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Ryda Community Involvement

Every year, our students, partners, ambassadors and broader community put their energies behind National Road Safety Week to spread the message about our RYDA program and road safety in general.  Here’s how they’ve lent their support.

Road Safety Week 2025

Our number one priority during Road Safety Week is sharing Ryda’s learning with as many young people as possible.  In 2025 we met over 4,000 novice and future drivers during National Road Safety Week alone.  Together we workshopped strategies that will help them take positive actions as drivers and passengers.  Our Ryda participants use the spotlight of the week to get behind the themes, post on socials and share important road safety learning with their family and friends.

A big thanks to our valued partner, Boral, who gave our students an extra special learning experience by sending some of their trucks along to Ryda workshops – there’s no better way to see the road from the perspective of a heavy vehicle driver than to climb up into the cab and experience if for yourself.  Click here to see the video of the learning in action.

Joining the road safety community and spreading the word

While our students were busy learning, our team was also out with the road safety community spreading the word.  In 2025, we attended the launch of Road Safety Weeks in New Zealand and Australia.

We spread the word via our social media platforms, joined with our partners in celebrating some true road safety heroes, joined with partner, Toyota who hosted an evening of networking and road safety panel discussion in NZ and raised the profile of the yellow ribbon wherever we went.  See the gallery below for some highlights.

Road Safety Week 2023

National Road Safety Weeks were held in New Zealand and Australia from 14 – 21 May.  RSE saw great engagement across both countries with students, partners and other key members of our community.

Supersizing RYDA at the “Road Safety Starts With Me” Youth Summit
We were thrilled to be invited by the WA Road Safety Commission to take part in their Youth Summit.  Over 1,000 students were invited to attend and take part in an interactive and engaging day of road safety learning.  We put together a special session which focussed on helping students to understand their own personality and risk profile and identify and manage mind state for safe travelling.  Thanks to the fabulous Nicholas Joy who facilitated the sessions.

Training the next generation of Road Safety Heroes
Almost 2,000 students attended RYDA workshops across Australia and New Zealand.  Students embraced and promoted the themes of #DriveSoOthersSurvive and #BeARoadSafetyHero with photobooths and social media posts.  In Sydney and Melbourne, students had an extra special hands-on learning opportunity when our friends from Boral turned up to RYDA workshops with their trucks – giving students, what was for many, a once in a lifetime chance to climb in the cabin of a truck and truly experience a new perspective on understanding blind-spots and sharing the road.

Road Safety Week 2022

National Road Safety Weeks were held in New Zealand and Australia 9 – 15 May and 15-22 May respectively. Here’s how our community got involved.

Letter of Support form the Australian Governor General:  Read the Letter of Support here

Raising awareness at RYDA workshops
With the help of our corporate partners, we had fun promoting National Road Safety Week at our various RYDA workshops.  We shouted students to yellow cupcakes, had some photo ops with pledge signage and even, with the help of partner, Boral, gave them the opportunity to see the road from a whole new perspective.

Road Safety Week coincided with National Volunteers Week in Australia so we took the opportunity to thank our hard-working Rotary Volunteers

Road Safety Weeks 2020 & 2021

During the pandemic, we took utmost care to ensure that our community remained safe.  Therefore, we were unable to participate in many of the activities we like to do to get our students, volunteers, partners and community involved in National Road Safety Week.  However, as we saw in the heart-breaking stories of continued loss and trauma on our roads during the pandemic, road safety remains of critical importance.  As restrictions eased and it became safe to connect again, we asked a special group of students to remind us why it is so important to provide the life-saving road safety messages of RYDA and why we must all play our part in creating safer roads.

Road Safety Week 2019

National Road Safety Weeks were held in Australia and New Zealand from 6 – 12 May 2019 respectively. Here’s how our community got involved.

