Teens in the Driver Seat

A peer-to-peer safe driving program for your school.

Follow us @teensdriverseat

Safe Kids Georgia Coordinator Information

Just like the rest of the country, car crashes are the number one killer of teens in Georgia. Through our partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation, we know that distractions and seat belts are two of the riskiest behavior Georgia teens take behind the wheel.

Top teen crash counties are shown. These counties are experiencing the highest rate of teen crashes, injuries, and fatalities. While these areas are a great focus, any school in any county can start the program.

Our partnership with Safe Kids Georgia has been a very successful one! Coordinators are the boots on the ground and the connection to local communities. The partnership works because you are already delivering safety information and activated within your county(ies), so adding teen driver safety is a fantastic fit. You introduce the program to the schools in your community and encourage them to complete activities and stay as involved with their team as you wish. Some schools need a bit more help than others, but you will get the general feel for how your relationship will work. TDS staff will stay connected with the schools to communicate activity and outreach ideas and provide the resources they need through social media, monthly newsletters, emails, text messaging, and of course through this website.

Elevator Pitch:

Teens in the Driver Seat is a peer-to-peer safe driving program available to high schools and middle schools at no cost. Georgia Department of Transportation has partnered with Texas A&M Transporation Institute to provide research, resources, and activity ideas, while a teen team at your school conducts the outreach. Safe Kids Georgia is a partner to bring this program to your school and is also available to help support efforts. TDS provides a resource kit with items such as team t-shirts, banners, posters, and other messaging items to help the team get started. They also provide cash and gift card incentives to teams that conduct consistent messaging and outreach. There are also lots of opportunities for teens to lead.

The program covers the top 5 risks teens face as passengers and as new drivers, including distractions, nighttime/drowsy driving, speeding, low seat belt use, and impaired driving. You can sign up anytime, and research shows that consistent outreach on your campus year-over-year can result in lower electronic use behind the wheel and higher seat belt use.

All messaging focuses on positive pressure and encourages changing driving cultures in communities. Teams can sign up each year and are asked to conduct surveys, which will show which driving risks are most demonstrated. The team can use this report to focus on specific risks within their school.

Overview:

  • Any Georgia middle or high school can start the program, including charter, public, or private.
  • We can also work with youth groups – church, community, sports, and home school associations.
  • The program can be started at any time throughout the school year, and schools can sign up each year to receive new supplies.
  • Schools must sign up; we do not automatically send supplies.
  • The program is available at no cost to the school and they can win cash for their work.
  • The steps for starting the program are easy.  TDS is especially popular with existing student organizations, such as FCCLA, SADD, HOSA, Student Council, etc. These organizations recognize TDS as a project and the teams can utilize TDS for organization competitions.
  • Watch for invitations and participate in coordinator calls with special guests so you can keep up-to-date with happenings and get support from the team.

Coordinator Recruiting Resources:

Training:

  • Please click this link to access the July, 2021 training recording (password: Yk5MSFv9)

Helpful articles and pages:

This website is full of useful information, but here are some pages that you may want to look over as you learn more about TDS and how to promote it with schools.

Coordinator School/Community Resources:

Understanding TDS:

TDS strives to utilize theory-based approaches to our outreach and education methods. Here are a few helpful videos to give you the context of our methods and focus areas.

  1. Peer-to-Peer Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0rT53yuWk
  2. Positive Youth Development: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nbdHGeOTIMiZBUShKMR45xbmG34Xepo2/view
  3. Traffic Safety Culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2HlTQPS40
  4. Theory of Planned Behavior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZsxuD3gExE