Road safety experts from 15 countries around the world are meeting this month at FedEx’s headquarters in Memphis, USA, for a key landmark in the Star Rating for Schools project.
Star Ratings for Schools is an exciting new product from iRAP which aims to give children safer journeys to school worldwide through targeted safety interventions in the immediate environment around their schools and colleges.
During a two week capacity building programme, the delegates will road test the beta model of the app. The delegates will find out how the app works and give their feedback and input. Crucially, they will try out the app in a real-life environment on a field visit to a school in Memphis led by iRAP’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Julio Urzua.
Star Ratings for Schools has only been made possible by the great generosity of FedEx Cares, the charitable outreach of the global logistics giant. Shane O’Connor, the lead for FedEx Cares’ road safety focus, will be hosting the Memphis training session and described it as one of the charity’s: ‘Most exciting new projects with incredible global impact potential.’
Over the last couple of months, iRAP’s development partner, GoodWorkLabs, has made rapid progress in developing the android tablet app for data collection, and its partner results website. Star Rating for Schools will be officially launched at the ‘ Every Journey, Every Child’ international conference in London in October.
The app will deliver a quick and easy measurement of road safety risk for children’s journeys to school. This will support the identification of treatment options that can be considered subject to further investigation by the local road authority.
In parallel with the technical development, Julio and Shane have been building the worldwide networks of partners and stakeholders who are going to be so important in ensuring that Star Rating for Schools is made available to as many schools as possible around the world.