On May 18, the Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) led a webinar to talk about ensuring safer journeys for students around the world through a webinar entitled How Communities Can Help Students Get to School Safely. This is part of the global programs for the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week that focuses on advocating for 30 km/h (20 mp/h) streets through the Streets for Life campaign.
The session was moderated by Gary Smith from CIPA and featured road safety leaders from around the world. The webinar’s panel included Rafaela Machado from iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme, Torine Creppy from Safe Kids Worldwide, Elizabeth Oestreich from Safe Kids Fargo, and Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.
The session began with Rafaela Machado, Star Rating for Schools Global Programme Coordinator of iRAP. She talked about how iRAP, through the Star rating for Schools (SR4S) Methodology, is working toward a world free of high-risk roads. iRAP assesses roads through the SR4S methodology and provides evidence-based data that will lobby for three-star roads or higher.
Building on the importance of keeping children and students safe, the President of Safe Kids Worldwide – Torine Creppy – talked about Safe Kids’ mission to keep all kids safe from preventable injuries such as road crashes. To achieve this mission, Torine elaborated on the networks, members, and teams behind Safe Kids that range from nurses, doctors, firefighters, paramedics, and more.
“As part of the Safe Kids Walk This Way program, the Safe School Zone grant program was created by Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx to focus on improving child pedestrian safety in school zones.” – Torine Creppy
Elizabeth Oestreich from Safe Kids Fargo provided a deeper insight on how Safe Kids utilizes the Star Rating for Schools Methodology to help make positive changes in school zones and other elements of urban design and development. During her discussion, Elizabeth shared how Safe Kids assessed elementary schools around Fargo to make them safer for the students.
Offering a youth perspective, Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety talked about how YOURS, through the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety is using the SR4S methodology to empower young people to take action in their communities.
Manpreet talked about the importance of including young people in road safety efforts in the community in all stages, elaborating through the three-lens model that empowers young people and equips them to engage with governments, communities, and other partners.
Across the world, child pedestrians are facing unsafe streets on their way to and from school. The webinar focused on how powerful the SR4S methodology is to help improve journeys to school and to make changes to improve their safety.
About the Child Injury Prevention Alliance
The Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) is dedicated to the prevention of injuries to children and adolescents in the United States and around the world. CIPA achieves its goal through scientific research, translating research findings into programs and policies, providing leadership in injury prevention initiatives and advocacy, and fostering national and global collaboration in injury research and prevention.
As an organization with a global focus, individuals from around the world serve on CIPA’s board of directors and advisory board. Information about these individuals can be found on our Leadership page.