How might we give high school students the tools to form a plan to get home safely from gatherings involving drugs and alcohol?
During the beginning stages of this project, the One Stone student team discovered that each team member had somehow been affected by teenagers driving while impaired. They quickly dove into empathy work and learned from police officers, prosecutors, community members and each other about the severity of impaired driving in the Treasure Valley. One of the most impactful interviews they held was with a community member that, as a teen, drove drunk and was involved in an accident that killed another person. Then the team learned a shocking statistic while interviewing a Boise police officer: graduation day is the deadliest day for teenage car accidents involving alcohol. They were appalled. Graduation season was approaching and that could be someone from their project team, a classmate, a best friend. Through research, the team narrowed down the problem: high schoolers are spontaneous decision makers. They find themselves in potentially dangerous situations but haven't made appropriate plans to get home safely. Thus, the team embarked on a mission to give high school students the tools to create a plan to get home safely BEFORE they find themselves in situations involving drugs and alcohol. The team created IMPACT—which stands fo "I'll Make a Plan And Create Trust."
The students began brainstorming ways to rethink the message they have all heard before: “Don’t drink and drive.” What they realized doesn’t work? Scare tactics. Studies have proven that fear does not motivate high school students to act differently. There are thousands of PSA videos on TV and the internet that show crashes and casualtie involving drunk driving, yet it still happens everyday. Team IMPACT’s solution? A campaign that focuses on HOPE. They would tap into what matters to a graduating student: their hopes, their dreams, their plans for the future.
The team created hundreds of handmade copper and wooden keychains engraved with the tagline "Plan for tonight. Plan for the future." In order to receive a keychain, students had to create their plan to get home safely by identifying people they trust to reach out t if they're ever caught i potentially dangerous situation. Within the eychains was a compartment where recipients could store both their written plan to get home safely as well as their dreams for the future. Knowing they have something they are looking forward to, whether that was “going to BSU,” “traveling to Europe,” “owning two Husky dogs”, or “having a family,” that would be the motivation to keep themselves safe. On the reverse side of the paper were spaces for recipients to write the names and phone numbers of friends or family members they could call if they needed help to get home as well as local taxi numbers and uber/lyft app information.
Implementation included two events where team members interacted with high school students and distributed keychains. The first implementation was during Borah High School’s Spirit Week where over 100 keychains were distributed and plans made. The second implementation was on the last day of school for the Boise School District at a favorite local coffee shop, Dutch Bros on Broadway. Over 100 keychains were distributed and community members were able to engage in discussions about impaired driving and driving safely. Overall, approximately 250 teens received the IMPACT team’s message of hope and safety.
Outcomes:
- 250 keychains handmade and distributed
- 250 high school students created a plan to get home safely and identified people they trust
- 2 locations: Borah High School & Broadway Dutch Bros
- $100 in transportation gift cards raffled off to aid in students’ creating their plan
Quotes:
“What a great idea to have us identify someone we trust before something bad happens. If you’re intoxicated, you’re not usually not thinking right, so already knowing you can rely on a person that you trust to get you out of a dangerous situation is really important. For me, that person is my step dad. Now we’ve talked, and I know he is always there for me.”
