Peer-to-Peer engagement Guidance

Transcription

1 Peer-to-Peer engagement Guidance Deliverable No. 2.5 Title Peer-to-Peer engagement Guidance Work Package WP2: Development and Knowledge transfer Author(s) Lies Lambert Status (D: draft; F: final) F Date September 2013 Revision History June 2013 version 1 August 2013 version 2 1

2 - - Guidance for STARS Advisors - Secondary schools Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 2

3 Content INTRODUCTION 5 1 STARS EUROPE GENERAL INFORMATION WHAT IS STARS EUROPE? WHY DOES STARS TARGET SCHOOL TRIPS? WHAT ARE THE STARS OBJECTIVES? 6 2 STARS PEER-TO-PEER ENGAGEMENT WHAT IS THE GOAL OF STARS PEER-TO-PEER ENGAGEMENT? WHY SHOULD SCHOOLS PARTICIPATE IN STARS EUROPE? HOW DOES IT WORK? HOW DOES THE CYCLE CHALLENGE WORK? 10 3 INFORMATION FOR STARS ADVISORS OVERVIEW OF TASKS FOR STARS ADVISORS PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES RECRUITING SCHOOLS RECRUITING STUDENTS LOCAL WORKSHOP GUIDANCE, TRAINING AND PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CYCLE CHALLENGE AND OTHER CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES WRAP-UP 22 ANNEX 1: BACKGROUND ANALYSIS 24 ANNEX 2: LOCAL WORKSHOP REPORT 26 ANNEX 3: LOCAL YTAS IMPLEMENTATION PLANS 27 ANNEX 4: LETTER OF COMMITMENT 28 ANNEX 5: YOUTH TRAVEL AMBASSADOR MEETINGS ATTENDANCE LIST 29 ANNEX 6: HANDS-UP SURVEY FOR STUDENTS 30 ANNEX 7: TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR SURVEY 33 Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 3

4 ANNEX 8: ACTIVITY PLAN 36 ANNEX 9: ANNUAL REPORT & CASE STUDIES 47 ANNEX 10: SCHOOL PROCESS QUESTIONNAIRE 48 Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 4

5 Introduction Dear STARS Advisors, Welcome to the STARS project! This guidance brings together all the information you need to support schools implementing the STARS campaign. The document contains guidelines, templates, tips and tricks. If you have questions, want to discuss any issues, or want to share results, please contact your local STARS implementation partner (if STARS Advisor is someone other than the implementation partner). Organisation Name of STARS Implementation partner Address Phone Any additional information the STARS implementation partner wants to include for the STARS Advisor. Good luck! Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 5

6 1 STARS Europe General Information Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Recognition for Schools 1.1 What is STARS Europe? STARS Europe is a behaviour change programme to increase the number of students cycling to and from school, who would previously have been escorted by car. STARS Europe focuses on delivering two proven initiatives, building on several ongoing programmes, some of which were started by STARS partners: Accreditation focuses on empowering the primary school community (students, teachers, and parents) to engage in cycling. The programme is different because it centres on the principle of recognition schools can work their way up an awards scale based on how much they are doing to promote cycling (and other modes) and the mode shift they achieve. Peer-to-peer engagement specifically targets secondary school students (11-19 years). It encourages them to devise their own campaigns to promote cycling, thereby using their own ideas and solutions to persuade their peers to adopt cycling and other sustainable modes. 1.2 Why does STARS target school trips? Driving children to school accounts for a large proportion of travel by households, and therefore contributes to congestion and increased carbon emissions, especially in the peak periods. School journeys have the same destination every day and so are easy to target. The journey to school is most often a short distance, i.e. under 5 km, which can easily be cycled. To ensure a long-term change in travel behaviour, children and young people should be our key priority. 1.3 What are the STARS objectives? 1. To achieve at least an average of a 5% modal shift from the car towards cycling through the overall STARS programme. 2. To increase children's autonomy and create more liveable cities, 3. To set up a pan-eu programme of accreditation to allow primary schools to work independently to deliver increased cycling levels and commit to monitoring and evaluation. 4. To develop a network of Youth Travel Ambassador Schemes, which provide a set of tools and encourage secondary school students to increase cycling levels amongst their peers. 5. To share knowledge amongst cities, regions and schools, and develop a pan-eu agenda to improve sustainable mobility for the journey to school. In the long term: 1. To see continued modal shift from the car towards cycling (and other sustainable modes) with more schools reaching higher levels of accreditation and modal shift above 10%. 2. To share the legacy model and programme results in order to see an increase in uptake of the STARS programme in other cities and countries of the EU-27. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 6

