Thanks to funding from the QLD Government Community Road Safety Grants Scheme we were able to set ourselves a hefty goal this year – reach more students in more Queensland communities, further remote than we ever have before.
Rural and remote areas face a number of additional challenges when it comes to road safety. The environment brings challenges with wildlife, dust storms, unsealed roads and higher speed limits. The human factor adds to those challenges; sharing space with people driving on unfamiliar roads in unfamiliar conditions and more prevalent risky behavious like speeding, fatigue, driving under the influence and failure to wear seatbelts. Furthermore, high quality evidence-based learning opportunities don’t always get out to the more remote areas, putting young drivers and their passengers at a distinct disadvantage. Well, not on our watch! We put together a crack team of facilitators and Ryda hit the road, skies and even waterways.
Ryda already had an impressive footprint in the sunshine state, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our Queensland team of staff and Rotary volunteers (venues shown in pale yellow on the map).
The additional funding has allowed us to both grow this footprint significantly and provide support to Rotary volunteers to ensure established venues could keep growing (illustrated by the darker yellow pins). This collaborative and community-based Ryda model blends a travelling team of expert experienced Ryda facilitators with local road safety advocates and educators. We’ve worked with local police, driving instructors and elders in Indigenous communities to make sure the program is taylored for the needs of each community, each school and each student.
“Facilitators were great & were very well informed. I surprisingly learnt a lot!”
“Thank you for a fantastic and informative day.”
(Teachers, Blackheath & Thornburgh College)
Our crew have enjoyed travelling to beautiful towns across Queensland. Everywhere they land, they like to spend their down time chatting with locals, getting to know the area and experiencing what the town has to offer. They’ve hit the waterways in Weipa, enjoying a sunset croc-sighting tour, cuddled up to some furry and not so furry friends at the Rockhampton zoo and spent more than an evening or two enjoying local cuisine. They even turned up to a local footy grand final to cheer on the students they met at Ryda that day as they played for the title. While the travel has brought its share of challenges (from suitcases full of equipment busting open on baggage consoles to cancelled flights and long days spent on airport floors) this team have never failed to bring enthusiasm and energy to their Ryda workshops. Along the way they have met and worked with some absolutely fantastic students; students who embraced the learning opportunity, shared their own experiences and, hopefully, took to the road as safer, more mindful drivers after participating in Ryda.
Check out the gallery of snapshots from our travelling crew.
