Press release -
RAC announces new road safety partnership with The Scout Association
Horace mascot to front new campaign designed to reach every UK Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer
Road Safety Minister launches partnership by recreating Beatles album cover on Abbey Road crossing
The RAC’s road safety charity and The Scout Association has announced a three year partnership to promote road safety to over half a million Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts, Scouts and Explorer Scouts across the UK.
The partnership will combine the RAC’s existing road safety campaign with the Scouts’ own programme to engage with its young people on staying safe on the roads. A major element will be the RAC’s sponsorship of the Cub Scouts’ Road Safety activity badge, but beyond this the motoring organisation will be working with Scouts of all ages to inspire and equip them with the skills to develop as responsible and safe road users.
Over the next three years hundreds of RAC patrols will visit local Scout Groups across the UK to help deliver workshops, with mascot Horace helping to teach young people about road safety in a lively and engaging way. This learning will evolve as the partnership develops, and will begin with a campaign for young people to ‘Be bright, Be seen’ following the end of British Summer Time. Other messages will include how to keep ‘road smart’ in the 21st century, the Highway Code, and in-car safety.
The young people will also benefit from the creation this month of the RAC’s Road Safety Awareness Charity.* This will raise funds to promote road safety nationally, with the aim of giving every Cub Scout a high-visibility vest by 2018. It will also see RAC staff attend national Scouting events, with interactive experiences to promote the campaign.
As the motorist’s champion, the RAC is committed to improving road safety and to reducing the number of children and young people injured and even killed on our roads each year. Regrettably in 2014 2,082 children were killed (53, up 10.4% on 2013) or seriously injured (2,029, up 5% on 2013) on UK roads – ending a near thirty-year run of decline in child and young person road casualties.
RAC road safety champion Jacqui Thompson said: “This a fantastic opportunity to engage and work with young people across the UK to raise awareness of road safety and to equip them with the skills to be road smart and develop as responsible and safe road users. Together with The Scout Association and the Department for Transport’s THINK! Campaign, we can reach drivers and other road users too with responsible and safe driving messages – and bring the number of children killed on UK roads to zero.”
Hannah Kentish, the UK Scouting Youth Commissioner has welcomed the partnership. She said “Scouting changes lives by offering young people fun and challenging activities, unique experiences, everyday adventure and the chance to help others so that we make a positive impact in communities. We are therefore delighted that Scouting has teamed up with the RAC to empower more young people to stay safe when they are near roads.”
Road safety minister Andrew Jones MP joined Horace and Cubs from the 8th Marylebone Scout Pack on the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing. He said: “Road safety skills are vital in keeping all road users, both young and old, safe and I welcome the new partnership between the RAC and The Scout Association. Everyone should know the rules of the road and the new road safety badge is a great step towards getting young people interested in helping themselves, and others, stay safe.”
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About the RAC Road Safety Awareness Charity
As the motorist’s champion the RAC is committed to improving safety on our roads and promoting responsible driving. With this in mind the business formed the RAC Road Safety Awareness Charity with a contribution of £250,000 to lead and raise funds for its road safety campaigns. The charity has received full accreditation from the Charity Commission with registration number 1163960. The charity is managed by a committee of volunteers from across the business with an independent legal consultant and a director from Aardman Animations.
The charity has committed to partnering The Scout Association and sponsoring the Cub Scouts road safety activity badge for three years and has developed a campaign strategy to support The Scout Association’s own objectives to:
- reach half a million children and their families by the end of 2018 with our campaign message,
- increase the community impact through promotion of the road safety campaigns,
- encourage participation by RAC patrols and colleagues in the campaign building positive links with local Scout groups, and raising the profile of the campaign to reach a broad national audience through the media.
In April 2014 the RAC teamed up with Aardman Animations to create a new road safety mascot for the 21st century – the result was our lovable campaign mascot Horace. Instantly recognisable as a close cousin of Gromit, Horace has been warmly received by school children and groups as he has travelled around the county promoting road safety and activities including animation competitions and clay modelling workshops to engage young people in the campaign messages. Horace is now very happy to be teaming up with the Scout Association and has been invested in to the Cub Scouts and already been involved in night walks and road safety workshops.
About The Scout Association
The Scout Association was founded on 1st August 1907.
- The Scout Association is the largest co-educational youth movement in the country. Recent figures have shown that membership has reached the 550,000 mark in the UK. However, the movement is in desperate need of more adult volunteers to ensure that more young people can join the adventure. National waiting lists for young people wanting to join Scouting stand at nearly 36,000.
- Adventure is at the core of Scouting, and the Association passionately believes in helping their members fulfil their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves.
- Over 200 activities are offered by Scouting around the UK, made possible by the efforts of more than 100,000 volunteer leaders. This has helped to make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country.
- One of the challenges that the Scout Movement faces is finding more volunteers to plug the current gap. At present there are nearly 36,000 young people on waiting lists across the UK.