7 2 STARS Peer-to-peer engagement Peer-to-peer interactions are probably the single most neglected lever of behaviour change, although there is significant evidence and theory that they work. Peers in large bodies such as schools are invaluable in spreading behaviour change. The STARS peer-to-peer engagement programme is founded on two pillars: A Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme (YTAS), where students will design and carry out campaign activities to encourage their classmates to cycle more, with guidance from their teacher(s) and the STARS Advisor(s); A Cycle Challenge, which will have a website where all students can track their cycle trips and compete with their classmates, as well as against other schools in their city and across Europe. A central focus of the STARS peer-to-peer programme is having a group of young people, the Youth Travel Ambassadors, motivate their peers to start cycling to school or to do so more often. Key elements to this approach are being up to date with their world, convenience (flow), and looking for energy and creativity within the group of students. Cycling, safety and sustainability only attract young people as ''stand alone'' themes to a certain extent. Therefore, talking to young people about cycling requires a creative connection to other themes. To get them more excited, we ask the Youth Travel Ambassadors to come up with ideas that give them energy, and then facilitate them to encourage their peers as well. We want to promote a sense of team and a "we-feeling, but the competitive element is also central to the approach. Both are present in the Cycle Challenge, which will form the background to all the initiatives that the Youth Travel Ambassadors will set up for their peers. For example, students will collect cycling kilometres as a class and school, which will be ranked in a league table, thereby allowing comparison of their results. Students may also collect points at an individual level. The competitive feature and the do-it-yourself philosophy will be attractive for young people and an intrinsic motivator, rather than having a grown-up telling them what to do (or even worse, what not to do). The peer-to-peer approach does not require much effort in terms of project management or from the school itself, and it has a minimal impact on the regular school programme. For example, the sports teachers at the schools can organise some activities by replacing an indoor sport lesson with an outdoor cycling activity. Students from the school are the stars in the communications campaign Gianny / Kim gets on his / her bike! What are you going to do? Ride2scool project, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2010 Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 7

8 2.1 What is the goal of STARS peer-to-peer engagement? The STARS peer-to-peer engagement programme aims to empower groups of students and give them the tools and ownership to develop, implement and monitor projects for peers in their schools, with a focus on increasing cycling and addressing the following issues: Engagement in sustainable travel initiatives Active travel Road safety Community safety Environmental impacts Each STARS school will recruit a group of students to act as Youth Travel Ambassadors who will encourage their classmates to actively participate in the Cycle Challenge and will design and carry out other activities to promote cycling and active travel, such as cycling clubs, cycle rides and marketing campaigns for their peers. Through the peer-to-peer engagement programme, STARS Europe aims to: - Reduce the number of students travelling to school by car (overall target of 5% modal shift away from the car by the end of the project) - Increase the number of students walking and cycling - Provide the information for students & parents about different modes for travelling to school - Improve the safety of routes to and from schools - Improve the health and wellbeing of children through exercise - Improve accessibility to, from and between schools - Increase children s autonomy in relation to transport The YTAS offers a new approach for young people to engage with transport issues which affect their school and the wider community while gaining valuable skills and experience. Extracurricular activities can be important when assessing school leavers. Through the YTAS programme, participants will develop initiative, determination, resilience, and skills in leadership, relationship building, communications, presentation, teamwork and problem solving. 2.2 Why should schools participate in STARS Europe? There are many reasons to promote active sustainable travel at your school: - Health benefits - Fun - Children s autonomy - Environmental benefits, i.e. CO2 reductions - Traffic safety - Cost effective - Good for the school s image, i.e. to stand out from others - A safe and traffic-calm school area - And many more Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 8

