Hartsdown Youth Travel Ambassadors
The Youth Travel Ambassador Programme is an exciting new project for year 8 and 12/13 students , offered by the Kent County Council Road Safety Team. This programme provides young people , aged 11-18, with the skills and confidence to address road safety issues affecting their school community. The project is an innovation for Kent, and Hartsdown Academy is the first school outside of London to introduce the project.
Drawing on the expertise of the Road Safety Team, the project offers:
- Sessions for students delivered by KCC Road Safety Team YTA Coordinator • Optional access to bid for up to £250 funding to deliver a YTA campaign • Opportunity to attend Enterprise Highway and end of year Expo events and Training for students to become YTA Student Leaders to mentor their peers.
With direct support from the Road Safety Team, YTA teams research and develop behaviour change campaigns, focusing on road safety awareness and improving the student travel experience to and from school. With direct input and support from the YTA coordinator, students develop skills in a variety of areas with applications across the curriculum, and developing a range of transferable skills including:
- Project management
- Leadership
- Planning and organisation
- Analysing and investigation
- Marketing and promotion
- Presenting and public speaking
This is now a well-established programme across schools in London. In total it has reached 250 schools and 4,600 students have been trained as YTA’s delivering campaigns to over 500,000 students.