The YOURS CORE (Coordinators of the Regions) Group representing five regions of the world came together today at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland to create a concrete action plan for their role as Coordinators of the Region. Day one of three has proven to be an incredibly fruitful and energizing exchange of information and ideas which holds testament to the exceptional leadership qualities of this group.
The CORE Group Meeting is supported by:
Today the YOURS CORE Group along with the YOURS Staff Team were warmly welcomed to the Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability Department (VIP) of the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin plans for the CORE Group meeting. Mr Aliou Oumarou; Coordinator of the African Region (Francophone), Mr Axel Druart; Coordinator of the European Region, Mr Joel Tucker; Coordinator of the Western Pacific Region, Ms Jennifer Heatley; Coordinator of the North American Region (via remote connection) and Ms Sheila Atieno; Coordinator of the African Region (Anglophone) travelled from around the world to take part in a momentous occasion for YOURS; the first CORE Group Meeting.
The group meeting was opened with an welcoming word from Dr Margie Peden, Coordinator of Unintentional Injury Prevention who told the CORE Group, ‘It is exciting to have a next generation of young leaders taking up the cause of road safety and it is inspiring to see that young people are so active and passionate about road safety since the 2007 United Nations World Youth Aseembly for Road Safety’. Dr Peden has been a supporter of the youth movement for road safety from its start and co-organized the World Youth Assembly almost five years ago. Dr Peden commended the ‘evidence based information featured on the YOURS website’ and challenged the group to ‘enable road safety at a grass roots level and for young people to demand for road safety’.
The YOURS CORE Group introduced the road safety situation in their region.
Director of YOURS, Mr Floor Lieshout thanked The Road Safety Fund and its supporter Johnson & Johnson as well as Founding Member of YOURS Michelin for their contribution in making this meeting happen. In addition Floor thanked the World Health Organization for hosting the meeting. He told the story of how we started as an organization and welcomed the group. He explained the important role that the CORE Group will play in the YOURS network and said, ‘This group will enable us to be closer to the network, develop capacity on the ground; to meet its needs easier and expand our impact bringing YOURS closer to young people’. He continued, ‘We are honoured to work alongside such talented, connected and passionate youth leaders and we are excited for the work ahead’.
The group were introduced to the YOURS organization in depth through an interactive workshop and set about understanding their place in YOURS’ organizational structure.
We were then joined by Ms Jelica Vesic, Comminications Officer of VIP who co-faciliated a workshop with Mr Manpreet Darroch, Communications Officer at YOURS, to map the current communication activities carried out by YOURS. Ms Vesic offered the group valuable feedback on the current status of YOURS’ communications and commended us on the appealing and ‘youthful’ nature of our website which made it easy for young people to find information. She also offered the group expert tips on how to maximize our online presence such as capturing ‘local stories’ of road safety and offering a platform for the network on which share their opinions about road safety in their region.
Ms Jelica Vesic, Communications Officer at WHO gives us feedback on YOURS Communications Activities.
The CORE Group then undertook their next workshop which went about tackling one of their primary objectives for the meeting; the creation a CORE Group Action Plan for their term of office to guide their work in the years to come. The group set goals to expand the YOURS network; to represent more youth and road safety organizations around the world and offer clearer incentives for youth active in road safety to join the global youth movement for road safety.
As the day drawed an end, the CORE Group had a clear idea of their roles and as they move forward in their positions, will develop regional action plans to tailor their global objectives to the unique dynamics of each region. Coordinator of the Global Youth Network for Road Safety Mr Manpreet Darroch said, ‘We are so excited at the clear potential of the group and after an intensive workshop of brainstorming and bringing ideas to the table, the CORE Group will leave with a global picture of YOURS’ global activities and a concrete action plan on how we move forward as an organization’.
Tomorrow, the meetings continues with a media training workshop from Ms Elena Altieri, Communications Officer at VIP as well training from our Programmes Officer, Ms Nellie Ghusayni on the soon to be release Youth and Road Safety Action Kit.
It has been an incredible day and a video report is to come in due course.