The Student’s Perspective
RSE’s major partner, Bridgestone, asked students from Southern Cross Campus College what they remember from the RYDA programme and what they would like to see happen during National Road Safety Week. Here’s what they had to say:

Raising awareness with our schools
Students who attend RYDA during Road Safety Week were asked to create a personalised number plate with their pledge to #DriveSoOthersSurvive . Our #speakup megaphones also gave them a handy way to get their road safety messages across.

Raising awareness with our corporate partners
Our corporate partners get right behind Road Safety Week, spreading the word among their staff with the distribution of yellow ribbons and pledge boards and ‘wear yellow to work’ days.

BOC set up a photo booth in the cafe and got some great participation from staff:

Road Safety Week 2018

National Road Safety Weeks were held in Australia and New Zealand from 30 April – 6 May and 7 – 13 May 2018 respectively.  RSE got behind activities and themes in both countries.

In Australia the broad theme was #DriveSoOthersSurvive (with a special focus on vulnerable road users) while in NZ, we’ll focused on raising awareness of seat belts and distractions.

The symbol of Road Safety Week is the Yellow Ribbon and many States in Australia raised awareness by lighting iconic landmarks (including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge) yellow.

 

Government Support
Yellow Ribbon Road Safety Week receives support from the highest offices of Government.
Read the Australian Governor General‘s Letter of Support here

In Australia, the enormous efforts of RSE’s Ambassador-Advocate, Peter Frazer (SARAH Group) were recognised in parliament with a bipartisan thank you from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Michael McCormack and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities, Tourism, Anthony Albanese.

RYDA provided the perfect backdrop for the ACT launch of National Road Safety week, officiated by Minister for Road Safety, The Hon Shane Rattenbury, MLA.  The ACT Government, who have provided generous funding to the RYDA program, further demonstrated their commitment to supporting youth road safety education and got a taste of what students experience when they witnessed a speed and stopping demonstration.  Also attending the launch were RYDA Ambassador-Advocate, Peter Frazer (SARAH Group), Rotary District 9710 Governor, Stephen Hill, RSE CEO, Terry Birss, CEO of RSE’s major partner, MTAA Super, Leeanne Turner, representatives from the Australian Federal Police and the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety and students and teachers from Melba Copland Secondary School.

In New Zealand, we joined Associate Minister for Transport Julie Anne Genter MP, Brake New Zealand Director, Caroline Perry and representatives from New Zealand Police, NZTA, Auckland Transport and St John New Zealand, along with other passionate supporters for the NZ launch of road safety week.

Raising Awareness with our Schools

Students who attended RYDA during Road Safety Week signed pledge boards and jumped in the ‘yellow’ photo booth for some pics to promote the messages of #DriveSoOthersSurvive #Belton #Phoneoff.  Selfie’s were being snapped and posted across Australia and New Zealand from Toowoomba in South Queensland to Auckland, NZ.

Raising Awareness with our Partners

Our corporate partners get right behind Road Safety Week, spreading the word among their staff with the distribution of yellow ribbons and pledge boards and ‘wear yellow to work’ days.  Keep checking back during the week to see our updated photo galleries as Corporates across Australia and New Zealand get behind the cause.

BOC set up a photo booth in the cafe and got some great participation for staff (photos 1-4 below) while MTAA Super supported Yellow Ribbon Road Safety Week with a photo booth on ‘wear yellow to work’ Monday (photos 5-8 below)

Working with some familiar faces

We are lucky to have the fantastic support of AMI Insurance as a major partner in New Zealand.  It’s great to have friends in high places, because AMI asked a few of their friends from the Canterbury Crusaders, who also happen to be members of the All Blacks, to come along and talk with RYDA students about road safety to raise awareness and shine a spotlight on road safety week.

Road Safety Week 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letters of Support

Yellow Ribbon Road Safety Week received support from the highest offices of Government.
Read the Australian Governor General‘s Letter of Support here
Read the Australian Prime Minister‘s Letter of Support here
Read the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport‘s Letter of Support here

National Road Safety Week in Australia and New Zealand coincided with the Fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week, held from 8-14 May 2017.  The week focused on speed management and what can be done to address this key risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries.  It launched action through the ongoing campaign: Save Lives – #SlowDown.   You can find out more about the UN’s activities here.

