Four Key Steps to Mobilize a Community

The four key steps to effectively mobilize a community to promote teen driver safety are:

Let teens lead
Focus on the solution, not the problem
Involve the media
Make things fun

Let teens lead
Teens listen to other teens. Work with your local schools, churches, or community groups to identify teens that want to lead. Hold an "information boot camp" to make sure they have all the facts. Be a mentor, but let teens develop local programs they believe in.

Help enforce Graduated Driver Licensing Laws at home and in the community.
Teach other teens to avoid drinking and driving.
Encourage teens to avoid driving while intoxicated or with distractions, such as talking on a cell phone.

Involve the media
For better or worse, the media often controls what communities talk about. For example, when a teen dies in a car crash, the media will cover it. The community sadness from this coverage, however, does not change teen behavior for very long. We need to make the media a long-term ally, one that covers not only problems, but also solutions. Reach out to those covering educational and/or parenting issues at radio and TV stations, local newspapers, popular community newsletters, and perhaps even neighborhood blogs. Give them stories about teen leaders who are offering solutions to teen driver safety. Read more about working with the media.

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Make things fun
When you plan a community event, ask yourself, how can it be fun and useful for sharing information?

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