Project Ignition Teen Driver Safety Program Revamped

With car crashes as the number one killer of teens, NYLC and State Farm have revamped the teen driver safety program Project Ignition to better support youth-led efforts to change that statistic.

As is has for the last six years, the program will continue to provide grants to support schools’ use of service-learning to develop and implement peer-led teen driver safety campaigns. Grantee schools across the nation will now be funded for three years, and will form learning communities focused on increasing and applying evidence about what works in encouraging safe teen driving behaviors. This approach will enhance the service-learning experience, making it more meaningful for participants and teaching important curricula related to scientific inquiry and action research.

The calendar for the program has changed to accommodate these improvements. Applications from school teams are due Nov. 30, 2010. Twenty five schools will be chosen to receive $2,000 grants in December 2011, to support implementation of their projects in the spring semester.

Ten of the Top 25 schools will be chosen as National Leader Schools and given an opportunity to submit plans to expand their campaigns the following school year. Once their plans are approved, these 10 Leader Schools will receive $2,500 each to support implementation of their second-year plans, along with $5,000 to support their participation in the National Service-Learning Conference the following spring. (Details regarding the support for schools in their third year of the program are still under development.)

The new program design was based on an in-depth program evaluation conducted last year by Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Wilder concluded that Project Ignition is well-liked by participants, successfully engages hundreds of students in service-learning, and offers strong opportunities for youth voice and leadership. They asserted that the program is fostering promising teen driver safety initiatives and is can further channel youth energy, creativity, and voice to meet its core goals: saving teen lives and strengthening service-learning practice.

Based on input from alumni youth and advisors as well as teen driver safety experts, the new design features:

• Sharing existing research about what works to change teen behaviors and reduce auto crashes.
• Working with schools to measure the impact of their campaigns, applying and sharing their evidence about what works to strengthen impacts over time.
• Supporting strong ties to schools’ academic curriculum, providing greater opportunities for in-depth learning about the issues, discussion of possible solutions, collaboration to develop solutions, measuring impacts, and improving the effectiveness of strategies.

This year’s Top 10 Project Ignition students and advisors applauded the new design. One student said, “We’ve had a few people in our past who’ve been affected by crashes and been in crashes. It’s been a few years, but we’ve had some fatal crashes ... We just want to get the word out and help.”

While keeping peers safe is a core motivation for Project Ignition participants, they find there are other benefits along the way. “It’s about coming together as a group and feeling connected in making a difference,” another student said.