YOURS facilitators in Belize continue to create big impact!

YOURS facilitators in Belize continue to create big impact!

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

Back in 2014, CDB approached YOURS to run our signature programme to educate and inspire young people to take road safety action. This two year collaboration built a strong partnership from the ground up in Belize and was undertaken. Since then, the facilitators have continued to create a massive impact in the country by reaching their peers in their own road safety workshops, placing peer-education at the forefront at their approach.

The year has kicked of to a great start in Belize with nearly 100 young people already reached in face-to-face workshops delivered by our facilitators in the country. This group was trainged by YOURS from 2014 through to 2015 and formed an organization called BYRS (Belizean Youths for Road Safety). The group, consisting of passionate and talented youth leaders have been reaching youth throughout their country with workshops, creative campaigning and talks, all with the aim of reducing the amount of crashes and deaths involving young people.

One of YOURS’ big successes in capacity development was the two year programme established in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and Government of Belize (GOBZ). The training fits into the Bank’s wider all-encompassing road safety project, which focuses on improving Belize’s infrastructure, emergency response, enforcement and education.

Back in 2014, CDB approached YOURS to run our signature programme to educate and inspire young people to take road safety action. This two year collaboration built a strong partnership from the ground up in Belize and was undertaken in the following phases:

2014 Phase 1: building momentum and exploring local partnerships
In initiating the programme, YOURS undertook a country specific analysis, exploring key road safety issues facing the youth of Belize. We began with an inception mission to build a partnership of national and local partners including ministries in the country, local youth groups, university leaders and key statistical institutes. This mission created a promising objective; to recruit and train a group of skilled youth leaders aged 16-29 on road safety issues facing youth, with a view to reaching more than 2,000 youth face-to-face workshops across the country.

2014 Phase 2: training of facilitators (first cohort)
In the first cohort, 15 exceptional youth leaders representing the length, breadth and diversity of Belizean youth were brought together in Belmopan, Belize. These youth underwent the YOURS training experience; interactive, engaging, creative and evidence based, over an intensive two week period. The training  coupled road safety theory in a global and Belizean context as well as practical skills on delivering peer-led workshops. The training covered topics such as youth and road traffic injuries, the scope of the road safety problem globally and locally, distracted driving, speeding, alcohol and drug, how humans learn and peer education.

On completing the training, the 18 youth created ripples of road safety action. The youth establish their own NGO, the Belizean Youth for Road Safety (BYRS). In 6 months, they reached over 1,000 youth through their own road safety workshops and hundreds and thousands of youth with their creative campaigning.

Read more about the training in Belize here.

2015 Phase 3: review, extra training and coaching
In early 2015, YOURS went back to Belize to review progress and offered additional ‘refreshment’ training on the road safety topics covered. Here, additional training such as Leadership and Teamwork also took place. The review visit saw the facilitators in action, offered coaching and planned for future workshops.

2015 Phase 4: training of facilitators (second cohort)
Following on, a second training of facilitators was undertaken with a cohort of 20 youth leaders. Here, cohort one played a significant role in orientating the group, delivered parts of the training as well as inviting them to join BYRS. On completion, cohorts one and two have continued to implement road safety workshops and have created a youth movement for road safety in Belize. In addition they also trained the new recruits of the police academy and have reached over 2,000 young people already.

2016 Phase 5: review, extra training and coaching.
In 2016, YOURS will return to Belize to review the both cohort’s progress and offer coaching to maximize the youths’ outreach efforts.

Targeting Road Safety Now and in the New Year – NTSB United States

Targeting Road Safety Now and in the New Year – NTSB United States

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

Our friends over at the National Transport Safety Board in the United States start the year with a reflection on the groundbreaking efforts of 2015. The last year has seen some remarkable action for road safety and Dr. T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, who was a key note speaker at our Side Event for Children and Youth in Brasilia shares her thoughts.

This article was written by Dr. T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH and adapted by YOURS.
Vice Chairman of the National Transport Safety Board – United States of America.

As the year drawed to a close, many of us traveled to see family and friends – across town, across the country, or perhaps even across the globe. No matter where you went, where you are are going or how you choose to get there, I urge you to do everything you can – such as buckling up whenever there are seat belts (yes, on airplanes, taxis, and buses, too!) – to make sure you and your loved ones are as safe as possible wherever you are going for every holiday.

