College and for clair careers. Ffcla has over 160,000 student members in 5400 chapters across the nation and in puerto rico. Those numbers speak volumes about the reach and impact of this organization. Fccla is unique among Student Organizations because the programs are planned and run by student members and its the only career and technical inschool Student Organization with a central focus on family. One of fcclas signature programs focuses entirely on teen Traffic Safety. Today weve convened students for an important question. As they prepare their students to start a new school year, fccla asks is road safety on your back to school checklist. Here with the results of a new report, fccla executive director sandy spivone. To provide programs and opportunity for youth to have leadership tools to take a concern and turn it into action. Shes developed national Youth Leadership training programs, to address the specific health and safety concerns and coordinated national campaigns. Theres no better example of this than what theyre doing with teen rsas. Please join me in welcoming sandy. [applaus [applause] thank you, monica, and good morning, everyone. Im pleased to talk to you about fcclas Safety Program and this is as a result of our partnership with statefarm and were very grateful to them for underwriting this project. Statefarm and fccla is to make a difference in their communities. Families acting for community tractor facts is a program of fccla that our chapters engage in to conclude these efforts. First we look at whats important in their community to make a change and then conduct projects that address those. This past year alone our students led peertopeer education projects across the country. Two of our National Officers are with us here today. Our vicepresident of programs Andrew Rasmussen and ashley, were proud to have them travel from little rock to be here today. Theyd love to share more about their work in local communities and what theyre hoping to do as National Officers of the organization. With the rsa program, the goal quite simply is to empower youth to take action in their communities and advocate for changes in infrastructure. We hear a lot about infrastructure from our nations leaders and these youth have taken and that understand what that means and applied that to change in their local communities. We ask them to look at roads theyre using and one of the best parts, it takes the attention away from them and puts it on some of the infrastructure pieces that often impact safety as we know teens are doing the right thing, they could be buckled up and phone could be down, but infrastructure has an Important Role in safety. Engaging the youth and looking at that is part of the project. They took on the job this year and they said is the intersection near our school safe . One of the safest places for our children should be school and getting to school should be safe and i learned today that most families spend 501 in getting their kids ready to school every year. I dont know that i did that, but thats what they do. Imagine the care they took to pick out the right backpacks and right shoes and outfits. And imagine how much time theyll take to look at the roads as they go to school. Thats what this did, they looked at the roads. We want to show you a little video that illustrates this project. These cars, you see a lot of distracted driving. Its a great eyeopener to see what people are affected by. A couple of intersections didnt have crossing signs. They have signs for a reason. Pretty dangerous situation out there. Todays teens find a variety of ways to get around and while they have access to numerous driver Safety Programs as they prepare to get their licenses, theres not much to help them understand to read the entire roadway system and understand how everyone who uses roads need to see the bigger picture. What we want to do, help you, train, you get you ready to be able to read the road. Some of americas leading Traffic Safety organizations are working to change this by conducting teen roadway safety assessments, known as rsas, and how its not only affected by driver behaviors, but also how the design, signing and Pavement Marking for road structure contribute to the overall safety. Teens are particularly vulnerable to roadway dangers and each year, thousands of teens guy in car crashes. All the though distractions are important factors they are often compounded by the teens inexperience and inability to react to road conditions. We teach the teens about the roadway and how important the infrastructure is. There are a lot of examples we can give about signage and markings and median barriers, preventing people crossing from one side to the other. And these are safety devices. This gives you a chance to apply the math skills, the science skills, a lot of civics. A lot of kids are interested in communication, the media, being able to be out there and poised and being able to share their views is tremendous. This program has opened up my eyes today. Never thought about a career in engineering and i love it. This has led to a call for taking the program nationwide. Organizers of the initial rsa event encourage others in the Traffic Safety community to get involved with this Ground Breaking program. Its an easy program to replica it on the local level and there could be a host of benefits. Its up to other people at the grass roots level working hard to bring about the changes in education and transportation safety. Time remaining to finish process. This is a very highly trafficked area and we need a lot of improvement, especially with markings on the ground where people are supposed to cross. Some people dont Pay Attention to them and we need brighter lights on this so people can be more aware and when people are supposed to cross and not cross and when they should be driving. I think that exposing teens to infrastructure and helping them understand at that part of the pyramid on safety and what theyre hearing in georgia. Its not just