Road Safety Weeks are held to support the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety (more on that below).

We took part in a number of activities during the week to raise awareness under the banner of the yellow ribbon: a symbol of a commitment to road safety.  Here’s what went on:

Introducing our new Ambassador

RSE’s new Ambassador, actor Andrew Morley, attended the RYDA Program in Lilydale, Victoria on Tuesday, 9 May.  After addressing the students, Andrew and the whole group took a photo holding 264 #slowdown signs, representing each young life lost on Australian roads last year.  Click on the images below to enlarge:

RYDA Celebrates 500,000 students

We celebrated the attendance of our 500,000th student at our Penrith venue on Wednesday, 10 May.  As part of the celebrations students took part in a short ceremony attended by the Hon Melinda Pavey (New South Wales Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight), RSE Ambassador Peter Frazer (President, SARAH Group) and other special guests.  Students signed #slowdown pledges and unveiled a giant yellow ribbon.  Check out the galleries below:

Save Lives #SlowDown – Count me in!  Pledge gallery

500,000th Student Ceremony gallery

Raising Awareness with our Corporate Partners

Our corporate partners got right behind Road Safety Week, spreading the word among their staff with the distribution of yellow ribbons, yellow hats and UN pledge boards.  As road safety week came to a close, our corporate partners reminded us that their support for road safety education and their work to reduce the road toll towards zero will continue.

BOC staff support Global Road Safety Week – staff ‘safie’ gallery

NZ Steel staff support Global Road Safety Week – staff ‘safie’ gallery

Toyota Australia staff support Global Road Safety Week – staff ‘safie’ gallery

Bosch staff support Global Road Safety Week, for very personal reasons – ‘safie’ gallery

Bridgestone put their creative hats on produced a community service announcement highlighting the issue of speed and the alarming rise in the youth road toll.

Taking part in other community initiatives

On the final day of UN Global/National Road Safety Week, we were in Samford Village, QLD at the CARRS-Q community event raising awareness of vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians, cyclists and young and old road users. It was great to see representatives and friends from Queensland Police Service, RACQ, Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland), Altus Traffic Australia and of course our tireless Ambassador, Peter Frazer (Safer Australian Roads and Highways (The Sarah Group.Org). #SlowDown #YellowRibbon #RYDAProgram

Road Safety Week 2016:

National Road Safety Week (Australia), 2 – 8 May 2016: ‘Stop Driving Blind’
National Road Safety Week (New Zealand), 16 – 22 May 2016

In Australia, we’re again supporting the great work of the SARAH Group who are leading the charge with National Road Safety Week (#NRSW).  The focus of the week is #stopdrivingblind.  It is a call to action for drivers and riders to i) eliminate/minimise in-vehicle/other distractions and ii) promote “active” responsibility for those on the road ahead.

Road Safety Week 2015

The focus of the Road Safety Week is ‘Children’.  The UN have asked people from around the world to hold up a sign promoting their road safety message, take a selfie  and share it across social media with #savekidslives.   Some of our staff have already posted theirs.

We got to thinking… Who better to influence children than an older sibling, cousin, neighbour or school student?  So we are asking every student attending RYDA during Road Safety Week to name a younger friend or relative to be their ‘pay it forward’ beneficiary of a road safety message – making use of the UN #SaveKidsLives poster, each student will write the selected person’s name on the poster, take a selfie and post to social media using #savekidslives, #safie, #ryda, #payitfoward.  You don’t have to be at a RYDA program to take up the initiative – upload your commitment today.

Further details on the United Nations campaign are available at:   http://www.savekidslives2015.org/

It allowed me to do some introspection into my own habits and personaility traits, and come out the other side with targeted strategies on how to keep myself and others safe both behind the wheel and passengers in the car.

Evie
Student, Centenary Heights State High School, QLD