Although some people will take planes, trains, ferries and boats, the majority of us will be on the roads for at least part of our trip – whether it’s using a car, motorcycle, bicycle, bus, or even our own two feet. It is clear that road safety affects us all, no matter where we are driving, riding or walking.

Dinh-Zarr (second from right) with delegates from Spain and the UK including YOURS Communications Officer, Manpreet Darroch.

I was reminded of that last month when I participated in the Second High Level Meeting on Global Road Safety in Brasilia, Brazil, as a member of the U.S. delegation, which also included my federal colleagues from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of Global Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This meeting brought together 2,000 key leaders and advocates in public health and transportation safety from around the world to take action in preventing the more than 1.2 million deaths (and tens of millions of injuries) that take place on the world’s roads every year – with more than 30,000 deaths occurring in our own country alone.

The result of the meeting was the Brasilia Declaration, which reaffirmed the goals of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and called on governments to address key risk factors related to road safety – ranging from preventing impaired driving and improving infrastructure to manufacturing safer vehicles and increasing emergency health services.

Read more about the Side Event on Road Safety for Children and Youth.

While the specific topics are many, two themes seem to run through this Declaration: (1) road traffic safety is a public health issue, so the transportation and health sectors can and must work together to reduce deaths and injuries; and (2) it is our responsibility to protect the most vulnerable people – children, the elderly, pedestrians, cyclists, people with less means – so that everyone can have equal access to safe transportation.

In addition to the Declaration, there were official side events related to this High Level Meeting. I was privileged to speak in the Target & Indicators session, which was introduced by World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, and in the Children & Youth session, which was organized by YOURS/Youth for Road Safety and the Child Injury Prevention Alliance/CIPA.

Following this historic meeting, while still in Brasilia, I had the pleasure of meeting the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, the Honorable Liliana Ayalde. I am truly grateful to the ambassador and her staff at the U.S. embassy in Brazil for their work to help us attend this important lifesaving conference and for their service to our country throughout the year.

Ambassador Ayalde and I share a common background in public health, and I know that public health – and the interdisciplinary collaboration among health, transportation, and other sectors – will be vital to setting and achieving our goal to save millions of lives on the roads in the coming years.

As I said in my remarks in Brazil, there is no doubt that our targets for road safety must be feasible, they must be measurable, and they must be based on sound science. But they also can – and should be – ambitious. Targets allow us to imagine what the world would be if our efforts and work were as effective as they could be. Targets allow us to imagine a world where no one dies because they were not properly restrained, where we know our cars and roads will protect us if we make a mistake, where no one thinks about getting behind the wheel when impaired by alcohol or drugs, and where we can send our loved ones to school or work and know they will come home safely. Targets allow us to imagine a better, safer, and healthier world for everyone.

No matter where you are traveling as the year draws to a close, even if it is simply across town, I wish you a safe journey and a safe and healthy 2016. And, remember, there are people around the world, including right here at the NTSB, who are working hard every day to make sure we all get home safely.

Happy New Year!

Season’s Greetings from YOURS! – We reflect on 2015

Season’s Greetings from YOURS! – We reflect on 2015

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

2015 has been an incredible year of action and the culmination of lots of global efforts of the past few years. The YOURS office will be closing on 21st December for our annual festive break and so we will catch you in the New Year! In the mean time, we reflect on some of the big achievements of 2015!

Building on our efforts of 2014 and the global push for road safety target to be included in the Global Goals, the biggest news of this year was securement of of our target!

As you would have seen on the YOURS website, we were heavily involved in the push to include road safety targets in the forthcoming Sustainable Development Agenda Post 2015. Along with our Global Youth Network for Road Safety we were at the forefront of advocating for road safety targets to be included from a youth perspective in the UN’s youth calls for input.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages:

3.6. By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents

(In the Health Goal, the stand-alone road safety target is lined up alongside other major priorities including maternal and under-5 mortality, AIDS and universal health coverage. The 2020 SDG target is far more ambitious than the 2020 goal set for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety to ‘stabilise and reduce’ road deaths.)

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable:

11.2. By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons. Read more about how we were involved here. In Brasilia, global leaders for road safety discussed how we can reach these ambitious targets. YOURS were involved in organizing a Side-Event on Road Safety for Children and Youth and our Director, Floor Lieshout delivered a speech in the closing ceremony!

