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Do you care about road safety and want to make a difference in your community? Do you want to learn new skills and get some financial support for your initiative? Parachute is offering grants to young leaders in Canada who are committed to making a difference by raising awareness on road safety issues and advocating for changes that will make roads safer for all.

DEADLINE: Wednesday, October 9, 2024.

If you are unable to meet this deadline, please contact Asma at achohan@parachute.ca.

About the Parachute Youth Road Safety Ambassadors program

By joining the Youth Ambassadors program, you will be putting your skills and creativity into action to create solutions for road safety issues affecting youth in your community. Each ambassador will receive a grant of $600 to fund a local youth-led project that:

  • Identifies a local road safety issue
  • Raises awareness and/or identifies potential solutions for resolving the issue
  • Partners with a local organization
  • Creates a proposal to community influencers (e.g. local government, enforcement, school administration) to advocate for the issue

Some areas of road safety on which you can build your project include:

  • pedestrian, bicycle and wheeled safety
  • road design and infrastructure
  • equity and accessibility in road safety
  • safe, sustainable cities, and climate change
  • driving behaviour (speeding, impaired driving or distracted driving)

Parachute’s Youth Ambassadors program lets young leaders take charge in road safety. You can get creative with your project and team up with local groups such as businesses, schools or police departments to make a real impact.

Parachute will not only fund your projects but also train you in project management, communication and outreach. You’ll get an activity guide, virtual orientation and webinars to sharpen your skills, plus support from Parachute’s team of experts.

Your projects can be focus on community engagement, advocacy or a combination of both. See below for some examples.

Examples of community engagement projects

  • Social media campaigns: create and share posts, stories or videos on social media that raise awareness on an important road safety issue in your community and generate a conversation on your selected topic.
  • Host a youth forum: host an event where youth share their thoughts on photos and videos of different roadways in your local community and share their own ideas for solutions to address road safety issues in your community.
  • Collect data: do a survey with your peers around your selected topic or take videos and pictures of the problem area in your community to highlight a specific road safety issue.

Examples of road safety advocacy projects

  • Engage local policymakers and government representatives: advocate for changes in policy and improvements to roads and sidewalks in your community (e.g. traffic calming measures, reduced speeds, adding a bike lane) through a letter writing campaign, community-wide petitions or by organizing a townhall or one-on-one meeting.
  • Positive ticketing blitzes: in collaboration with local law enforcement partners, encourage and reward positive driving habits by providing positive tickets that are tied to an incentive such as a gift card draw, a small treat or freebies.
  • Set up an interview with your local news outlet: contact your local newspaper, radio station or television network to share you and your peers’ personal stories, statistics and information about the road safety issues that are impacting your communities.

Benefits of joining the Youth Ambassadors program

  • Make a difference in your community by raising awareness about road safety, promoting safe behaviours, and advocating for better roads and sidewalks.
  • Grow your leadership and project management skills by leading your own road safety campaign.
  • Get training and mentorship from Parachute staff to help develop your road safety projects.
  • Build connections with community partners such as youth organizations, schools, businesses and law enforcement.
  • Gain valuable experience to add to your resumé by planning and running a community-focused initiative.
  • Become a key voice in road safety conversations and decisions.
  • Join a network of youth leaders and road safety advocates, such as the Canadian Youth Road Safety Council.

Eligibility

To apply, you need to be a young person, or a group of young people aged 15 to 24, living in Canada (citizen, permanent resident or refugee). You must be passionate about promoting road safety and making a positive impact. The projects must be youth-led and done in Canada. You’ll need to partner with a local organization, such as a non-profit, school or police department. Only individual youth or groups of youth can apply for these grants, not organizations, and only the main applicant(s) need to meet the eligibility requirements.

Grant amount

Each grant is $600 and you can use it to run road safety activities at your school, post-secondary institution or in your community.

You can use the grant for:

  • Paying fees or honorariums for youth leads, speakers and facilitators
  • Buying materials and supplies such as posters, flyers, banners, or apparel
  • Getting tech equipment such as VR headsets and video gear
  • Licensing software such as Zoom and Canva Pro
  • Covering local travel costs for getting to event sites
  • Giving out prizes or giveaways such as gift cards and promo items
  • Making activities more accessible with translation or interpretation

You can’t use the grant for:

  • Costs before or after the grant period
  • Fundraising or charity donations
  • Personal expenses such as meals, or entertainment
  • Anything not related to the road safety project


Honorarium

One hundred dollars of the grant amount are to be divided among team members as honorariums for your hard work and participation.

Application

Fill out the application form below to share your road safety project idea and apply for funding. Deadline is Wednesday October 9, 2024.

Youth Ambassadors

"*" indicates required fields

Primary applicant information (Youth Lead)

Name*
DD slash MM slash YYYY
Parental approval*
If you are currently 17 years old or younger, please indicate whether your parent/guardian is aware you are applying for this opportunity and has given their approval.
Location*
Gender*
What gender do you identify with?
Other, please specify
What are your preferred pronouns?
Languages*
Which language do you speak at home? Please select all that apply.
Other, please specify
Language preference*
If you chose both official languages or other, which language are you most comfortable working in?
Ethnicity*
What is your ethnicity? Please select all that apply.
If other, please specify:
If other, please specify:
Do you have a driver’s licence (any level)?*

Project team information

Please list the other members of the project team and complete the relevant information for each member. List Name, Role, Age, and Email Address. Please put each member on a separate line.
As part of this grant, you are required to partner with a local organization (e.g., school, local business, law enforcement, and youth organizations). Please share the name, contact information and a brief description of your partnering organization who will support the delivery of your project. (100 words maximum)

Project information

Video submission*
If you are more comfortable speaking about your idea than typing it out, you can send us short video (up to five minutes) answering the below questions! Please select “yes” below and send your video to achohan@parachute.ca
Please provide a description of your project, including what you hope to accomplish and who will benefit from the project. (300 words maximum)
Please be specific. (200 words maximum)
Which road safety topic(s) will you focus on? Please select all that apply.*
Please outline all the main activities of your project, how youth will be involved, and the project timeline. (500 words maximum)
Please describe any skill training or resources you may need from Parachute to complete your project. (200 words maximum)
Please list what you will be using the grant for (e.g. materials, honorarium, technology, equipment rental) and an estimate of how much each item will cost. For a list of eligible and ineligible costs, please see the criteria.
Please attach any supporting documents such as letters of support, links to media or other relevant materials that will support your application.
Drop files here or
Max. file size: 100 MB.
    Acknowledgements*
    Please check off all of the following acknowledgements to indicate your eligibility for the road safety grant:
    For further information, please contact Asma at achohan@parachute.ca.

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