The city of Glendale’s Alive at 25 program recently received the Community Partner in Safety Award from the National Safety Council.
“We found out this was the first award of that nature that they’ve given out. I think they just recognized our remarkable effort to start the program and grow it,” said Cassandra Johnston, traffic education program manager for Glendale.
The Alive at 25 program is a nationally recognized, four-hour course from the National Safety Council that Glendale has adopted to address driving concerns within the city. According to Johnston, the city adopted the program after it stopped offering driver’s education and saw that vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24. She noted that the only high school district that offers driver’s education is Peoria.
“We recognized the issue and concern and … (have) taken a more proactive approach to it, and we’re, my assistant and I, going into all nine high schools within Glendale boundaries,” Johnston said. “We teach our driver awareness program to whatever class we can get into. … Participants in the class learn about the negative effects and dangers associated with topics such as speeding, distraction, peer pressure, impaired driving, seatbelt use and driver inexperience. … We also teach collision prevention techniques and defensive driving strategies to help them with their driving”
Johnston added that the program helps young drivers take a greater responsibility for their driving, focusing on their behavior, judgment and decision making when driving.
She went on to express her pride in the program.
“I used to be an elementary school teacher for 18 years and … I know what a difference teachers make in kids’ lives, and I feel like this is real-life teaching,” Johnston said.
“We all need reading, writing, math, but we also need life skills, and this is definitely life skills and lifesaving. So, I was surprised that we got the award, but I wasn’t surprised why.”
The program has been going on for two years, and the goal was to get it in the high schools within the Glendale boundaries. In the first year, which was the 2022-23 school year, it reached 471 students, and in the second year, the 2023-24 school year, it reached more than 1,400 students.
Johnston said she had been talking with police officers in the city, as well as school resource officers, in attempts to recruit them to the program so that it can reach more students.
“We can use our community centers and open it up to the public that way or we can even discuss opening it up to other schools,” Johnston said.
“We piloted the program in the Peoria district, and they wanted us at all of their schools, but we told them we need to get to all the Glendale boundary schools first.”
Johnston wants to convey to the community that they all play a role in driving and it’s important to share the road.
“We all have a responsibility to one another to drive safely, effectively and understand what the risks are out there and do whatever we can to help one another,” Johnston said.
“We all play a part in community safety. The hope and the goal are that we are teaching the younger group of students in the category, but hopefully they’re going home to their parents and discussing these topics as well and maybe becoming the role models for their parents.”