Local Actions Mentorship Programme

The Youth Coalition Mentorship Programme - a formal and standardised mechanism to support Local Actions Winners - was launched in 2023 as a way to facilitate and amplify the execution of Local Actions Projects. The Mentorship Programme is also an avenue to connect young leaders and experts from different fields that include but are not limited to, road safety.

Through the Programme, Local Actions Winners will have access to valuable knowledge on their topics and other relevant areas. It will also serve as a space where winners from the previous years will be able to share their experiences, signpost opportuniities, and enhance practical and soft skills.

The Programme is being led by the YOURS - Youth for Road Safety Capacity Development Team with Capacity Development Director Manpreet Darroch and Capacity Development Manager Laura Daniela Gomez.

Through the Programme, the Youth Coalition will support the acceleration of the personal and professional development of young leaders currently implementing Local Actions Projects in road safety and sustainable mobility. The mentee will join experts in one-on-one meetings to discuss and develop their ideas.

The Programme will also hone new capabilities of youth leaders to “level-up” their abilities as road safety advocates. A resulting relationship between mentor and mentee is also seen to be a result of the Programme, improving youth leaders’ road safety and advocacy journey beyond Local Actions and the Global Youth Coalition.

The Mentorship Programme will offer support in categories that include; stakeholder and community engagement, communication, advocacy, and other areas under technical support. Below are the specifics;

Stakeholder and community engagement: It involves sharing effective strategies to gain the attention of different stakeholders (decision-makers, private sector, the target community), designing capacity development activities (in-person or online workshops) that are engaging and interactive, suggesting potential content for those workshops and identifying the best ways to make road safety attractive for the youth audience.

Communication: It will cover key actions to design communication campaigns, to make them more impactful and engaging. Also, key strategies to gain visibility for their projects and create informative content. Specific tools for campaign management might be provided.

Advocacy: It will focus on effective strategies to push for policy change, mapping stakeholders, identifying advocacy opportunities, and adopting road safety agendas. Also, how to engage new road safety advocates and retain their attention. 

Technical support: It can cover different topics and specific needs identified by the Local Action Leaders, such as data analysis (both quantitative and qualitative), road safety audits (IRap, SR4S), urbanism, infrastructure, fundraising or specific methodologies.

Any needs related to road safety knowledge and basic concepts will be addressed through two-hour interactive online sessions or the YOURS e-learning platform: the YOURS Academy.

In addition to that, the YOURS team is providing the support to ensure projects are well structured with a proper logical framework, with evidence-based activities and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) Objectives.