‘I can’t believe how quickly these three days have passed’, said Mr Joel Tucker, Coordinator of the Western Pacific region on day three of the CORE Group meeting. Our CORE Group undertook three intensive days of action planning, training and strategic direction in their role as Coordinators of the Regions in the YOURS Global Youth Network for Road Safety.
The CORE Group Meeting is supported by:
The CORE Group and YOURS Staff take a moment for picture outside the WHO building.
On day two of the YOURS CORE Group meeting, the group underwent communications and media training from Ms Elena Altieri, Communications officer at the Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability Deptartment (VIP) at the World Health Organization (WHO). In this session, Ms Altieri challenged the group to ‘Have a real grasp of which audience every piece of communication is aimed at’. The group tackled the myths on communication; that communication is an important part of every element of the organization’s work and should therefore be built in to everything that we do.
Ms Elena Altieri, Communications Officer at VIP proudly wears the YOURS tag during her communications workshop,
Ms Altieri created a stimulating atmosphere for brainstorming and her workshop also focused on the importance of media relations and to investigate whether YOURS’ current strategy can foresee media outreach through the CORE Group to raise awareness of youth road safety and to bring attention to our work.
In the latter part of the second day, Ms Nellie Ghusanyi, Programs Officer at YOURS gave a break down on the latest in road safety training the CORE Group on the ‘Systems Approach’ in road safety. Ms Ghusayni then went on to introduce the CORE Group to the Capacity Development Pillar one of YOURS’ key stategic pillars in its activities. Her workshop focussed on introducing the new Youth and Road Safety Action Kit; our maiden publication which is soon to be published.
The CORE Group undergo a training workshop on the YOURS Capacity Development Strategic Pillar.
On day 3 the group continued with training on the Action Kit including understanding the theory and motivations behind the kit, its design and the practical translation of the Action Kit into capacity development workshops. On seeing the Action Kit for the first time, The CORE Group’s response was that of excitement, enthusiasm and keenness to see the kit published and in the hands of young people around the world. Ms Sheila Atieno, Coordinator of the African Region (Anglophone) said, ‘ This kit is the first of its kind and I am so excited to see it in the hands of young Kenyans and wider Africa because it is a tool that can really change lives in simple steps’.
Mr Axl Druart, Coordinator of the European Region said, ‘This kit is truly special, there is nothing like it ever created before on understanding and tackling the youth and road safety crisis around the world and YOURS have done such a great job’.
Ms Ghusayni went on to train the group on theory behind peer-to-peer communication and the theories related to future YOURS workshops. She gave a comprehensive picture of the capacity development pillar and especially on how this area of work will be bolstered significantly during YOURS’ launch of the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit and subsequent workshops.
The Coordinators of the Regions mapped how best to market the Action Kit for maximum global outreach.
Mr Manpreet Darroch, Communications Officer and Global Network Coordinator at YOURS filmed individual video interviews with the CORE Group on the importance of road safety with young people in their regions as well as what they have learned in the whole meeting. These videos will be available very shortly on the YOURS website!
The meeting ended with final action points for the group to take away and implement on return home. The group were joined by World Health Organization Staff, Dr Margie Peden; Coordinator, Ms Laura Sminkey; Communciations Officer at VIP and Ms Jelica Vesic; Communications Officer at VIP.
Mr Floor Lieshout, Director at YOURS thanked the World Health Organization for hosting the CORE Group meeting as well as the Road Safety Fund for its support of the meeting via a contribution from Johnson and Johnson as well as long standing support from YOURS Founding Member; Michelin.
Dr Peden told the CORE Group, ‘I cannot believe five years have passed since the United Nations World Youth Assembly and back then we really took a gamble on bringing young people together to act on road safety. The movement has grown so much and YOURS has developed so much since 2009, continue to do what you are doing and continuously bring in the new generation of youth and road safety leaders’.
A video report will be available to view shortly as well as the CORE Group’s video interviews!
The CORE Group are in high spirits after their three day meeting!