Our speaker this week was Sarah Parkinson, Co-ordinator of the New Zealand Road Safety Education Limited which presents the program RYDA to schools in the North Island. They have recently just begun their work in the capital.
This week our guest speaker was Sarah Parkinson, Co-ordinator of the New Zealand Road Safety Education Limited which presents the program RYDA to schools in the North Island. They have recently just begun their work in the capital.
RYDA Is the leading and only national road safety education program for youth in New Zealand, providing young people with the skills and strategies they need to stay safe on the road. Young people continue to be over-represented in road deaths and serious injuries so this is a significant program doing vital work.
The RYDA workshop features six sessions of highly engaging practical demonstrations, real life narratives, videos, quizzes and interactive role-play. RYDA supports youth development in a number of areas including social resilience and anticipating and managing risk, giving students a unique opportunity to set road safety goals and build strategies alongside the friends they will most likely be riding with.
Whether they are a driver or a passenger, every young person contributes to the safety of road users around them. RYDA helps young people make positive contributions from any seat of the car.
The program has been very popularly received and feedback most encouraging: 97% of teachers surveyed believe it should be compulsory for senior high school students while 92% of students said they were likely or very likely to apply the things they learned as a passenger or driver in the future.
Like many other significant community organisations RYDA is not government funded. It does have some corporate support to keep the expense for students as low as possible, but the support of Rotary in the future would be hugely encouraging and welcomed. Thank you Sarah on for an excellent presentation.