9 A specific benefit of the Cycle Challenge is that it results in an online database with detailed information on the students travel behaviour. Based on the data generated, the school might decide to decrease the number of car parking spots in favour of more bicycle parking facilities, for example, or the data will provide the school with supporting evidence when negotiating with the municipality about moving / introducing a bus stop close(r) to a school entrance. One of the advantages of the Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme is that the school can offer its students a special opportunity to become Youth Travel Ambassadors, to learn about sustainable mobility, and develop research and campaigning skills. Finally, the top-performing school from each STARS city will win a free trip for one staff member and two students to the international STARS Final Conference, where prizes will be awarded to the most sustainable schools participating in the programme. The winning school will be determined according to the number of success factors they have achieved through the peer-to-peer engagement, in order to give equal opportunity to schools that already have high cycling levels from the outset and those that have a greater potential to increase cycling. Of course, each school will have its own objectives and reasons for participating in STARS. 2.3 How does it work? STARS schools sign a Letter of Commitment (see Annex 4), recruit a group of Youth Travel Ambassadors to promote cycling to and from school, and register on the Cycle Challenge website. The schools and teachers commit themselves to provide practical support, where possible and when needed, to the Youth Travel Ambassadors for the activities the students will organise for their peers. The YTAS programme will be carried out by the following three parties: o o o Youth Travel Ambassadors: Students in participating schools will be given responsibility for developing and implementing youth-led awareness-raising activities which target their peers and the wider community. They will survey their classmates travel behaviour and, through regular meetings with the STARS Advisors, design activities to encourage their peers to participate in the Cycle Challenge and to cycle more in general; STARS Champions: A school staff member who will be in charge of supporting the Youth Travel Ambassadors. This role should normally be adopted by a teacher or member of staff who can help maintain regular contact with the young people and support the teams with materials, room bookings, etc. STARS Advisors: Dedicated staff from within the STARS project partner teams, who will have responsibility for maintaining regular contact with YTAS teams and provide them with the necessary skills and guidance to promote cycling in their schools. The STARS Advisors role is to assist and support the Youth travel Ambassadors and STARS Champions, not do the work themselves. Their wider role is also to collect and share examples of good practice and to develop and maintain up-to-date guidance and resources for the YTAS programme (i.e. the YTAS toolkit). The number of activities conducted by the Youth Travel Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 9

10 Ambassadors and the time investment required can vary according to the schools and students capacity. 2.4 How does the Cycle Challenge work? The aim of the Cycle Challenge The goal of the Cycle Challenge is to create awareness in a fun way! of the need to reduce motorised travel, not only now but also in the future. It aims to promote cycling and other forms of smart mobility as attractive alternatives to the common motivation of getting my driver s license as soon as possible.... It is being set up as a game, in order to appeal to young people of the game generation. By the end of the project, we want to see significant behaviour change amongst students! Each STARS school will participate in the Cycle Challenge for a one-month period, preferably at the same time as the other STARS schools in their own city and across Europe. As the students are entering their kilometres cycled (and other travel modes) in the online system, we are able to measure the modal split (i.e. how many students travel to and from school by bike, car, bus, etc.) and the change in travel behaviour in each school during the Cycle Challenge campaign month. This will reveal the amount of CO 2 emissions saved and can have other benefits for the school, as described above. In addition, all data can be accumulated for comparison between schools, cities and countries on (secondary) school travel behaviour across Europe. This offers the advantage of being able to determine the most successful campaigns and methods to encourage cycling among year-olds, from which other schools can also benefit The Cycle Challenge website The Cycle Challenge (CC) website is a crucial part of the scheme, as all travel behaviour will be recorded on it. The CC website is complementary to the Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme: it provides the students and schools with a tool to encourage cycling and to monitor changes in travel behaviour, and acts as an indicator of the success of the Youth Travel Ambassadors activities. Each STARS school has to register on the website in order to participate and will be able to use the website in its own language. School staff can access the website to monitor the students travel behaviour and draw reports on the status of cycling in their school. To engage young people from this game generation, some playful gamification elements will be included on the website. The data they insert will immediately result in various Green Meters, such as CO 2 savings, calories burned, and a changed view of the earth (dynamic visual). In addition, each student can create his or her personal evolving avatar (a digital image or animation representing the student) during the CC game to stimulate autonomy, but also to create a bond between all players. For schools with limited internet access, there will also be a way to enter information from offline participants. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 10

11 On the website, students can upload short videos they have made relating to sustainable mobility. Making a video could be one of the activities organised by the Youth Travel Ambassadors. The main competition will be through classes (i.e. teams) at the schools as well as individual participation. Next to the individual level and the school level, STARS wants to initiate interaction on city, country and even European level. An overview of rankings will be part of the website too. The game will include incentives to start, to keep interactive during the game and to interact within the team and with other teams. By recording cycling kilometres on the Cycle Challenge website, students can earn points. Certain amounts of points unlock an avatar store with bicycle accessories, walking shoes, helmets, bicycle jewellery, etc., which they can add to their Cycle Challenge avatars. At a next level of points, new accessories are unlocked. The school avatar visible on the overall website will wear the most popular accessories of the school. Pupils and schools can also earn medals or awards for their achievements, such as most kilometres cycled, most active in peer-to-peer activities, highest percentage of students cycling to school, etc. The Cycle Challenge website will have a download centre where students and schools can find promotional materials (templates for posters or flyers), supporting materials (such as instructions on how to make a short video), campaign ideas, tips and tricks from earlier school campaigns, and a handbook on how to use the website Incentives for students Why will students want to participate in the Cycle Challenge? - A delegation from one school per STARS city will be invited to attend the final STARS Europe conference, where they will have the chance to receive prizes and meet winners from other partner countries (travel costs will be covered for one teacher and 2 students per school); - It is fun and uses mechanics from other social media: students can create an avatar (personalised evolving animation) when competing in the personal cycling competition, which changes according to their progress and (special) achievements; - Tips, best practices, and ideas for fun challenges are released from time to time; - Students can make movies to present their school, city or activities 1 ; - They are doing something good for the environment and for their body at the same time; - They help make their school surroundings safer by lowering the number of cars coming to school; - And many more (the school s Youth Travel Ambassador team can think of other incentives to get their classmates to sign up for the Cycle Challenge and to make them more active.) Timing of the Cycle Challenge There are preferred playing dates for the Cycle Challenge, in order to benefit as much as possible from the (inter)national competition element. The more schools play the Cycle Challenge at the same time, the more interesting the rankings become and the more the pupils will be motivated to do well. 1 The rules for these short videos will be based on the Ecotrip Campaign from the European project CONNECT. (see toolkit Secondary schools) Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 11

