CSEC/AdRisk Joint International Seminar

Delegates from across Europe attended the first international seminar looking into young people’s involvement in injury prevention.

The three-day event, which was hosted by CSEC and AdRisk (the Community Action on Adolescents and Injury Risk project, a European initiative) and held at the headquarters of RoSPA in Birmingham, proved a major success.

There were inspiring examples of work from around the continent, including presentations from young people who are involved in injury prevention in the UK, and lively workshop sessions during which delegates sought to define “high quality practical safety education” and “risk competence”.

Setting the scene for the opening day’s discussions about what constitutes high quality practical safety education were Marcus Bailie, of the Adventure Activities Licensing Service, Ian Park, of Learning Outside the Classroom, and Richard Kimberlee, from the University of the West of England.

Among the points raised during a response session were that teachers needed to have confidence that, contrary to popular belief, there had not been an increase in compensation claims related to school trips, and that the benefits of young people engaging in “risky behaviour” needed to be promoted. It was also suggested that a perceived national policy focus on “protecting” and “safeguarding” children and young people should shift to the encouragement of activities that enable them to learn about safety.

Among the thoughts drawn out in workshop sessions about high quality practical safety education were: it is a constant process; it can happen in and out of school; it involves experimental learning; it fosters a culture which promotes responsibility and aspirations of wellbeing; it should be interesting, relevant, challenging, interactive, flexible and fun; it can promote experiencing little injuries to avoid the big injuries; it happens in partnership; it should be evidence-based and evaluated; and it leads to behaviour change.

Young people from the UK were among the speakers on the second day of the seminar, as delegates turned their attention to youth participation in strategies to prevent unintended injuries. They included singer-songwriter Katie Benbow, 16, of Rhyl, Denbighshire, who wrote a song and appeared in a video in memory of her friend David Wares, 22, who was killed in a car crash last year while racing a friend Click Here to view video.

“I would like as many people to watch the video as possible” said Katie. “If it saves one person’s life, that will be enough for me. I do not want anybody else to go through what David’s family and I have gone through.”

She also told delegates that her interest in road safety had now gone beyond the video. “I would love to use the video to reach people but if they were not interested in the video, I would still like to push road safety and awareness. It has become a passion of mine now.”

Injury prevention campaigner Manpreet Darroch, 21, of Walsall, who is a student at Aston University, introduced delegates to the dangers of modern technology and the road. He showed an internet viral which warns other young people of the dangers faced by pedestrians who are distracted by loud music Click Here to view video.

“You might be able to stop and look, but one of the most critical aspects of crossing the road is listening as well,” he said. “Something that lots of young people have said to me is that they had not thought their earphones put them at risk when they were crossing the road [before this campaign]. To me that sounds like someone has potentially saved their own life.”

Alysha Ong, 19, a University of Birmingham student from Banbury, spoke about a project which saw her join RoSPA on a “young advocate” placement organised through the charity Changemakers.

During her placement, Alysha investigated what young people thought about advanced driver training Click Here to view the document as a pdf. “We wanted to know why people were or were not interested in advanced driving and whether they even knew what it involved,” she said.

Five Year 10 students from Heartlands Academy in Birmingham outlined a CSEC peer-to-peer project through which they are developing a practical safety education programme. Click Here for more details about their project.

Other speakers on the second day included Dr Jenny McWhirter, RoSPA’s risk education adviser and a member of the CSEC steering group, who introduced the “Hart ladder of participation”, and Britta Lang, of the Transport Research Laboratory, who talked about consulting young drivers. Manfred Zentner, of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy, outlined a practical safety education project involving skiers and snowboarders, and Cassius Francis, youth liaison officer at RoSPA and a CSEC co-ordinator, spoke about how Facebook could be used in injury prevention. Sophie Wood, principal officer at NCB and a member of the CSEC steering group, introduced delegates to the concept of youth participation.

The focus of the third day was the issue of “risk competence” - how young people become able to identify challenges, recognise the benefits and hazards involved, assess and manage risks and enjoy the benefits of the challenge.

Ursula Löwe, of Kuratorium fűr Verkehrssicherheit (KfV) in Austria and the AdRisk project co-ordinator, Manfred Zentner, Ine Buuron, of the Consumer Safety Institute in the Netherlands, and Eveline Braun, of KfV, introduced the day’s theme before delegates broke into workshops.

Feedback from the workshops included that: “learning” rather than “teaching” is the key approach to helping young people develop risk competence; risk competence fosters independence and can be learned through real-life experiences/mistakes; risk competence involves the ability to transfer skills to parallel situations; and different age groups demonstrate differing levels of risk competency (i.e. we must not pin an expectation of risk competency on younger age groups, e.g. 5-10s, because there is a risk we could blame victims if an injury occurs).

Summing up the seminar, John Vallender, CSEC manager, said: “The seminar was a tremendous success. It highlighted that a genuinely shared approach to practical safety education exists across Europe, based on freedoms for children and young people to take ownership of their learning through an inductive approach to safety education.

“The speakers’ presentation and the workshop sessions revealed a common desire to give children the freedom to do things. Practical safety education based on this inductive approach is about helping children and young people by preparing them to take part in their world and to get the best out of what they are trying to do.”