Safe Kids Yellowstone County launching fellowship to engage, educate, and empower teen drivers

Safe Kids Yellowstone County is enlisting area high school students to be traffic safety champions through the Be the Change Fellowship.

The Be the Change Fellowship is a movement by the nationally recognized Impact Teen Drivers program that helps engage, educate, and empower students through the power of peer-to-peer messaging.

The program focuses on behavior change, injury prevention, and positive community norming principles. It also connects them with a network of local injury prevention educators who will serve as mentors as students establish the program in their schools.

"This will help build a more diverse safety and injury prevention workforce so that all children, teens, and their parents can feel empowered and educated around the number one cause of preventable injuries and teen deaths," said Koren Bloom, Safe Kids Yellowstone County coordinator. "It creates a culture shift where reckless and distracted driving are recognized as unacceptable behaviors, which will result in safer communities for future generations."

Roughly 50 students were selected from high schools across Yellowstone County to participate in the Be the Change Fellowship. They gathered at the Mansfield Health Education Center of Friday, Oct. 25 to learn, create campaign materials, and launch the program.

Watch the PSA they created by clicking the image below.