The Allstate Foundation approved a grant to SCVRJP in 2007 for the “On the Road Together Safe Teen Driving Program”. The number one cause of death for people 18-24 is car crashes! Depending on the study 40-60% of those crashes involve alcohol. SCVRJP & Allstate partnered with MN Twin Cities Public Television to produce a documentary on Safe Teen Driving. You will soon be able to purchase this documentary from SCVRJP. The Allstate Foundation provided a second grant to SCVRJP and we will be working with Living Justice Press to publish a manual for duplicating these Circles in your own communities. Click on the Kare 11 link to see a story on these classroom Circles.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=489541
I did one of these Circles first thing yesterday and the students responded so positively. It was a group that has a “Pay if Forward” project and the students really gave voice to wanting more Circles and Restorative Justice in their school. My day started and ended with a Circle yesterday! I showed this Kare 11 link to my students at UWRF.
The Safe Teen Driving Circles follow the four phases of all Restorative Justice Circles 1.) Getting Acquainted 2.)Building Relationships 3.) Addressing Issues 4.) Taking Action. We identified values, wrote them on paperplates, made a committment to honor these and then did another round to get acquainted. Lately I have been asking what flavor of ice cream people would be. My favorite answer so far . . . the entire Cold Stone store!
The Safe Teen Driving Circles are a great way to introduce students to Circling, to help a speaker with storytelling and to allow students a chance to speak individually. All of our participants have completed evaluation forms, in 15 months we have reached 241 students. Please contact me if you have any questions about this program. If you would like to pre-order your manual, contact Living Justice Press http://www.livingjusticepress.org.
8 Comments
October 16, 2008 at 10:41 am
[...] addressed the number one cause of death for young people 16-24, car crashes. By developing [...]
October 22, 2008 at 10:04 pm
[...] of conference attendees. I decided to volunteer, since LJP will be publishing an upcoming text on Safe Teen Driving Circles. (two links to other blog [...]
November 4, 2008 at 8:01 pm
[...] our Safe Teen Driving Circles and Underage Consumption Panels – we make sure to gather a public committment at the end of the [...]
December 13, 2008 at 11:25 am
[...] is a life skills class teacher that has us back each semester. I bring a speaker and facilitate a Circle, introducing students to Restorative Justice. Today’s Circle was as good as any I’ve [...]
December 13, 2008 at 11:45 am
[...] on our Circle experience and make a statement relevant to what we will take from the Circle. In Safe Teen Driving Circles, I make sure the students state a “public committment” a specific behavior they will do [...]
March 24, 2009 at 8:31 pm
[...] wrote a grant for a major project. I know when you get the grant money that means you do the project. I got a grant to write a [...]
June 29, 2009 at 1:14 pm
[...] post includes more on the Safe Teen Driving Circles and a link to short video. This blog contains a [...]
August 2, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] last half a day. I was ready to roll and teach the audience about setting up and facilitating Safe Teen Driving Circles. The Restorative Justice Talking Circle, that features a storyteller. The Circle objective is [...]