On Tuesday, 24th April the winners of contest, “YOUR ideas, YOUR initiatives“ which was held during the Renault educational road safety programme Safety and Mobility for All, were announced.

The winners are from Paide Gymnasium and their project was “Reflector is popular”. They will represent Estonia at the international final held in France from June 8 to 10, 2012.

The winning campaign “Reflector is popular” was picked out among other finalists. In the final there were also Vastseliina Gymnasium with a project “Shine on!”, Imavere Elementary School with a project “Lightened jacket“, Kadrina High School with project “Traffic week“ and 37th Tallinn Highschool with a project called “Traffic calendar“.

The winning campaign

The project “Reflector is popular” was launched in autumn and it’s aim was to introduce the need of wearing a reflector and make wearing a reflector popular among youngsters. During the project the number of people who did not have a reflector decreased in Paide Gymnasium from 253 to 57 and after giving reflectors as a gift to 0.

The projects presented during the Estonian final

At the final event all 5 groups presented their campaigns. The children ofImavere Elementary school were brainstorming and came out with an idea of lightened jacket which would help save lives and make pedestrian journey more safe. The children of Vastseliina Gymnasium made a project “Shine on!” and made reflectors and gave them to kindergarten children. So that they could get used wearing reflector. The children of 37th School of Tallinn draw traffic situation pictures and made a calendar out of them. This will be on every class next school year. Children of Kadrina High school organized a traffic safety week for elementary school children. There were traffic quizzes and games etc.

The head of the jury, Mr. Indrek Sirk said that picking out only one winning group was extremely hard. “It is really nice to see that children know so much about how to act correctly in the streets and in traffic situations. I think that they know better than their parents. The winner was picked out after hard argumentation, although all jury members had their own favourites. Paide Gymnasiums project Reflector is popular had very positive influence among community. Neighbouring counties, schools and kindergartens want to do this kind of project next year. And this is worth of noticing,“ told Mr. Sirk.

The competition “YOUR ideas, YOUR initiatives“ was meant for students from 7 to 15 years old all over Estonia.

More information about the Renault programme “Safety and Mobility for all” and about the competition in Estonia here: www.ohutuliikleminekoigile.ee

The members of the “Battleship” school road safety club from Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Primary School 12 won the “YOUR ideas, YOUR initiatives” contest at the final held at the Copernic Science Centre in Warsaw on April 17, 2012.

Some 75 primary schools across Poland were in the running. The jury presented 25 awards and selected the five best campaigns, created by children from primary schools in Łowce (Subcarpathian Voivodeship), Łódź, Mikłusów (Lublin Voivodeship), Miłakowo (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship) and Rybnik (Silesian Voivodeship). The five teams competed for first prize in the national final of the “YOUR ideas, YOUR initiatives” competition.

The winning campaign

The Rybnik team rolled out its “Seatbelts. Reflectors. Pavement” campaign from November 2011 to February 2012. The objective was to remind children and adults of how important it is for car passengers to buckle up and pedestrians and cyclists to wear the right reflector accessories. The team also sought to inform the town authorities of the need for a pavement outside their school, located in the Zebrzydowice area of Rybnik.

Among other initiatives, the children organized local events, fund raisers to buy reflectors and created a petition to get the pavement approved. As a result of their efforts, the town of Rybnik has set aside the necessary funds in its draft budget for 2012 for work on improving safety on Zebrzydowicka street.

The winners will represent Poland at the international final held in France from June 8 to 10, 2012.

High-profile names at the Polish final

At the national final, the groups presented five-minute artistic programs illustrating the local campaigns developed by the children on road safety and/or ecological transport means. The event was attended by representatives from a number of government bodies and non-governmental organizations working in road safety, education, health protection and corporate social responsibility. In a speech made in the name of the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski, Irena Wóycicka, Under Secretary of State for Social Affairs in the President’s Office, stressed the social importance of Renault’s “Safety and Mobility for All” awareness-raising program conducted in Poland since 2000. Deputy Michal Szczerba, Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Road Safety, commented that Renault’s educational programme was perfectly consistent with the initiatives in the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, aimed at protecting human lives.

More than 756,500 children from 3,400 primary schools in Poland have now taken part in the Safety and Mobility for All program.

Find out more about the competition at www.bezpieczenstwo.renault.pl.

The theme of the 2011-2012 contest was also revealed.

Children from 7 to 11 years old will think about the respect of the environment. The theme of the contest “Draws the ecological car of your dreams and the world which surrounds it” invites them to think about the good behaviors to adopt regarding mobilty while preserving planet.

Teenagers from 12 to 16 years old will have to produce a video clip aiming at “developing the use of a more ecological car on a daily basis”.

All the modalities of the contest are available here: www.securite-mobilite-pour-tous.fr

The result was announced at the awards ceremony on 8 December 2011 in Amsterdam, Holland. The prizewinning project, run by Renault Poland under Renault’s Safety and Mobility for All programme, involved Polish children from more than three hundred School Safety Clubs across the country. Together, they presented more than 700 reports over the seven-month project. (Details are online on the project website at www.bezpieczenstwo.renault.pl/skb.) Their work was entered in a nationwide competition, the final of which was held at the Polish Parliament.

For Agata Szczech, Renault Poland’s head of public relations, “for us, winning first prize in such a prestigious event is recognition and encouragement for the many operations run under Renault’s social responsibility programme, on social, educational, diversity and environmental protection issues. Renault in Poland has been taking a front-line position on road safety for 17 years now, through educational programmes addressing both youngsters and drivers. I’d like to dedicate this prize to all the children in the School Safety Clubs, and to their teachers. They’ve put a lot of energy into improving our everyday environment, and their hard work ultimately brings benefits for everyone. I’d also like to thank all our partners on this programme.”

The European Excellence Awards is an annual event run by Communication Director magazine to reward the best public relations campaigns across Europe. Details are online at www.excellence-awards.eu.

The contest organized by Renault Portugal within the framework of the program Safety and Mobility for All invites teachers and children of primary schools to think about a campaign and to create a poster which will serve to promote this UN’s initiative, which is supported by Renault.

The deadline for schools’ participation is April 27, 2012. The selection of the winning poster will occur in May 2012 and will enable the winning class to participate to the international meeting organized by Renault in Paris in June.

More information on the website of the programme: www.segurancaparatodos.com

In Poland, “Security and Mobility for All” is very popular with children, teenagers and teachers. Children, gathered as part of School Road Safety Clubs, are very proactive and able to initiate many changes.  These School Road Safety Clubs have also been nominated twice for EUROPEAN EXCELLENCE AWARD 2011 in the group “Corporate Social Responsibility” but also in the group “Poland, Russia, Ukraine.” The official ceremony was held on December 8 in Amsterdam and rewarded the best European projects in terms of communication and public relations!Do you want to know if they won the award? Watch this space !

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