12 In addition, certain schools might have only few students participating, thus relying mostly on the competition element between schools and between countries. There are several preferred starting dates, in order to give schools a choice. One round is in March and another round in May. They have been selected taking holidays and exam periods into account (this information was provided by the STARS partners). STARS Advisors should encourage schools to select one of the starting dates in the list below. However, if schools have significant and relevant objections, the STARS advisor should remain flexible. A requirement is that a school plays 4 weeks in a row, starting on a Monday. If there are one or two bank holiday(s) during this period, the school will still play for 4 weeks, minus this/these day(s). In the students Cycle Challenge online profile there is an option to check the box "not travelled" on those days (or if they are ill) and their points will be calculated relative to the number of days that they have played. The preferred starting dates: Monday 10 March 2014 (playing time: week 11-15) Monday 17 March 2014 (playing time: week 12-16) Monday 28 April 2014 (playing time: week 18-22) Monday 5 May 2014 (playing time: week 19-23) Monday 12 May 2014 (playing time: week 20-24) Monday 19 May 2014 (playing time: week 21-25) Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 12

13 3 Information for STARS Advisors 3.1 Overview of tasks for STARS Advisors An overview of tasks for STARS Advisors is listed below, which they will need to perform in order to successfully guide their schools through the YTAS. Each task is further explained in Sections 3.2 to Preparatory activities o Set timelines, parameters, requirements, and targets for schools in your city o Attend the training workshop (24-25 September 2013, Den Bosch, NL) o Translate all materials o Produce a list of ideas, tips and potential activities that fit the context of the schools in your city - Recruit schools o Approach schools o Engage schools - Recruit students - Organise the Local Workshop - Guidance, training and planning o Familiarise yourself with the STARS and Cycle Challenge websites o Familiarise yourself with the reporting templates to use in schools o Prepare an agenda and some activities for your meetings with the Youth Travel Ambassadors (see the YTAS toolkit for inspiration) o Have a start-up meeting with the Youth Travel Ambassadors o Provide the Youth Travel Ambassadors with the skills and inspiration needed to survey their classmates travel behaviour and to guide them through the survey process o Provide the Youth Travel Ambassadors with the skills and inspiration needed to promote the Cycle Challenge and design campaign activities to promote cycling and active travel o Inform the Youth Travel Ambassadors of the preferred playing dates of the Cycle Challenge (see par ) - Campaign implementation o Provide the Youth Travel Ambassadors with support in the implementation of the Cycle Challenge and the other campaign activities - Wrap-up o Monitor the effect of the project on travel behaviour and evaluate the students collaboration process and campaign activities o Celebrate and create a lasting memory o Define the lessons learned o Report on evaluation results Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 13

14 3.1.1 The YTAS in 10 steps 1. Schools are informed about STARS Europe 2. Schools take part in a local workshop 3. Schools sign a Letter of Commitment 4. Schools are assigned a STARS Advisor and appoint a STARS Champion 5. Schools set up a Youth Travel Ambassador group 6. Youth Travel Ambassadors regularly meet with STARS Advisor and STARS Champion 7. Youth Travel Ambassadors survey students' travel behaviour 8. Youth Travel Ambassadors conduct awareness-raising activities for cycling and other sustainable modes 9. Schools participate in the Cycle Challenge 10. Youth Travel Ambassadors, STARS Advisor and STARS Champion evaluate the project Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 14