on the interstate, but in the community where its important and as a Community Member be observant of the highway structure needs and advocate needs where they need to. It makes them better drivers and what is aware around them and it contributes to the overall safety of roads in georgia and were glad to have fcclas National Leadership today to participate in this and with the high school fccla chapter. Parents, teachers, elected officials, Community Leaders to help improve road safety, particularly for our teens. Its part of keeping our teens safe, you can help make that happen and make a difference in students lives. I believe in my heart weve saved lives today. And other schools, too. So you may have noticed the person in that video thats been instrumental from the beginning of helping us develop that. Id like to recognize him today, on his birthday, joe. [applaus [applause]. His passion for road safety is instrumental in developing this and helped the youth to understand how to apply what theyre learning in the classroom to advocacy and change. Thank you for your dedication to this. Working with several Traffic Safety partners weve been able to engage for five years. As you saw in the video these are an effort to allow students through the lens of what they see from a different perspective on road safety. Instead of being told what to do, theyre asked their protection, what makes it intersection safe and given a platform to educate their peers. Threw the analysis of Data Collected in this past year alone, theyre part of the initiative here is what weve learned. Majority, 73 of fccla High School Students that recently evaluated intersections near their schools in 22 states across the country felt unsafe. Using the intersection that they, their friends and their family members use every going to school. 40 of the schools reported that their school pedestrian crosswalks were not painted properly. 47 of schools reported their crosswalk signals didnt allow adequate amount of time to safely across the street. I saw that personally when we did one of these with students literally running across the intersection and they had been purposely trained themselves to go fast so they got across before the light changed so theyre advocating for the light timings to be changed. Only 9 of students had crossing guards. And some were marked as crossings. Those numbers are alarming. Id like to turn this over to some of my colleagues and giving their perspective on peertopeer perspective. Thank you. As weve learned the teen rsa initiative how roadway engineering, design and infrastructure affects the safety of all road users, drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists as well. Here to tell about one of these subject matters is greg from the safety foundation. Greg. [applaus [applause] thank you, monica. Ne new thank you, sandy. Fccla has bridged Civil Engineering and youth empowerment. Many people may not she that as an obvious combination, but the principles of what theyve learned in their classrooms and save lives. Im an engineer and then safety nonprofit a few blocks from here. Like many of our partners we envision a nation free of traffic fatalities and serious injuries and we are working hard to achieve that within 30 years. At the core of this effort is a commitment to whats known as the safe Systems Approach that the recognition human, no how well trained make mistakes. The drivers, the road, the roadside, they have to be designed to make sure that the mistakes are never fatal or incapacitated. Thats why were excited for the teen concept and why theyre participating as a partner of fccla across the country over several years. Unfortunately, despite record high rates with the best and safest engineered cars that we have ever had. The term distracted driving takes place in the national lexicon along with drunk driving. Were seeing our traffic fatalities going up and, in fact, were reversing a lot of progress that has been made and were not 100 sure why thats occurring. But the last at that years, its been reraced as we speak. As example, and unfortunate, 13 people are going to die on the roads during the hour were here, and among those youth are going to be represented, this is the number one killer of youth up to age 34 in this country. So there are many reasons for this, but among them is the continued presence of road deficiencies. And we know that because good roads have less steps than bad roads. When you have roadside hazards, obsolete design and other behaviors, it fits into the risks itself. Unprotected roadside ditches, posts within inches. Pavement. More alignment. These are common on roads in the country. They guarantee that the traffic crash isnt a question, if, when. 53 of u. S. Traffic deaths take place in rural areas where speeds are higher and noninterstate roadways often lack shoulders, median divides and other safety treatments. After all the safest five star car is no moch a one and we have looked at what that is been accomplished. Who better to take a critical eye than the students, faculty and staff who drive, walk and bike them every day. Who better to bring in the safety conversation than teens, and bring fresh eyes as new drivers. We believe if society is willing to give drivers licenses to teens, it needs to be willing to step up and provide the safest environments where the teens learn to navigate the roads. Its not enough for adults to admonish teens to act a certain way. There must be systemic improvements that all road users could appreciate and help us become a nation of zero deaths. Who knows, maybe some students have opened their eyes to the world of infrastructure and safe systems. Through the fccla work they will go on to be the next generation of Civil Engineers and invent the Safety Technology that will achieve our goal. Thanks very much. [applaus [applause]. Thank you, greg, for your great work as well. Were fortunate to hear directly from a student representing her fccl acha high school, big stone gap. And they