the problem:
Our community has suffered driving related deaths in the past, which reinforced the need for our organization. Jacobs Safety Initiative has implemented a variety of methods in order to prevent any such incidents from occurring again. Our community, previously mostly rural, has recently become highly urbanized with the large population growth. Urbanization has transformed areas that were used as farm land into luxury apartments and department stores. Because of this drastic change, roads are highly susceptible to traffic, which has resulted in crashes increasing. Highly populated and high-speed roads such as Randall, Algonquin, Route 31, Route 72, and County Line, have been prone to dangerous crashes. The goal of our program is to reach out to local schools who are affected by these hazardous roads and who see the need for a solution to the major traffic locations. We have previously worked with the Algonquin and Lake in the Hills Police Department for a variety of causes; we have supported their use of red-light cameras at intersections in our community, worked with the police department during our seat belt checks during key traffic hours in the school vicinity, and we have recently been able to collaborate with the police department in making the school region of Jacobs High School a recognized School Zone. Previously, the police were not legally able to ticket those in the Jacobs High School vicinity for texting while driving; with the establishment of a School Zone, however, the police department will be working with us to enforce the no texting while driving campaign amongst students and faculty. The effort our school has taken in saving lives has increased awareness tremendously. Since the beginning of our campaign, we have not had any driving related accidents during prom, due to our Operation Prom project. We hope to continue these efforts by expanding throughout to the rest of our community as much as possible; by being chosen for this grant, we will be able to spread awareness throughout the rest of the region, saving lives one step at a time.
vital stats:
people impacted:
10,000
people involved:
30
why it's important:
Previous experiences in driving related crashes has led our community to realize the necessity for the promotion of safe driving practices. By spreading the message of safe driving, our community's automobile incidents will greatly lessen. By utilizing over thirty regional programs, such as Safety Town, Operation Prom, Parents' Night, Safety Week, Youth Leadership Conference, Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Commerce Expo, and a variety of other programs, we have been able to benefit a majority of the community. Our team has attended many conferences in the past, such as Fox Valley Leadership Conference, the Illinois State-Service Learning conference, Great Lakes Regional Conference, and the National Service-Learning Conference. Participating in these activities has not only allowed us to brainstorm with others about new project ideas, but it has greatly impacted the community by making them aware of the significant dangers involved in distracted driving. We have made an effort to target teen drivers, who are most prone to text while driving, in our programs; by doing so, awareness of distracted driving dangers has risen greatly. Students have been refraining from using their cell phones while driving as a result of our program, which can be seen by the increase in our previous cell phone checks. We hope to continue our efforts by targeting the younger adults who learn best when first beginning to drive; by implementing these teachings into their daily lives while they are young, they will be able to stick with these teachings for the rest of their lives.
the plan of action:
Jacobs High School participated in Operation Teen Safe Driving for the last four years and will continue our program to expand on our Operation Prom portion. This includes a drunk driving prom crash simulation for all of the juniors and seniors at our school. We present this program every other year to the student body, in order for each student to only experience it once. This year, we will not be presenting the simulation, however, we will continue to proceed with the rest of our Prom time activities, such as raffle tickets, tshirts, and contracts described later. Zero Tolerance Videos, Ford "Driving Skills for Life," and Allstate "Keep the Drive" programs are shown in our driver's education classes. Additionally, we will use "Click It or Ticket" materials during a seatbelt check. We will participate in the Algonquin/Lake in the Hills (LITH) Chamber of Commerce Business Expo to promote safe driving, reaching both business leaders and community attendees. We will also promote making safe driving decisions at our rival basketball game, targeting both communities with our message. We will conduct a Safety Week encouraging teen safe driving the last week in February. We focus on many distractions, especially texting while driving. We will have an organ donation booth that will provide information to seniors about the importance of organ donation. "The Convincer," will also be available for class use. This shows students the importance of wearing seat belts and how even the smallest force can harm you. On Tuesday, we will set up an obstacle course for students to complete while wearing impaired driving goggles. On Wednesday morning, we will conduct a seatbelt check. Additionaly, during the week we will use the "Rollover Truck" to encourage seatbelt use. On Thursday, we will demonstrate the effects of texting while driving using a Wii Mario Kart game;making the participant attempt to text while staying on the track. On Friday, we will participate in the prom fashion show by introducing our prom t-shirt program. The t-shirts encourage students to sign safe driving contracts before purchasing their tickets (usually in April). Any student who signs a contract will be given a prom t-shirt with the prom theme on the front and the message "Be Smart, Drive Safe" on the back. In addition, on the t-shirt, there will be an IDOT logo near the prom insignia, along with other sponsors. Any student wearing this t-shirt to school on the day of prom will be entered into a raffle to be reimbursed for the cost of their prom ticket, valued at approximately 110 dollars. A new addition to Safety Week will include an ICE activity that will require all students to pull out their cell phones during Advisory and add ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts to their cell phones. Placing these contacts into cell phones is vital and will allow officials to make proper communications in case an emergency does arise. We also plan on making use of a Safety Pledge Banner for the school that will allow students and faculty to pledge to be safe drivers. Additionally, we plan on presenting a video to all Advisory classes that emphasizes safe driving activities, ensuring a safe and healthy environment. Our Safety Week will encourage students to be responsible while driving, whether on prom night or any other night. If Jacobs is awarded the final grant money, we will provide safe after-prom activities at our school. The Junior parents have already began to plan the festivities and we hope to be able to expand them with the award given. Our organization is also planning on implementing a county wide advisory board comprised of 2 students from each McHenry County high school. Even though many schools locally are involved in some sort of teen safe driving organization, we felt it would be best for schools county wide to come together and share their ideas for a better teen safe driving initiative in Illinois. A tentative meeting schedule for this board would be a monthly meeting date sponsored by the Mchenry County Board. In order to continue affecting our audience, we hope to continue creating new methods and activities to better reach out to others. One of our new proposed ideas is to demonstrate stopping times at different speeds by placing tire tracks on the floor and calculating the time it takes for someone to come to a complete stop.This will accurately demonstrate the slowed reaction times that occur when driving distractedly.
how you can get involved:
Anyone is able to aid by partnering with our organization and allowing Jacobs Safety Initiative to mentor other schools interested in a proposed safe driving organization. Simply driving safety and promoting safe driving tactics will aid in getting the message across.
project updates:
