SAFECY (Educating safe cycling in European Schools)

Short description:

Educating safe cycling in European Schools

Background:

They key focus of this project is to reduce the amount of bicycle related accidents that occur each year in the EU by educating youth through creative and innovative approaches on themes such as road safety. According to the European Safety Council (ETSC), 19,450 cyclists were killed on EU roads between 2010 and 2018. There is a considerable need to reduce the amount of bike related accidents in the UE and make EU roads more bike friendly. There is a lack of material for teachers, formators and coaches to teach European youth about road safety and safe cycling. They need innovative, fun and creative tools to get this important and potentially life-saving message through to young people. There is a need to better the health of young Europeans. The EU is facing challenges: obesity among youth, fluctuating mental health of city dwellers and air pollution. Investing in cycling and impulsing it among young people will help better their overall health. The 2016 Commission Communication on Investing in Europe’s Youth emphasized on the importance of investing in young people, opening up new opportunities for youth, and contributing to their development and life chances and this project will do just that.

Objectives:

The SAFECY project objectives are:

• to form and educate European youth to be safer, more conscious and more responsible cyclists and future drivers in order to reduce the number of bike related accidents
• to give teachers, formators and coaches the necessary tools to teach youth how to become safe cyclists in a fun and innovative manner
• to promote and impulse cycling among youth across the EU by creating content that will be easily accessible and understandable for both formators and students.

Project results:

PR1: Needs Assessment Collecting data, statistics, surveys about cycling and accidents in the EU.

PR2: Creation of an ACL guide Teaching formators to deliver the content and raise awareness in a creative and attractive manner for youth.

PR3: Online interactive platform to make learning about safe cycling fun for young people.

PR4: Discussion Forum for teachers, formators and coaches

PR5: Report on impacts of the project

Outcomes:

• Teachers, formators and coaches will have the means to educate youth on the very important theme of road safety thanks to digital learning and ACLs.
• ACLs will continue to be implemented widely in the EU:

uptake of creative teaching and training methodologies to re-shape European educational policy and landscape and adoption of the strategic method of using ACL methodology to intertwine school education, environmental awareness and creative thinking.

• Empowerment end users, inspiring teaching professionals and linking together all relevant and interested stakeholders in a living ecosystem.
• European youth will become more responsible and safe citizens. Their personal empowerment and independence will be enhanced.
• The number of cycling related accidents and deaths in the EU will diminish.
• Cycling will grow in popularity among young Europeans.
• The next generation will prefer using their bikes over cars or public transport. This will result in less air pollution in the EU, less traffic jams in EU cities, and improve productivity of EU workers.
• Furthermore, European youth’s physical and mental health will improve.