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Think Future Not Funeral - New Youth-led Road Safety Campaign
| Author: Trudy Shephard | Published: 12th July 2012 10:35 |
Young Lives Empowerment on behalf of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Road Safety Partnership (CPRSP) and in partnership with Nacro, the crime reduction charity, Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service, and Cambridgeshire Police, recently announced the launch of their youth-led road safety campaign "Think Future Not Funeral". The campaign addresses the issue of over-occupancy alongside other key themes such as peer pressure, drink driving, speeding and the non use of seatbelts.
See video at foot of article
Students Joe Smith, Dan Hurry, Harriet Lawler, Ryan Robinson, Kaya Williams and Ruth Curtis from Nacro Huntingdon researched, designed and starred in the campaign film, which is aimed at young people aged between 16 and 21, who are at risk of death or serious injury by driving or travelling in over-occupied vehicles.
The storyline sees a group of six friends meeting up to travel to a party in a vehicle barely equipped for five. Driven at speed on a rural road, their car straddles the central line as it takes a bend, before losing control in an attempt to avoid an on-coming car. The final scenes show their car implode against a tree resulting in serious injury and loss of life.
The final film is both gritty and realistic as the students were able to work with Watch Commander Trevor Lindsay and Green Watch from Huntingdon Fire Station and PC Steve Gedny, Road Casualty Reduction Officer Cambridgeshire Police to bring credibility and realism to the film.
In addition they worked with professional film makers from 20Twenty Productions Ltd & Young Lives Get Creative as well as Dale Roberts from Piixel, a specialist in Special Effects.
The group were also supported by the wider community with help from Senior Consultant Richard Jenkins from Youth Results UK Ltd, Urban & Civic and Allways Garage at Alconbury Airfield and from Tony Thacker, Ramsey Fire Station who donated the car.
Matt Staton, Road Safety Officer at Cambridgeshire County Council, said:
'Road collisions are the leading cause of death for young adults aged between 15-24 years and the Partnership was keen to explore new methods of working to get our safety message across. We commissioned Young Lives Empowerment to facilitate a youth-led approach and we're delighted with what the students have achieved'.
‘Cambridgeshire County Council has set a target to reduce casualties at least 40% by 2020 and the Partnership are actively doing all they can to support this.'
‘It ultimately becomes a matter of personal choice but we want to encourage young people to adhere to the rules and arrive safely rather than take a chance and regret their actions for the rest of their life".
Susan Murphy, Senior Tutor at Nacro Huntingdon, said:
‘This is typical of the type of projects our students get involved with. Although Nacro is a crime reduction charity, not all of our students are young offenders. They are earnest young citizens who care deeply about their peer group and the risks they take with their lives.'
18 year old Nacro student, Dan Hurry, said:
‘We were shocked to discover that on average a young person is killed on UK roads every 18 hours, whilst a young person suffers a serious injury every 90 minutes, and of those killed or seriously injured, 69% are males with a peak age of 18, and 59% are female, with a peak age of 18-20 years, so it didn't take much to persuade us to become involved.'
17 year old Nacro student, Joe Smith, said:
‘Some of us have been involved in collisions before and we've been lucky to walk away unhurt, but I've come to realise that this is the exception rather than the norm.'
PC Steve Gedny, Road Casualty Reduction Officer at Cambridgeshire Police, said:
‘This has been a very exciting project to be involved in, because young people have come up with their own ideas which we have been able to help bring to fruition. I hope that the film will help to get a number of very important Road Safety messages across to young drivers.'
Martin Ockendon, Station Commander at Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service, said:
‘The message is received best when people from the same peer group stand up to be counted and state that the situation is unacceptable. I want to commend the group for their coordinated efforts to prevent the appalling incidents we have to attend and the suffering that follows. They are life savers.'
Trudy Shephard, Young Lives Project Coordinator (Empowerment), said:
‘Young Lives supports children and young people cross Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and this project illustrates the faith the wider community have in young people.
‘The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership were open to working with a new approach and their trust has been rewarded with a meaningful, youth-led campaign that has been delivered with tenacity, integrity and commitment.
‘We can only hope that young people aged between 16 and 21 who risk their lives by travelling in overcrowded cars take notice and change their pattern of behaviour. Make your lives count; really do think future not funeral'.
Young Lives
- For further information, please contact Young Lives Project Co-ordinator (Empowerment),Trudy Shephard on 01480 494333or email trudy@young-lives.org.uk
- Watch the video here: www.youtube/futurenotfuneral
- Young Lives is a registered charity supporting voluntary organisations and charities who work with children and young people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
- It supports these organisations by providing training, HR support, funding and information as well as providing children and young people with the opportunity to be active citizens, and to be involved in a range of decision making processes.
- Web: http://www.young-lives.org.uk/
- FB: www.facebook.com/YoungLives
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/young_lives
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/YoungLivesUK
Nacro:
- Nacro is the UK's biggest crime reduction charity. Dedicated to reducing crime and changing lives in communities across England and Wales, it is made up of more than 1,500 staff and volunteers and runs more than 300 different projects.
- Nacro's work focuses on three areas - before, while and after people are in trouble:
- o Crime prevention and early intervention - stopping young people getting into trouble by running services which steer them away from crime, teach them new skills and create new opportunities.
- o Offender management - working with people in prison, on post-release licences and on community sentences, challenging them to stop offending and equipping them with skills and opportunities so they can move away from crime and give something positive back to their communities.
- o Resettlement - helping offenders cope after serving a prison sentence so they can settle back into the community, find somewhere to live and access education, training or a job.
- Website: http://www.nacro.org.uk/
- Nacro's latest news stories
- Follow us on Twitter
- Watch our YouTube channel
CFRS:
We are responsible for delivering a fire and rescue service to the 700,000 people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
We operate from 28 fire stations which vary in status from being staffed 24/7, 365 days a year, to being completely retained, which means fire fighters are on call day and night and are alerted to incidents by a pager.
As well as responding to incidents we work hard to prevent them from happening in the first place through community safety, arson prevention and road safety work with partner organisations.
Trudy Shephard
Project Co-ordinator (Empowerment) - Supporting Children & Young People
Young Lives
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