15 3.1.2 Timing Tasks to be carried out by the Youth Travel Ambassadors, with support from the STARS Advisor and STARS Champion, are marked with an *. Timing Task Sep Setting timelines, parameters, requirements, and targets for schools in your city (only Year 1) STARS training workshop (only Year 1: September 2013, Den Bosch, NL) Translate all materials (only Year 1) Produce a list of ideas, tips and potential activities that fit the context of the schools in your city Sep Oct Recruitment of schools Signing Letters of Commitment Recruitment of Youth Travel Ambassadors Local Workshop Oct Nov Mar Mar May May June Start-up meeting with Youth Travel Ambassadors Training and inspiration Survey current travel behaviour* Prepare Cycle Challenge and other campaign activities* Implement Cycle Challenge and other campaign activities* Monitor behaviour change* Celebration and lasting memory* Evaluation meeting* Report Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 15

16 3.2 Preparatory activities Timelines, parameters, requirements, and targets The timeline, parameters, requirements and targets are part of the Local Implementation Plan (see Annex 3), which outlines the programme that will be run locally, based on the following targets: Partner Schools targeted in YTAS Phase 1 (2013/2014) Schools targeted in YTAS Phase 2 (2014/2015) Bielefeld TOTAL Brussels Capital Region (through Mobiel 21) Budapest Edinburgh Hackney Krakow Madrid Milan Noord Brabant Total STARS Advisor Training Workshop The training workshop for STARS Advisors will be held on September 2013 in conjunction with PMG2 in s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Translation of materials Each partner will decide which materials need to be translated to their own language (e.g. documents for schools Yes; documents for STARS Advisors No) Tips, ideas, and potential activities The STARS Advisors will receive a useful toolkit as a source of inspiration to conduct the meetings with the Youth Travel Ambassadors in a playful and interactive way and to ensure the students ongoing participation. STARS Advisors can use this toolkit to prepare the meetings with the Youth Travel Ambassadors and to give them inspiration for campaign activities. They can also think of new activities that are suitable for the schools in their city. These will be shared with other STARS cities Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 16

17 during STARS project meetings and added to the final STARS Guidance materials, which will be available for other schools in Europe to use after the end of the project. 3.3 Recruiting schools Targeting the schools identified in their implementation plans, partner cities and/or their STARS Advisors will begin an initial recruitment process. This will consist of two phases. Phase 1: Approach The STARS Advisors will contact the schools and engage with teachers to explain the YTAS, its benefits, and the support offered by the local authority. We suggest that as a start, cities should target quick win schools that are more likely to participate in the programme during Phase 1, i.e. those with which the local authorities already have an existing relationship or which already carry out initiatives relating to sustainable travel or environmental issues. After the initial phase of the programme, it will be easier to get other schools involved. During the recruitment process, the STARS Advisors will provide a project plan for proposed activities during the school year. Phase 2: Engagement Once the schools have expressed interest in the programme, they will sign a Letter of Commitment to confirm their participation (see Annex 4). After securing school engagement and buy-in to the scheme, the STARS Advisors should ensure the school identifies a teacher to be responsible for supporting the scheme and the students the STARS Champion. The STARS Advisors will work with the STARS Champions to perform a background analysis of the school and set up an engaging and appropriate recruitment process for the Youth Travel Ambassadors. Guidance will be provided in the YTAS toolkit with enough flexibility to make it suitable for the specific circumstances of each school. In this stage, the STARS Advisors can explore if there are any potential synergies with the regular school curriculum (e.g. courses where research or campaigning skills are taught). Timing The recruitment process should start in the last term of the preceding school year and schools should confirm their participation by September. In order to get 10 schools to commit to taking part in the programme, a greater number needs to be approached (approximately a 3:1 ratio of approach to participation). In addition, as secondary schools tend to be much bigger than primary schools, there are often more people that need to be involved from the school, therefore resulting in more approach meetings required, and more time spent recruiting the schools. By targeting quick win schools in the first YTAS year, each partner city should be able to build up a group of schools participating in the programme, which will enable the collection of best practices and evidence of modal shift to recruit new schools in Year 2. It is preferable that schools participating in Year 1 are carried forward into Year 2 to ensure sustained impact. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 17

