Initiative details
The initiative “NEAR – New Education Approaches for Road Safety” is supported by 4 organisations from 4 countries to strengthen young people’s approaches to road safety in order to prevent deaths and injuries caused by road crashes. Our major objective is to promote safe mobility for young people, to improve their attitudes, habits and behaviour in traffic and to provide psychological support to survivors of traffic collisions and young people who have lost someone close in road crashes. Among young people we identify those who have experienced collisions and, together with other young people we develop preventive, supportive and educational models aimed at improving road safety and supporting the "invisible victims".
The project emphasises the approach of active citizenship to improve traffic safety. The results of the project will enable activities that will encourage young people to take appropriate action for safe mobility. We pay special attention to young people affected by the consequences of traffic crashes.
The project emphasises the approach of active citizenship to improve traffic safety. The results of the project will enable activities that will encourage young people to take appropriate action for safe mobility. We pay special attention to young people affected by the consequences of traffic crashes.
Initiative date
to
Who was/is your target audience?
Young adults 17-25
Topic
Create awareness
Knowledge building and sharing
Provide alternative solutions
Organisation details
Zavod Varna pot
Association
Slovenia
Ljubljana
Contact name
Kaja Kobal
Telephone number
+386 5 9955 022
info@varna-pot.si
Website link
Project activities
Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.
In the first part of the project we carried out two main sets of activities:
1. We performed a comparative study/survey on the attitude of young people to the topic of safe mobility, on (risky) forms of behaviour of young people in traffic and on the actual needs of young people in providing prevention and support for safe mobility.
2. Organised two training sessions – one on the topic of prevention for safe mobility of young people, for youth workers and youth from all participating countries, and the other on the topic of support for young people affected by the consequences of traffic collisions, for youth workers and professionals (psychologists).
In the second part of the project we completed the development of the main project result – new innovative models of prevention and support for safe youth mobility. In total, eight national campaigns were developed and implemented, one prevention and one support model per participating country. The national campaigns will be presented in the project's final publication and during the final online event.
1. We performed a comparative study/survey on the attitude of young people to the topic of safe mobility, on (risky) forms of behaviour of young people in traffic and on the actual needs of young people in providing prevention and support for safe mobility.
2. Organised two training sessions – one on the topic of prevention for safe mobility of young people, for youth workers and youth from all participating countries, and the other on the topic of support for young people affected by the consequences of traffic collisions, for youth workers and professionals (psychologists).
In the second part of the project we completed the development of the main project result – new innovative models of prevention and support for safe youth mobility. In total, eight national campaigns were developed and implemented, one prevention and one support model per participating country. The national campaigns will be presented in the project's final publication and during the final online event.
In terms of implementation, what worked well and what challenges did you need to overcome?
The international partnership of the NEAR initiative, despite the four organisations working together for the first time, brought together the right mixture of expertise and experience, as well as sincere desire to improve road safety for youth.
Challenges included some dificulties with coordinating the national activities with local authorities and organisations, and lack of additional funding.
Challenges included some dificulties with coordinating the national activities with local authorities and organisations, and lack of additional funding.
If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.
In addition to Zavod Varna pot (Safe Journey Institiute) from Slovenia, Ljubljana as the project coordinator NEAR project includes the following organisations as project partners: 1. AktivNS from Serbia, Novi Sad, 2. Centre for Education for Active Progress (C.E.Z.A.R.) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srbac, 3. Visionn5 OG fom Austria, Graz. All NEAR partners contribute to all project activities, share their experience and implement national campaigns. They specifically contribute within their special fields of exeprtise and experience, such as psychological support to victims of traffic colisions (Zavod Varna pot), road safety prevention programmes for high school pupils (Aktiv NS), programmes for youth (C.E.Z.A.R.), communication (Vision5).
Evaluation
Please summarise how you have evaluated the initiative’s impact (e.g. social media reach, survey, feedback forms, statistics).
