SEPTEMBER EDITION

What's new
this month

Welcome to our September newsletter and we have only two weeks left of Term 3! Time is flying by and we use every minute to continuously work towards our vision.

Despite the different alert levels our students keep promoting safer roads in Aotearoa. They are doing a fantastic job!

Our SAFER: Spring into Summer campaign has gained great momentum. Across New Zealand, students have shared fantastic content online - such as road safety videos, quizzes and surveys, as well as finding new innovative ways to share road safety info with their schoolmates. You can find an example in an article below.

Our new Regional Leaders had their first-ever group meeting and we had lots of fun celebrating Te wiki o te reo Māori! With our daily posts and Te reo Kahoot Māori Language Moment, students continue their work to engage with other Māori youth.

During uncertain times one thing is certain and that is change. Change creates chaos at first. Out of chaos comes the opportunity of growth and transformation - an opportunity to create something new. We are excited to see what new possibilities and collaborations will shape up in the coming months. Always remember, that we are all in this together and together we can achieve so much more.

-Mia Dins
Upper North Program Delivery Lead

SAFER September Online

SAFER September has looked very different from planned, and a lot of students' own plans were postponed or cancelled.

However, we have seen examples of great engagement online from groups and a few schools even managed to sneak in some in-person activities as well. Here are some examples of online work that SADD groups have been involved in this September:

- Creating road safety themed videos to share online

- Doing quizzes or surveys with their peers

- Sharing relevant facts or information via social media to keep other students informed

- Joining with other committees from their schools and running competitions for students to do at home

- Sending out helpful information through their school online notice boards about topics such as Driver Licencing

- Catching up as SADD groups online, checking in with each other and making plans for Term 4

We are so proud of all the work that SADD groups put in, and how they constantly manage to be adaptable in these changing times!

Te wiki o te reo Māori

SADD had a great time getting involved with Te wiki o te reo Māori! Big thanks to Ash from Southland Girls who took the lead helping organise and plan the content that we shared. Throughout the week we shared kupu or phrases of the day, that were related to road safety, and that people could learn in Te reo.

We also jumped on board with the Māori language moment, doing a Te reo Kahoot quiz online with a group of students and staff, as well as sharing videos from our rangatahi showing how they were celebrating. Additionally, we shared some more information on SADD's Māori Engagement Strategy via our blog on Wednesday. Tau kē!

As per SADD's Māori Engagement Strategy, our plan is to keep building on this mahi, involving SADD's rangatahi at all steps of the way.

Te Puke High School- SADD Week

As the leader of the SADD committee, Harleen Kaur worked closely with her committee members to empower young people to make safer and better choices on the road. SADD week was a successful event, as many students participated in their daily activities.

“We began the week by decorating the Library windows. Our most popular event was the fatal vision obstacle course with distractions (had to text and drive through the course). And lastly, the spinning wheel, we gave out affected (yellow), injured (red), and dead (black) ribbons to students to pin on their shirts depicting what they spun. A lot of junior and senior students engaged in the activities who didn't previously know what SADD stands for. We have definitely raised the awareness of SADD in our kura.” - Harleen Kaur

We love seeing the mahi Te puke High School put in by “getting in early and hard” as Jacinda would say. Students successfully ran their SAFER September events early in Term 3 with great outcomes. Ka pai!

Regional Leaders' first group meeting

The SADD team has long wanted to harness the potential of connected SADD in the regions. From the 2021 National Leader recruitment was born the first cohort of Regional Leaders. We decided to just go for it this year and work with the 6 who took up the opportunity to develop a pathway to connect SADD groups within the same region - so it's early days and small steps so far.

The ultimate objective is to have examples of different schools working together and make it easy but we have to start somewhere.

Once we are through exams - and if you are in any of:

Waitaki, Southland, Auckland, Taranaki, Canterbury and Wairarapa - you may be hearing from your Regional Leader. We are planning a photo and short blurb on the website for each of them so keep an eye out for updates.

Make the most of Motorcycle Awareness Month.  

The arrival of spring means a new riding season has started, time to celebrate and get back in the groove! Motorcycle Awareness Month is the perfect time to check that your gear and bike are ride-ready for the summer, and fine-tune your skills with a Ride Forever course. Keep an eye on the Ride Forever Facebook page for loads of safety tips from this year’s ambassadors, great reads from our riding community and the chance to win heaps of sweet prizes.

Mia Dins (AKL) email or call 027 279 3130
Lydia Newlands (CHCH) email or call 021 624 198
Mark Unwin (CHCH) email or call 027 451 1253
Sherein Abdel-Al (WGTN) email or call 021 761 1649
Ti Fuller (WGTN) email or call 027 568 2620