Monday, December 9, 2019

Opportunity: The Driver Behavior Change Seed Grant Program is Now Available



Safe States recently partnered with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop Strategies to Address Shared Risk and Protective Factors for Driver Safety. This new resource document aligns the public health approach with motor vehicle safety efforts to identify practices that have the highest potential to address multiple types of risky driving behavior simultaneously.

With additional support from NHTSA, Safe States is offering an opportunity for teams to put the findings and recommendations from the resource document into action. Through a competitive application process, Safe States will select and provide up to four Safety Teams with $35,000 in seed grant funds to participate in a national learning community, implement, and evaluate strategies in their communities that enhance motor vehicle safety efforts by addressing shared risk and protective factors, with an emphasis on behavior change.

Multidisciplinary Safety Teams consisting of public health and traffic safety professionals at the state and/or local level will be funded to develop and implement activities based on one or more strategies referenced in the resource document. These strategies are intended to address multiple risky driving behaviors simultaneously by minimizing risk factors and strengthening protective factors that affect driver behavior. Selected Safety Teams will participate in a two-year program that includes five (5) distinct components:
  1. Virtual Training Sessions: Each Safety Team will participate in two virtual training sessions, tentatively set for March 2020 and April 2020, to learn concepts for defining and applying a shared risk and protective factor approach to motor vehicle safety initiatives.
  2. In-person Workshops: Each Safety Team will participate in two different Driver Behavior Change Workshops. Each Workshop will take place over a two-day period (12 total training hours per workshop) in Washington D.C..
    1. Workshop #1 will take place in May 2020. The primary goal is to help Safety Teams develop an action plan for implementing an intervention or strategy that addresses risky driving behaviors and develop a plan to evaluate the identified intervention or strategy.
    2. Workshop #2 will take place in November 2020. The primary goal is to provide Safety Teams with additional training sessions to support existing program implementation and evaluation activities.
  3. Peer-based Coaching and Technical Assistance: Each Safety Team will be assigned one injury and violence prevention (IVP) public health practitioner as a peer-based coach and one traffic safety professional as a peer-based coach.
  4. Seed Grants: Each Safety Team will receive a seed grant award of up to $35,000. Safety Teams will use these awards to support team strategy implementation and evaluation activities.
  5. Evaluation: The Safe States Alliance will conduct an evaluation of the program, which will include an evaluation of the Driver Behavior Change Workshops and a multi-site evaluation of selected Safety Team interventions. Safety Teams will be responsible for actively participating in the evaluation process, including participation in data collection opportunities such as surveys, key informant interviews, or focus groups. The evaluation is scheduled for completion by May 2022.
Click here to view the full program description, details about team activities and composition, eligibility criteria, program timeline, application requirements, and instructions to submit your letter of intent. A letter of intent must be submitted in order to receive an invitation to apply.
Learn More

Technical Assistance Conference Call

Learn more about the Driver Behavior Change Seed Grant Program and how to apply by registering for the technical assistance call on December 17, 2019 at 2:00 PM ET.
Additional questions about this opportunity should be directed to Ina Robinson, MPH, Program Manager at the Safe States Alliance.