The Road Safety Education Programme in Schools, promoted by the abertis foundation, has received a prize from the Asociación Española para el Desarrollo del Mecenazgo Empresarial (AEDME, the Spanish Association for the Development of Business Patronage) for Business Sponsorship and Patronage in the Education category. abertis foundation Chairman Miquel Roca i Junyent accepted the award in a ceremony held yesterday in the Real Casa de Correos, headquarters of the Presidency of the Community of Madrid. This award-winning initiative will have trained more than 100,000 primary students across five autonomous communities in mobility over the course of the last three academic years.

The mission of the Road Safety Education Programme in Schools is to instil in the young –today’s pedestrians, but tomorrow’s drivers– responsible habits and behaviour with regard to road mobility and safety. Special emphasis is thus placed on the use of safety belts and helmets (also when cycling), child safety restraints (seats), the danger of distraction when driving and using a mobile phone at the same time, preparing for long journeys and driving at the right speed.

The 2007-2008 academic year is the third to benefit from the Road Safety Education Programme in Schools. It is forecast that, by its end, around 1,030 schools and 101,711 primary students aged from 8 to 12 in Andalusia, Castilla-León, Catalonia, the Community of Madrid and the Community of Valencia will have benefited from this initiative (the figures for the 2007-2008 academic year are estimated). The abertis foundation is currently studying expanding the programme to the remainder of Spain’s autonomous communities.

A unique initiative

What makes the abertis foundation programme unique is the interaction between family and children, as indicated by the slogan Steer your family. In fact, one of its main goals is for children to raise their parents’ awareness and to encourage their family to adopt better driving and travelling practices. Teaching materials such as the Family Guide to Road Education and the programme’s web page (www.fundacionabertis.org/educacionviaria) are designed to be consulted by children in the company of their families and to complement the training they receive in class.

Class-based training is begun with a talk by a specialist supplied by the abertis foundation, who visits the students at their school. Together with him, they watch a DVD that shows family travel-related scenes, which are subsequently commented upon. After this session, their teacher is provided with a range of teaching material and assessment tests to follow up this training throughout the academic year.

Surveys carried out at the end of the first two academic years showed a high level of satisfaction from participating centres. Nearly 99% of schools said they intended to deal with road safety education issues in class and use the Steer your family programme teaching materials.

The abertis foundation

The mission of the abertis foundation (http://www.fundacioabertis.org/) is to encourage research into the repercussion of large-scale transport infrastructure on the territory, above all on the economy, demographics and the environment. As a tool of the Corporate Social Responsibility Programme of abertis, Europe’s leading transport and communications infrastructure manager, the Foundation also carries out a wide-ranging Road Safety Programme which, in addition to road safety education in schools, contemplates support for research studies, the organisation of technical workshops and different publicity activities.

AEDME

The Asociación Española para el Desarrollo del Mecenazgo Empresarial (the Spanish Association for the Development of Business Patronage, http://www.aedme.org/) fosters, promotes and acknowledges good practices in the field of business patronage and sponsorship as part of companies’ corporate social responsibility. It organises the annual AEDME Prizes for Business Sponsorship and Patronage, which are divided into four categories: Culture and the Business Environment, Sport and Social Inclusion, Education, and Cultural Voluntary Work. This year has seen the seventeenth edition of the prizes, which have benefited from the collaboration of the Community of Madrid and from sponsorship from Banco Santander and the advertising agency Tapsa.