NEAR survey about attitudes and behaviours of young people in traffic was conducted among the youth in the age group 15 to 24 years, in four countries. In total over 1500 answers were received and analysed.
https://near-campaign.eu/library/detail/near-surrvey-conclusions
Main findings of the survey are as follows:
1. The most widespread risky behaviours include not wearing a helmet during bike or scooter ride, speeding, drug and alcohol abuse and telephone use.
2. There are noticeable differences between individual countries in certain risky behaviour, e.g. seat belt use in a rear seat is a real problem in Bosnia & Herzegovina with only around 12 % of regular users. Also, the survey in Austria showed a much bigger problem in drug and alcohol abuse compared to other participating countries.
3. More than 30 % of the survey participants have reported some kind of experience with the consequences of road crashes, which indicates the need for adequate support also for secondary road crash victims.
4. The young people would like to receive more information on safe mobility, as they have not received extensive or repetitive content on this subject during their formal education.
Evaluation of the implemented national campaigns is still under way, but generally we know that we implemented eight national campaigns, where we have directly and actively icluded more than 500 young people (and in addition more than 50 youth workers). With the website and social media we reached more than 100.000 individuals in each country.
https://near-campaign.eu/library/detail/near-surrvey-conclusions
Main findings of the survey are as follows:
1. The most widespread risky behaviours include not wearing a helmet during bike or scooter ride, speeding, drug and alcohol abuse and telephone use.
2. There are noticeable differences between individual countries in certain risky behaviour, e.g. seat belt use in a rear seat is a real problem in Bosnia & Herzegovina with only around 12 % of regular users. Also, the survey in Austria showed a much bigger problem in drug and alcohol abuse compared to other participating countries.
3. More than 30 % of the survey participants have reported some kind of experience with the consequences of road crashes, which indicates the need for adequate support also for secondary road crash victims.
4. The young people would like to receive more information on safe mobility, as they have not received extensive or repetitive content on this subject during their formal education.
Evaluation of the implemented national campaigns is still under way, but generally we know that we implemented eight national campaigns, where we have directly and actively icluded more than 500 young people (and in addition more than 50 youth workers). With the website and social media we reached more than 100.000 individuals in each country.
What has been the effect of the activities?
The NEAR initiative has so far had direct effect in four countries. The national campaigns have included directly over 500 young people and over 50 youth workers, and have reached through digital channels more thar 100.000 young people per participating country. The implemented national campaigns used very different approaches, therefore the effects are various, including:
- Better awareness and knowledge of young people about road safety topics,
- Improved support to young secondary road crash victims,
- Many young people involved in road safety prevention activities,
- Improved readiness of social workers in schools to deal with traffic related incidents.
We believe that in its first two years the NEAR initiative already changed the attitudes of many young people in the prevention for road safety, as well as improved the support also for secondary road crash victims.
- Better awareness and knowledge of young people about road safety topics,
- Improved support to young secondary road crash victims,
- Many young people involved in road safety prevention activities,
- Improved readiness of social workers in schools to deal with traffic related incidents.
We believe that in its first two years the NEAR initiative already changed the attitudes of many young people in the prevention for road safety, as well as improved the support also for secondary road crash victims.
Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.
The NEAR initiative involves young people in a peer-to-peer approach to promote safe mobility, and improve their attitudes, habits and behaviour in traffic. The results of the project enable activities that encourage young people to take appropriate action for safe mobility. The educational approaches that we developed and tested are presented to the wider public and freelly available to be implemented also by other organisations. In the future the NEAR initiative will invite other road safety NGOs to join and contribute to the vision of zero deaths and injuries on the roads through involvement of youth and invisible road crash victims.
How have you shared information about your project and its results?
The main communication point for NEAR is the initiative's own online platform (https://near-campaign.eu), including the main website in five languages to communicate with the international community, and four national micro sites for communicating with national and local communities.