EUROPEAN best practices on road safety (AVENUE) attracting the interest of youth at Global event - the World Scout Jamboree in Japan

EUROPEAN best practices on road safety (AVENUE for Traffic Safety EU funded program) attracting the interest of youth at Global event - the World Scout Jamboree in Japan with 35.000 scouts from 150 countries, 8.500 volunteers and 10.000 external visitors within 2 weeks.

(photo1: RSI President Vassiliki Danelli Mylona with Mari Nakano, Chairperson of the 23rd World Scout Jamboree Management Team and Member, World Scout Committee.) 

A day in the «23rd World Scout Jamboree» on the part of the RSI "Panos Mylonas" team  

editors: Ciara Keegan, Aris Kopanakis, Brian Conville

Learning from each other and making a difference. These were the two main aspects that stood out to me today while implementing the programme of the RSI with the young people of the The 23rd World Scout Jamboree, Japan.
At the Road Safety workshop we had a range of groups from all over the world visiting our tent at the 23rd WSJ today to learn about road safety. Countries like Trinidad, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Slovenia, Russia, Italy, Hong Kong, France, Brazil, Sweden, Hungary and of course Japan. During the first day over two hundred participants put on hi-visibility jackets and took part in different activities of our road safety programme. Our first activity consisted of two different and very interesting devices.  One of the devices measures the reaction time of a driver when braking and the distance the car will travel according to the car speed and the road surface. The other device includes a weight scale which communicates with a computer and calculates the forces acting on a body during the time of a collision according to the traveling speed and the participant's weight. The Scouts were quite surprised about the results and seemed to really enjoy finding out all this important information through interactive displays and simulators
 Our second activity was the 'Alco Goggles'. This activity allowed the participants to see what it was like to feel under the influence of alcohol with the use of special designed goggles. We then got them to try and slalom through traffic cones to show them that it would be impossible to concentrate when your senses are unable to work properly, similar to when we have had alcohol.
The third activity was a walking debate. The way this worked was there were three sections; agree, disagree and not sure. The Scouts were then asked a series of question and asked to go to one of the sections based on how they felt. This was possibly one of the most interesting activities as it truly allowed us to form an understanding of what different cultures views were on road safety. Some young people believed it was okay to have a few drinks and then drive, some told us of how aggressive driving could be in their country. They were truly teaching us as much we were teaching them.
We also gave them questionnaires to fill out in order to get a more indent perspective on road safety and culture in their country. They were then given a road safety ribbon and iron on stamp as they had so kindly filled out the survey for us.
Selected participants attended the focus groups we organized so as to get the qualitative approach and in depth analysis and understanding on youth attitudes related to road safety issues focussing in underage drinking and traffic safety culture.

Apart from the above activities carried out the 1st day as scheduled, we have constructed special boxes to be used for video broadcasting road safety related messages and videos.

A destruct a match game is also included in our program to demonstrate risks on destruction of attention while driving, cycling or walking.

Overall the day was one to be proud of as every Scout who came to our tent left with a further understanding of the importance of road safety and a smile on their face.

(photo2: Scouts Group participating at the RSI road safety workshop at the 23rd WSJ in Japan)

(photo3: RSI (Hellenic Road Safety Institute) in partnership with WOSM the largest youth organization in the world, is carrying road safety workshops at the GDV (Global Development Village) attracting hundreds of scouts that participate into groups attending the trainings and workshops. A research is also conducted to address the issue of youth attitudes in road safety. 

In the photo from left to right you can view the members of the RSI "Panos Mylonas" team at the 23rd WSJ - GDV PEACE area ROAD SAFETY INSTITUTE Ciara (from Ireland), Alexia (Greece), Katrin (IST, Sweden), Grace (Ireland), George (Greece), Connor and Bryan (both from Scouting Ireland), RSI President Vassiliki,  Maria (Greece), Aris (Greece), Pantelis (Scouts of Greece), Texter (IST, US), Marianna (Greece), Vincent (IST, Malaysia), Savas (Greece).)

(photo4:  RSI President Vassiliki Danelli Mylona with Joao Armando, Chairperson, World Scout Committee at the opening of the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi Kirara-Hama, Japan. The SAJ (Scout Association in Japan) is organizing and hosting the 23rd WSJ with the important theme "a Spirit of Unity".)