For YOURS, the biggest news for us was by far our award for our Capacity Development Programme from the MAPFRE Foundation.

YOURS accepts award for ‘Best Prevention and Road Safety Initiative’ from her Majesty Queen Sophia of Spain

On the importance of the Award, Floor Lieshout – Director of YOURS – Youth For Road Safety said:
“On behalf of the entire team of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, it is an absolute honour to accept this distinguished award. We are thrilled to receive this award from such a well-respected organization, FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE, a leader in the field and esteemed colleague at the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. It is an extreme pleasure to get this important recognition for our hard work over the past couple of years.”

Youth facilitators in Belize out running workshops with their peers.

We were privelged to travel to Madrid to pick up the award and celebrate the achievement of our work. It came on the back of delivering out Training of Facilitators in Belize. Which was another massive achievement for YOURS. The climax of a two year fruitful collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Government of Belize. In 2016, we will be scaling up our programme in the Caribbean and extending our programme of empowering youth across the world!

Other big news for the year was the reaching of 1 million signatures for the #SaveKidsLives campaign. YOURS was involved in the concept, design and implmentation of the campaign as well as managing the platfornm on which people participated. The campaign celebrated unprecedented success and contributed to big influence on the Global Goals. In 2016, the campaign will continue and re-strategize for a new ‘accountability’ factor. Stay tuned for these developments!

For other important highlights from the year 2015, check out our activities here!

We would like to thank all of our supporters that worked with us in 2015! The YOURS office will reopen on 4th January 2016 and we will see you on the other side!

Road Impact Cayman Islands: a documentary on road safety

Road Impact Cayman Islands: a documentary on road safety

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

Following one of the deadliest years on Cayman’s roads, a new documentary is shedding light on the issue of road safety in the Cayman Islands. Cayman 27 has partnered with the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service to produce the 30-minute documentary, called “Road Impact: Cayman Islands,” which aims to improve road safety and prevent the tragic crashes in which individuals can be seriously injured or killed.

So far this year, there have been 12 traffic related fatalities in Cayman – one of the worst years on record.

According to police traffic data, in the first six months of 2015. there were 462 traffic accidents, 50 people were arrested for driving under the influence, and 593 people were cited for speeding.

Watch the documentary here or in the right column.

The short film’s release was timed to coincide with RCIPS’s Holiday Safety Initiative, which began this week. The initiative focuses on improving road safety over the holiday season, which is often a particularly dangerous time on the roads.”

The documentary looks at the causes of road crashes and the impact they have on the lives of people involved in them and the wider community,” said RCIPS Public Relations Officer Jacqueline Carpenter in a press release.

The film, which was produced and shot in Cayman, features interviews with individuals whose lives were irrevocably altered by road accidents, including many family members of people who have been killed on Cayman’s streets. It also includes interviews with medical professionals and first responders.

Side-event in Brasilia a hit with participants

Side-event in Brasilia a hit with participants

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

Within the context of the Second High Level Conference on Road Safety, a number of side-event took place, which focused on a range of key thematic road safety topics. In the evening of the first day of the conference, a side-event of Road Safety for Children and youth brought much needed critical focus to the plight of children and youth on the world’s roads. The side-event proved to be a big success and offered a positive experience with participants.

On the 18th November, the 2nd High Level Conference on Road Safety convened with the world’s road safety leaders, including government ministerial delegations, academia, civil society, and the private sector and beyond. A ‘full-house’ of delegates attended the event to learn about how and why children and young people should given the opportunity to participate in the road safety crisis they face, as well as highlighting some key good practise examples from around the world.

Prevention Alliance (CIPA) along with a collaboration of partners hosted a side-event. FedEx sponsored the event.

Collaborating Partners included:

  • AAAM – The Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine
  • AIP Foundation
  • Amend
  • FIA Foundation
  • Fundacion MAPFRE
  • CIPA – The Child Injury Prevention Alliance
  • Michelin
  • RTIRN – Road Transport Injury Research Network
  • Vida Urgente
  • Safe Kids Worldwide

The side-event opened with the inspiring words by Mr. Mansour Elimane KANE – Minister of Infrastructures and Ground Transportation, Government of Senegal

Globally, 1000 young people under the age of 25 die every day on the roads. Road traffic injuries are the biggest killer for young people aged 10-24 years.