18 3.4 Recruiting students The Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme can start as a new initiative or build on existing youth groups set up in the schools (e.g. School Parliaments). The STARS Advisor should organise an information session in collaboration with the school s STARS Champion to give students details about the programme and what is expected of the Youth Travel Ambassadors. There should be a core group of Youth Travel Ambassadors that stay on the team throughout the school year. In order to have a recognisable impact in the school and to limit the workload for the students, the core group should not be too small, nor should it be too large, otherwise it becomes quite difficult to ensure the meetings are fully interactive and to keep all students actively involved. The ideal number of Youth Travel Ambassadors is probably between five to eight. If the group is bigger, it might be best to create subgroups for certain tasks. In a later stage, they can recruit other students to assist them on certain tasks (e.g. carrying out the surveys, organising awareness-raising activities, etc.). Each Youth Travel Ambassador should (co-)organise at least one activity during the school year. 3.5 Local Workshop Each city will organise a local workshop, which will bring together the STARS Advisors who will be responsible for coordinating the STARS activities, as well as representatives from the participating schools (headmasters, teachers, students) and other stakeholders (police, local authorities, etc.). A detailed presentation will be given about the project at the workshop, however, schools that are unable to attend or are not early adopters will be briefed by the STARS Advisor at the school s kickoff meeting. The workshop may be held in conjunction with other related events. Organisation 1. Set a date 2. Book a room 3. Decide on the agenda 4. Invite the schools 5. Order catering (coffee, refreshments, snacks, biscuits, etc.) 6. Book equipment for the meeting room (if not already there) 7. Prepare workshop content 8. Compile a participant information pack 9. Hold the workshop 10. Write up the evaluation in the Local Workshop Report Content Local Workshop PowerPoint presentation Participant information pack - STARS leaflet - PowerPoint of the meeting with agenda - Additional information on actions or activities tailor-made to each city and local context Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 18

19 Output - Quick and easy workshop evaluation questionnaire - Local Workshop Report (See Annex 2 for template) - Photos 3.6 Guidance, training and planning The next step is to provide guidance and training to the students who have been recruited to give them the skills and resources needed to survey their classmates travel behaviour and deliver their Cycle Challenge campaign along with any other campaigns that they come up with. Generally this process starts in the first term of the school year (October-November) and continues during the second and third terms (until May). The STARS Advisor will visit each school during this period once a week or every other week for an hour: either during the lunch break, after school or during lesson times (whatever is agreed with the school). The key to the success of the scheme will be empowering the students to take ownership of the programme and to independently implement their campaigns. The result will be a structured, youthled scheme where student teams design and run their own campaigns, aimed at their peers to champion sustainability, personal and road safety, and active travel in the community. The programme is flexible enough to ensure that YTAS can fit closely with the school s priorities. Students will be provided with the following: Training for surveying current travel behaviour and issues at their school Resources to enable them to do it, such as survey templates, guidance, and tips Examples of how to plan, develop and deliver a campaign, including examples of awarenessraising activities from different European countries Skills in monitoring behaviour change and reporting Examples of activities to deliver these skills and resources can be found in the YTAS toolkit. STARS Advisors will need to keep records of the process using the templates in Annexes 5 (Attendance list) and 7 (Activity Plan to be completed by the STARS Champion and Youth Travel Ambassadors). Schools will have the opportunity to track their progress online. The students (or the STARS Advisor) should take minutes at every meeting and write up a short summary of the main decisions made Start-up meeting The first meeting with the Youth Travel Ambassadors will cover the following topics: Getting to know each other Exploring the topic of sustainable mobility and active travel Giving a rough outline of the project planning throughout the school year and scheduling the meetings for the first term Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 19

20 Opportunities Skills Activities D2.5 Peer-to-peer Guidance Making an agreement on what is expected of the Youth Travel Ambassadors, the STARS Advisor and the STARS Champion Planning Good, realistic planning is essential for the activities to gain momentum. The Youth Travel Ambassadors will need to prepare an action plan for promoting and managing the Cycle Challenge and any other campaign activities they come up with, while keeping track of progress and success. The key to successful planning is to keep it simple and choose a range of activities and games that best meet students needs. For example: Transport for London has had good experiences running the scheme below. Important steps in planning are taken in the autumn period. Key elements of the programme are the first communications about it, asking for ideas and feedback, setting the targets, and making a plan. Autumn/Winter Spring Summer Raising awareness of local travel issues, drawing inspiration from each other, and conducting research which allows them to determine which issues are most important in the area. Gaining knowledge of issues Developing research and communications skills The teams explore issues and decide which to focus on. Analysis of issues, consensus building, relationship building The team will prepare a project plan for presentation (to a panel). Evidencing need and impact, setting objectives, budgeting, analysing risks, and scheduling activities. Young people develop determination and resilience in carrying out their project, by overcoming potential hurdles. Creative problem solving, determination, resilience. The team take part in a reflection and short evaluation report. Self-reflection and exemplifying skills. The teams come together to celebrate their success and empower them to shape the world around them! Celebrating and planning future steps. Meeting with experts, police, and local council officers, to help identify the issues. Trips out depending on what the campaign involves. Panel feedback on the team s ideas. Expert support at workshops. Trips out to observe the issue(s) first hand and conduct interviews. Trips out to measure impact. Experts and stakeholders to be invited to the local celebration event. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 20