took it to the next level to advocate for change. Im happy to welcome Madison Collins and her advisor, family and Consumer Sciences teacher, connie has taught family and Consumer Sciences for 35 years. Thank you, connie, for your decades of dedication to students in your community. We cant wait to hear firsthand how you made your school a safer place for everyone on the road. [applaus [applause] hi, everyone, im proud to be here to represent the high school. Our fccla chapter was excited to conduct this past school year. We had no idea what an exciting adventure we were to embark on. You should have received a copy of our case study in your packet and here are some of the highlights. Being from a small town we have three schools and an intersection close to each otheren the main road. You have parents, student drivers, school buses and members. Community all sharing a busy road during school dropoff and pickup times. Imagine all of this moving through every day without any type of Traffic Safety infrastructure. It was not safe. We conducted a teen rsa. We interviewed students and teachers and recorded traffic patterns at the intersections near our schools and counted the number of cars coming through the intersection, we took this data and presented it at a public forum, including local officials, students. We needed a traffic light. The good news everybody agreed, and we could do something about it. But the bad news its not simple. Finding a solution was not going to be easy. We started with local officials. Approval of new traffic lights is based on federal regulations and theyre hundreds of pages long. It felt like we were looking for a needle in the haystack. Lucky for us an assistant found the needle. At least 1,000 vehicles go through during peak traffic we might meet federal regulations and get a new traffic light. One thing for sure, there was a certain criteria in the federal government that we did not want to meet, the frequency and severity of accidents. We didnt want to wait for that to create a change. We asked which one of the classmates might we lose in nothing is done and which ones to save if we act now. Thankfully we didnt have to meet that criteria. The next challenge, money, although we were excited to have met federal guidelines for had a traffic light. A single light can cost up to 450,000 on top of them, the electricity is run it 7,000 a year. Given our traffic pattern we would need at least two traffic lights. And let me tell you, for an area thats lost because of coal mining jobs, we had to close three high schools and one elementary school. We were down, but not out and this is why im going to let her finish the story. Well, first of all, this is a very humbling experience to be here and to hear what youve been doing over so long. We want to thank you for putting together the competition that we won. Had there not been standards and criteria this there we wouldnt have known to meet them and known how to set the goals to get where we were. And im going to be honest, there were times when we wanted to give up. When everybody said is that nothings going to happen and nothing could be done, but there did remain the question, which child . Thankfully, when i wanted to give up, mattie and the other students said, no way. And when they wanted to quit, i said, not now. There was no way that we were giving up. Over the past several months. These students have learned about the fcclas experience. Theyve advocated for change. And its a reality. And receiver teachers. The town council, board of managers, school board and others have worked it achieving a common goal and meant everybody had to sit down together. We had to quit thinking about our own agendas and we had to look at what needed to be done and try to find common solutions. Our students have listened to the experts and they came to understand that around about costing about 130,000 less than a single traffic light was a safer and more affordable solution for our situation and i have to tell you when someone first suggested a roundabout i spent two days marching up and down the hallway, saying that we would be hurt. If we listened to what was there, it was the only solution that was going to work. And request a member of our school board, excuse me not our school board, his wife was a member of the school board, but a member of the board of supervisors and a members of the Committee Said when our students cared enough to count cars and by the way, it was snowing and gather and analyze data, how could we say no . And even though a roundabout was out of the budgets they were able to obtain 126,000 from the coal severance committee. And we had 126,000 available. Which was approved by the board of supervisors and thanks to joy mullens, who is a civil engineer, works for vdot, designed and supervised the building of our roundabout. It was paid for by 126,000. [applaus [applaus [applause]. Going on. The ribbon cutting, and we havent had a single accident. People were betting how many wrecks on the first day, no one. Our students volunteered their time to work with vdot models on the roundabout to education the students and public how to gaff navigate the round about. We had toy cars and we would take them and move them around the roundabout, the most practical way to figure out how to do this. This has been an experience for the high school fccla and theyre creating a safer environment for everyone on our roadways. We hope our story can serve as an example of the type of positive change they can great across the country. I would like to in closing remarks, id like to thank god for putting the right people in the right place at the right time with the right energy. And being willing to work together. Also. Our students have learned as they look toward their new horizons the motto for fccla, they know they, as individuals, can make a difference. Also, i promised some people at the local level, i would thank them on national tv. We want to thank the vdot crew, many worked tirelessly, our School