A broad coalition of organizations proposed a side event with a focus on road safety for children and youth. The side event had the aim of offering delegates to the conference the opportunity to delve deeper into the road safety crisis facing children and youth. It’s aims were to explore the actionable steps that Ministers, civil society, foundations and the private sector could and should take to create a future generation of road safety conscious young people to ultimately save lives.

Objectives
By the end of the side-event participants will be able to:
1.    Identify key road safety problems facing children and youth globally
2.    Understand good practices for preventing road traffic injuries among children and youth
3.    Explain the benefits of involving children and youth in road safety
4.    Kick-start their own children and youth road safety initiatives

The side event kicked off at 18:15 with an overwhelming response; a full-house with delegates representing an array of sectors.

His Excellency Mr. Mansour Elimane Kane made opening remarks: Minister of Infrastructures and Ground Transportation, Government of Senegal. Subsequent presentations offered participants an insight into the global perspective on road safety for children and youth.

Avi Silverman – Director of Advocacy and Communications, Fia Foundation presented: Children Campaigning for Road Safety – #SaveKidsLives. This presentation focused on the power of children to take the reigns on road safety campaigning as well as mobilizing their peers for effective youth messaging.

Dr. Olive Kobusingye – Board Vice-Chair, Road Traffic Injuries Research Network subsequently focused on: Importance of Supporting the Next Generation of Researchers.

Manpreet Darroch – Director of Communications, YOURS closed the global perspectives with a presentation on Youth for Road Safety Youth as Road Safety Advocates and Peer Educators. This presentation built the case for youth involvement in road safety as decision makers as well as activators of creativity, strong peer-to-peer education and advocacy for road safety initiatives spearheaded from the ground up.

Collaborating Partners pose for a #Safie

From a global perspective, the side-event then shifted its focus to a regional perspective in the form of the continental carousel. This interactive session offered participants a chance to hear good practices taking place on different continents of the world. The premise of this activity was to enable participants to hear ‘real life’ case studies of evidence-based activities, projects and initiatives taking place around the world with a view to kick-start ideas, meet the stakeholders involved in such activities as well as offer a networking opportunity.

The carousel worked to promote movement in the room whereby six ‘stations’ located on the periphery of the room were set up by collaborating partners and participants were given time to visit each station for a ten minute presentation from road safety organizations. After ten minutes, the participants moved to another station of their choice and witnessed another presentation.

Latin American Station by Vida Urgente  focused on Youth Engagement with Diza Gonzaga, President

North American station by Safe Kids Worldwide focused on Child Restraints  with Lorrie Walker, Technical Advisor

Asian station by AIP Foundation focused on Children Helmets with Kim Pagna, Country Director Cambodia

Latin American Station by the Mapfre Foundation focused on Education in Schools with Jesus Monclús, Road Safety Director

European station as Michelin focused on Young Drivers with Rodrigo Santiago, Public Relations.

African station by Amend focused on Walking to School with Jeffrey Witte, Director

This was undertaken a total of three times and each presentation offered gave an insight into road safety action taking place with children and youth as well opening the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback and reflect on potential ‘importation’ of such activity in the participant’s countries of operation.

Following on from the regional perspective, ways forward were discussed and Dr. Gary A. Smith – President, Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) presented the work of CIPA as a network of professionals from different sectors working on road safety for children and wider. Dr Smith invited participants to join the network as a means to continue the conversations as well as offer support in ‘incubating’ ideas via mentorships and matching with experienced road safety actors who can help bring ideas and initiatives to life.

The closing remarks were made by The Honorable T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH – Vice Chairman, United States National Transportation Safety Board who gave passionate remarks about the involvement of young people as active and invested members of society. Her comments invited participants to build on the collaborations and conversations had in the side-event as well as believing in the power youth to unleash their power as active road safety change agents.

Overall, participants expressed the value of having the chance to meet stakeholders in the field of child and youth road safety in an informal and interactive setting. Participants also expressed that overall, they were able to ‘learn something new’ and network with key road safety actors with a view to kick-start their own road safety initiatives.

