Southeast Montana News

Safe Kids Yellowstone County has initiated a new fellowship program aimed at enlisting high school students as advocates for traffic safety. The initiative, known as the Be the Change Fellowship, is part of the Impact Teen Drivers program. This nationally recognized effort seeks to engage, educate, and empower teens through peer-to-peer communication.

The fellowship emphasizes behavior change, injury prevention, and fostering positive community norms. Participants will be connected with local injury prevention educators who will act as mentors while students implement the program in their schools.

“This will help build a more diverse safety and injury prevention workforce so that all children, teens, and their parents can feel empowered and educated around the number one cause of preventable injuries and teen deaths,” said Koren Bloom, Safe Kids Yellowstone County coordinator. “It creates a culture shift where reckless and distracted driving are recognized as unacceptable behaviors, which will result in safer communities for future generations.”

Approximately 50 students from various high schools in Yellowstone County have been chosen to take part in this fellowship. They convened at the Mansfield Health Education Center on Friday, Oct. 25 to learn about traffic safety, develop campaign materials, and officially launch the program.