Term 2 spotlight: Central North Island
Our Central North Island Programme Delivery Lead, Renee, has been busy this term connecting with schools and catching up with all the awesome mahi they have been doing for Term 2 and Road Safety week. Read on to hear what Renee has to share from her region.
Hey team, it’s been a great start to Term 2. We have had some new Kaitiaki o Ara groups in the Central North either starting up at their schools for the first time or regrouping after a couple of years - Te Awamutu, Te Aroha, Otumoetai, Taupo-nui-a-Tia, Tauhara and Aquinas, to name a few. Coming off the back of Road Safety Week I thought I would tell you about a few activities they presented to their peers.
Te Aroha College had an amazing day with talking to their peers about driving while impaired, followed by doing an obstacle course using the vision impaired goggles provided by Ingrid and Mary Ann from East Waikato Road Safety. Otumoetai College did a amazing job doing a activity at school assembly, Taupo did some great work working around promoting road safety with their ball tickets and coming up with a contract to send out to parents and caregivers about making a plan on how their peers were getting home after their celebrations. It's been a great experience watching our new groups getting started and getting to know each other. I was lucky enough to hang out with a couple of our students in Auckland at our annual conference and I am so excited to see all the ideas come out to play throughout the year!
I also took the opportunity to connect with Luca from Te Aroha College, to get some insight and advice to share with you all:
What is your name and what school do you go to?
Luca Gemmell-Taylor, and I attend Te Aroha College
How did you come to be involved with Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD?
Last year there wasn’t much of a SADD group, it had kinda died off. So I wasn’t involved with SADD until the end of last year. The supervising teacher who wanted to get it back up and running came to me and offered me the role to bring back the SADD group into the school. From there I attended a workshop and the Conference.
Why do you think road safety is an important issue to tackle?
Being from a small rural school in the Waikato, I see the direct effects of road safety and what it can do. With rural areas being so dangerous with the roads and the general attitude for safe driving in a small town not being the best, I really think it is so important to push the awareness of road safety. It could really save lives in even a small community, just as it could save lives in the country on a larger scale. For many, especially in rural areas, driving is essential to even simply get to school. So, road safety should be something to think about.
What sorts of road safety issues do you see for your peers and community?
The biggest one that I personally observe is taking passengers on a restricted and dangerous driving on rural roads. Many students on their restricted take siblings or friends around on their restricted licence, putting themselves and those they are carrying at risk. With many being so familiar with the rural roads they may drive on every day. Many have gotten used to speeding or doing risking things as they think they know the road.
How have you been involved with Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD so far this year?
So far this year, I have established a new SADD group in my school, with around 5 students who take part in the activities. I also attended the Auckland 2023 Conference to develop my skills and knowledge of SADD to bring back to the school’s new group. We have run activities for Road Safety Week, with the highlight being the drunk goggles that our Programme Delivery Lead, Renee, brought in for us. That event was the first big event that the group ran, it was really awesome to see everyone try them, have fun and most importantly learn about road safety.
What are your plans or how do you want to be involved for the rest of 2023?
We really want to focus on points that I have said about passengers and road safety. We have a few events that we wish to do this year. We would like to have the local Police come in as a guest speaker at our assembly and talk about road safety, we plan on having a learners licence course to help those preparing to get their licence, and the biggest thing we would love to make a SADD mural for the school. A permanent reminder and legacy of the group coming back, and hopefully a motivation for future groups to continue.
I am the group leader for my SADD group, but I am also a Year 13. Meaning that I will have to leave the group at the end of the year. I wish to set up the group so it can continue to run well after I’m gone so the message can continue to be spread.
If you could give some advice for other young people that might be interested in starting a SADD group or getting involved in their school, what would it be?
If you're interested in getting into SADD you're already on a path to success. It truly is rewarding to get this running in your community, both your developing your own skills and spreading the SADD message amongst the community. My biggest advice is to get involved with the SADD team, attend workshops, attend conferences! The SADD team is so amazing and they have helped so much with getting our group going. If your interested in creating a SADD group, reach out to SADD and I’m sure they would be happy to help.
If you are interested in joining an existing group, that’s great! The best thing you could do is just turn up to one of the meetings, or ask the students involved. Any SADD group would love to have anyone new involved in the group. As a leader in my group, I would be so happy to have more people interested in SADD to help out.
Thanks Team,
Renee
Oh and don't forget !!
Do the Mahi.
Get the Treats.
:)