Club’s car gift aids young drivers
THE 34,282 Rotary clubs and their 1.2 million members throughout the world share a common vision statement: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”
The Rotary Clubs of Cairns Trinity and Cairns West would be the first to suggest that they have been living up to this vision statement for a very long time.
In June this year the clubs lived up to their decades of local altruism by donating a 2015 Kia Rio, valued at $11,000, to IFYS Foster Care North Queensland (Cairns) for their unique Urban Driver Program.
In 2007, the Queensland Department of Transport introduced a graduated licensing system to help reduce fatalities amongst the 17-24 age group.
The central feature of this system was that young people were now required to record 100 hours of supervised driving before being able to sit for their driver licence.
A problem with these stricter requirements, however, was that many disadvantaged young people quickly found themselves being unable to obtain a licence, thus compounding their marginalisation, particularly when seeking out employment opportunities or travelling to schooling that was beyond the accessible public transport routes.
“This is no less of a problem for young people in the care of the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women,” says Deborah Wigmore, co-ordinator of the Urban Driver Program.
“Many of these young people do not have access to a vehicle or a supervisor,” she says.
The program is part of an IFYS Foster Care North Queensland (Cairns) initiative that has been running in partnership with the Police-Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) Cairns’ Braking the Cycle Program for 18 months.
“The program allows us to pair volunteer mentors from the PCYC program with our own learner drivers which helps our young people to complete the 100 mandatory hours required to achieve their licence,” Deborah says.
“The end result is that the program enables our young people to develop a core life and employment skills base that helps them create better short term and long term opportunities for themselves.”
Rotary’s gift of a new vehicle to the IFYS Foster Care North Queensland (Cairns) Urban Driver Program is seen as a remarkable godsend to a program that, in conjunction with their PCYC Cairns partners, always struggles to match volunteer supervisors to much needed, roadworthy and fully insured motor vehicles.