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Working for Change
The Model School Zone project works toward four types of change in each school zone: Environment, Knowledge, Policy and Enforcement, and Behavior.
Environment
These changes involve physical modifications to the infrastructure around the school. Examples might include building sidewalks, creating crosswalks, and installing speed limit and traffic signs.
Knowledge
Increasing awareness and knowledge among the kids, parents and drivers in the community about safe walking and driving is essential. Everyone needs to understand the safest ways to behave in the newly created environments.
Policy and Enforcement
Parents and kids are not the only players in creating safe walking environments around schools. Lawmakers and enforcers are equally responsible. This includes their roles in setting policies, establishing and enforcing speed limits, ticketing drivers and illegally parked vehicles, and managing street vendors.
Behavior
It isn't enough just to develop a safe place to walk and provide safety education and training. To save lives, we must change the actions of children and drivers so that everyone remains safe.
Ten Countries, Ten Schools
Safe Kids Worldwide is working with 10 schools, one in each of 10 different countries, to develop safer school zones. By doing so, we hope to create evidence-based interventions to increase child pedestrian safety that could serve as models for other schools around the world.
Over the next year, we will follow the journey taken by communities in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam and watch the transformation of the selected schools.