A call to action for decision makers – youth statement at Brasilia

A call to action for decision makers – youth statement at Brasilia

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog

The 2nd High-Level Conference on road safety took place at the CICB in Brasiia, Brazil from 18-19th November 2015. The event brought together a global host of road safety stakeholders from international organizations, national government delegations, ministers, the private sector academia, NGOs and campaigners. As part of the closing ceremony, Director of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Mr Floor Lieshout delivered a statement on behalf of youth.

More than 70 ministerial-level government delegations and 2000 multi-sectoral participants meeting at the 2nd Global High Level Conference on Road Safety agreed to the ‘Brasilia Declaration‘ to “intensify both national action and international cooperation” to meet the road safety targets included in the Sustainable Development Goals. Hosting the conference, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil said: “In five years, I hope we can reflect on the Decade of Action for Road Safety in a positive light and build on the success into the next decade”.

As part of the closing ceremony, YOURS Director, Mr Floor Lieshout delivered a statement in the closing ceremony. The closing panel included statements from Dr Carissa Etienne, PAHO Director, Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Rt.Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety.

Read the full statement below or download it here.

Honourable ministers, distinguished guests, my fellow youth delegates, friends,

Today’s generation of young people is the largest ever in our history. Over 3 billion people – nearly half of the world’s population – are under the age of 25. Almost 90% of all young people live in low and middle-income countries. Of these young people, more than 1000 die every day on the world’s roads. Tens of thousands more are injured.

It was rewarding for me to see yesterday the overwhelming response to our side event on road safety for children and youth. Your participation demonstrates that we, the youth, have been recognized at the global level as an important stakeholder.
Nevertheless the real world looks a bit different from this conference and the international road safety community in which YOURS and its network of youth champions operate.

Road traffic injuries have been the leading killer of young people worldwide for over a decade, so why are we, the youth, so often not included in preventing these tragedies?

Our system is failing us. Our policy makers are failing us. And yet, we have little say. We are often ignored.
Just telling youth what to do, and how and when to do it, is never going to be an effective approach. Saying to youth “I don’t need to hear your views” is not really engaging them. Is it?

Young people have a right to be adequately informed, consulted and empowered to contribute to preventing road traffic injuries. After all, this is the biggest threat to our lives. Youth themselves have a vital role to help saving lives on the world’s roads.

Back in Moscow, at the birth of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, the fist ever global youth movement for road safety was launched. Since then thousands of young people have been empowered worldwide. Now we, the youth, are asking for your help.
We know that we can tackle this global road safety crisis by inspiring and empowering young people from around the world. Together we can take action as positive agents of change in our communities.

Young people can do so much to contribute. Is there any group better placed to act as role models, lead peer education, raise awareness, mobilize communities and advocate for change?

The world has five years to deliver the most ambitious safety target ever set: to halve road deaths globally.

We need a revolution for action on road safety. Surely we must look to young people to lead and energize this revolution. Therefore, we insist on meaningful youth participation to be built in to (inter-) national, regional and local road safety strategies and action plans. That means involving young people from the start.

You the international community, you the governments of the world: You can partner with us to kick start real change.
Look through our eyes and see our potential. Imagine the power of youth as initiators, peer-to- peer communicators and implementers of good road safety practices and leadership.

There has been a lot of talk during this conference of the need for action. We’ve spent two days saying how we need to innovate for faster change. And do you know what? We’ve not just been saying this for two days. We’ve been saying it for 10 years.

My son Jasper was born just ten weeks ago. As things stand, I will bring him up in an unsafe world. And I ask myself, will he be able to play, walk and cycle safely? Or will be grow up in a world where he faces an unacceptable risk on the road? Are we going to continue this business as usual? Or will we all take the responsibility to shape the future that all our young people deserve and want?

We have the Brasilia Declaration before us. It is a manifesto for real action. On behalf of the youth around the world, I urge you to make a real commitment to this Declaration.

You have the power to decide. Will this Declaration sit on the shelf, or will it act as tipping point. Go back to your countries and make the decision: a nice visit to Brazil and a load of empty promises or renewed energy and a sense of urgency to translate the words into real and lasting action to save lives.

Ladies and gentlemen. You can count on us to play our part and to continue our journey: advocating for youth and road safety issues, inspiring youth to join our cause and to empower youth to take road safety action.

We ask you to play your part. Join us, stand with us and let’s unleash the power of children and youth. No more delay, and no more excuses. Let’s build a better future for all our young people, for all of us and for the generations to come.

I thank you very much. Obrigado