21 3.6.3 Travel Behaviour Survey Using the YTAS toolkit, the STARS Advisor holds one or two interactive meetings with the Youth Travel Ambassadors to familiarise them with the topic of travel behaviour research. In a subsequent meeting, the students design a survey which they will carry out independently, using the templates in Annexes 6 and 7. The survey can make use of the Cycle Challenge website, by asking students to register and complete their profile with their baseline travel habits. A last meeting is dedicated to processing the results Campaign activities In order to promote cycling and active travel, the Youth Travel Ambassadors will think of fun and appealing activities, such as bike workshops, photo contests, poster campaigns, social media activities, neighbourhood bike events, etc. The YTAS toolkit will contain a wide range of examples from all over Europe, which they can use or adapt. The Cycle Challenge will provide the background for all campaign activities. It will: Facilitate monitoring of changes in travel behaviour resulting from the YTAS programme,reward students for their efforts through a points system and rankings on a league table Showcase the schools achievements and efforts to become a champion cycling school Potentially give students the opportunity to represent their school as part of a delegation at the STARS final conference One of the Youth Travel Ambassadors tasks will be to promote the Cycle Challenge, to keep it going, and to monitor its progress School-wide involvement Student participation does not need to be limited to the selected group of Youth Travel Ambassadors. One way of selecting the activities that will be part of the Youth Travel Ambassadors action plan is to set up a pitch, where students can present their ideas and let a jury select the winners. The jury could consist of classmates, the STARS Advisor, the STARS Champion, school staff members and/or local transport or community experts. If feasible, one jury event could be organised for all participating schools in the city. Once the winning ideas have been selected, other students can assist the Youth Travel Ambassadors in organising the activities. 3.7 Implementation of the Cycle Challenge and other campaign activities The STARS Advisors will manage the administration of the Cycle Challenge together with the Youth Travel Ambassadors. For the selection of a suitable date, see paragraph Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 21

22 In order to carry out the activities planned in the action plan, the Youth Travel Ambassadors can be offered practical assistance, materials or tips by the teacher and parent association, the school board, or other local experts and organisations. It would be ideal to have a budget available from the school or a sponsor, but that will not always be possible, and the programme does not depend on it. For this stage, the level of assistance offered by the STARS Advisor will depend on the activities chosen, but as a general rule, they will visit the school once every two weeks. A meeting can be held between the Youth Travel Ambassadors of all STARS schools in the city so they can showcase their work to other schools, meet other Youth Travel Ambassadors, and share ideas and best practices for the future. On the Cycle Challenge website a short guide on exactly how to play the game, how to fill in the travel data and other (potential) questions will be available (for both the Youth Travel Ambassador and the STARS Advisor to use). 3.8 Wrap-up It is very important to begin wrapping up the project in time, in order to respect the school s exam period. Make sure that all Youth Travel Ambassador activities end at least one week before the start of the exams. Discuss the need for the school to review your report and the availability of the STARS Champion to do so. Evaluation The Youth Travel Ambassadors will evaluate their project with the support of the STARS Advisor and STARS Champion. The evaluation consists of two pillars: Impact on travel behaviour: If all students participate in the Cycle Challenge, the website will measure changes in participants travel behaviour, which will give insight into the effectiveness of the Cycle Challenge campaign and related activities. It will also be possible to have follow-up measurements in the next school year by asking all students who previously participated to update their profile and travel habits to check if the campaign activities have had a lasting effect on their travel behaviour. To evaluate the impact of other YTAS activities, a follow-up travel behaviour survey (see Annexes 6 and 7) should be launched to evaluate behaviour change at the school level. Process evaluation: The Youth Travel Ambassadors will evaluate the meetings they had with the STARS Advisor and STARS Champion, their internal cooperation as a team, and the activities they organised. In the last case, a short survey could be conducted among classmates to get feedback from external parties. The team will summarise the information of the evaluation into a set of lessons learned. Again, inspiration can be drawn from the YTAS toolkit. It is best to evaluate each campaign activity right after it was held, so that the only task left to do after the end of the Cycle Challenge is to analyse the travel data from the website; evaluate the collaboration process between the Youth Travel Ambassadors, the STARS Champion and the STARS Advisor; and gather the lessons learned from the YTAS programme. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 22

