The Goal of Teens in Action Project Ignition is to educate our peers, our faculty, our families, and the community, in a variety of languages, to safe driving behaviors and practices through creative activities that inspire, motivate and encourage. Road Skill/Roads Kill addresses the issues of Driving Safety as it applies to youth and adults in our community. Our focus is on the Distractions that drivers face each day as they drive on roads around the country. We believe that with interactive participation, youth and adults can raise their awareness to their own behaviors and change to positive behaviors that result in safe driving. We chose this topic because we witnessed a number of unsafe driving activities among our peers and adults that concerned us. We also have seen non-native drivers who have had a hard time understanding the rules of the American Road. We believe that one of the major causes of accidents is distractions and inexperience in youth drivers, and distractions in adult drivers. This is in all cultures. We have seen passengers, peers, and drivers all make poor choices as they become distracted or have their minds on other things while driving. We are also very concerned about the distractions that are caused by over tired drivers. Youth voice is a key component of getting the message to youth and adults. We have seen what our work this past year has done. The State Police and Office of Emergency Management want us to spread the news to new groups. Using creativity, involving youth in the solutions, and engaging faculty, parents and the community is key to getting the message across. We use music, drama, interactive activities, art, and posters and fliers to get our message across. WE have asked what our peers want to see and hear and they have responded that they like the interactive so that is what we are aiming for. There have been multiple deaths of teens and adults that could have been prevented if people made good decisions including not drinking, not driving tired, and not being distracted by food, cell phones. Children need to hear about being good passengers, riding buses, cars, and public transportation safely, and addressing bike and pedestrian safety as there have been many deaths of youth for not being aware of the rules of the road. Our message is Road Skill/Roads Kill-- ROAD SKILL- Learn the rules of the road, know what it means to be a good driver, passenger or adult mentor, practice driving in a safe manner whether on your bike, in your car or while driving the bus, know what causes you to be unsafe and make the necessary changes, share the message with another by your words and your example, and know that you can make a difference in the safety of yourself and others in the community. ROADS KILL--know the dangers, see the results of poor decisions and planning, understand the hazards and use them as you share your story with others. Be educated on the realities of dangers and do not shy away from taking a stand for road safety. We will deliver our message using multimedia techniques using video, drama, webpages, written materials, public speaking and displays and exhibits in public forums at schools and in the community. The message of Driving Safety needs to expand to non-English Speaking youth and Adults. The community we live in is diverse and we have noted that many newly arrived individuals do not use good driving skills. Using the work we began in year one, we plan to expand to meet the needs of adults and teens who speak other languages and who do not hear. We have decided to create a bicultural, bilingual production that includes English, Spanish, French, and American Sign components. We are going to create publications update our webpage, and develop posters that are bilingual, to reach out to these communities and find ways to share our message with them. Secondly, we are going to host activities including a SAFETEA, Middle school fair, Elementary School puppet show, and other activities, to reinforce importance of safe driving in all communities, a series of Bilingual commercials, for local radio and TV, and handouts and activity sheets, that can be shared with youth and adults who are new to our communities. We intend to host a forum for youth leaders from local schools and community groups that are bilingual and have high incidents of teen driving problems to engage them in the process of education to their peers.
