Starting TDS at your school

Are you interested in starting a Teens in the Driver Seat program at your school, but you aren’t sure how to go about it? Or has your school had a TDS program before, that is no longer active?

Here are some easy steps to starting (and maintaining) a TDS program at your school:

1. Decide who is going to be leading the project. Pick the organization that will take on TDS (ex: Student Council, FCCLA, National Honors Society, FFA, etc.). Pick the student leaders who will be in charge of the program (usually 8-12 students). Make sure that there is a teacher/sponsor who will serve as support for the program.
2. Get in touch with your regional representative. These people are staff members who serve as a support for your program. If you need supplies, run out of ideas, or need any help with your program, they will be there to back you up.
3. See what your friends know. The best way to find out where the problem is, is to survey people at your school and figure out what they know and what they need to learn. Your regional representative can provide you with the correct tools to survey.
4. Tell them what they need to know. Think of ways to get the safe driving message out to your peers. You could pass out TDS freebies at sporting events, hold a safe driving day at your school, put up banners, etc. Anything to get them to know more about how to be safe drivers and spread the message.
5. Keep the program going. Make goals to do a special TDS event each six weeks, or month, to ensure that people are learning what the problem is and how they can help fight the number-one killer of teens in America. You can also survey your friends again to see what they learned and gauge how successful your program is..

For more information on Teens in the Driver Seat contact your regional representative or use our online resources.