organizations with the highest quality information (organization information, uploading of projects, pictures, videos, links to work etc) will given a specia spotlight. YOURS will be spotlighting two organizations every week! Members are encouraged to use the network and update their information regularly in line the with membership criteria!

Organizations that have not included any organizational information will be contacted this week YOURS will insist you upload your information to keep the network live and kicking!

New members can find out how to join here!