23 The YTAS is a youth-led scheme, where students take ownership of the programme, and that includes the evaluation of their activities. Schedule a meeting to train the Youth Travel Ambassadors to analyse the CC data (outcome) and evaluate their collaboration (process). Schedule another meeting to discuss the analysis of the CC data and to draft the lessons learned. If you decide to conduct a survey among fellow students to evaluate certain aspects of the campaign, then make sure that the Cycle Challenge ends approximately one month before the start of the exam period and that the questionnaire is ready to be launched right after the end of the Cycle Challenge. Celebration At the end of the school year, the programme should close with a final event or awards ceremony, either within a single school or across schools, which will be organised by the STARS Advisor(s). Giving young people an opportunity to have their achievements recognised at an event helps them to see they can make a positive impact in their (peer-to-peer) community. This acts as motivation for them to stay involved in future years and continue to make a difference in their community. It also enables them to learn from other teams at the event and create more ambitious projects as they continue on their journey as Youth Travel Ambassadors. Talk about the timing of this event with the Youth Travel Ambassadors and STARS Champion well in advance. It could be part of the programme for the final day(s) of the school year after the exam period is over. Report During the YTAS process, the STARS Advisor keeps a record of the progress in their schools, using the templates in Annex 8 (Activity Plan to be completed by the STARS Champion and Youth Travel Ambassadors). You can use the exam period and summer holidays to put all the evaluation data together in a school report and to add your own lessons learned as a STARS Advisor. You will also make a case study report for each school as inspiration for other practitioners and schools (see Annex 9). All schools should receive the final versions of the school and case study reports after the summer holidays. Overview of all reports to be handed over to the STARS Partners - School background analysis (Annex 1) - Local Workshop Report (Annex 2) - Local Accreditation Implementation Plans (Annex 3) - Letters of Commitment (Annex 4) - Youth Travel Ambassador meeting Attendance list (Annex 5) - Hands Up Survey for pupils (Annex 6) - Staff Travel Behaviour Survey (Annex 7) - Local Activity Plans for each participating school annually (Annex 8) - Annual reporting and case studies (Annex 9) - Evaluation process questionnaire (Annex 10) Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 23

24 Annex 1: Background Analysis City Background information (1½ - 3 pages) City General data City mobility General mobility strategies Inhabitants, surface, density, topography, economy, main description, specific issues relevant for STARS approach General description of the city mobility ( infrastructures, speed regulation, safety, traffic and parking policies, congestion, availability and quality of PT or traffic calming initiatives. Explaining specially the weight of active modes, and specifically the role of cycling within the city mobility. Data about transport offer and demand. Modal share and trends in modal shifts Plans, programmes, innovative projects and best practices, stakeholders involved in city mobility planning, management or evaluation, awareness-raising campaigns and projects, etc. Schools data Number of Primary and Secondary schools, management of the different scholar and extra scholar issues, collaboration city schools, especially in mobility planning and management. Background in STARS methods Methods for data collection Indicators measured periodically, direct measurements, existing transport models, citizen polls and surveys Web information to support evidence. Programme objectives (background, main goals and objectives max ½ page) Feasibility of STARS objectives ( barriers, drivers,..) Possible improvements of organization, process, coherence, feedback, learning, etc. Attention for future developments, more risky activities, new partners, new business models Expected contribution to mobility changes within the city Any other relevant issues for STARS I.e. Debate about autonomy of children Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 24

25 1. School Background information Overview of schools School Name Type of school (primary or secondary) Age range of pupils Number of pupils Number of pupils participating in STARS Mode share (per school or if not available, per city) School Name Walking Cycling Public transport Other sustainable modes Car Other nonsustainable modes Timetable of scholar or extra-scholar activities School Name Beginning of classes End classes of Extra scholar Activities Coming back home to Week end activities Other comments Assessment of current situation Site conditions characteristics of the area, availability of PT, congestion, accident hotspots, accessibility, entrance, parking for bicycles, parking for cars, awareness-raising campaigns and projects, etc. Policy analysis School walking, cycling, parking, PT, pick-up and drop-off points, arrival and dismissal policies, previous experiences, curricular experiences, etc. Current interest of schools (per school) Existing attitude in the school, needs and wishes, interest of teachers and direction, participation of parents, why participating in STARS, etc. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 25

26 Annex 2: Local Workshop Report Date Location Initiator < Name of organisation and person responsible> Participants Name School Role <Attach signed attendance list> Agenda <attach the agenda if an agenda is available> Output/ results <Main questions, comments, feedback, level of enthusiasm, number of schools willing to participate, etc. > Evaluation sheet < comments, satisfaction levels, suggestions, things to improve or change, etc. > Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 26

27 Annex 3: Local YTAS Implementation Plans Each city produces a local YTAS Implementation Plan that lists the all schools that are recruited and the tasks that will be / have been carried out. Please fill out the Implementation Plan template below so, that there is information on each participating school City Name school Name & organisation STARS Advisor Kick-off date Planned Cycle Challenge dates (4-week period) <start date> - <end date> Targets Number of students Number of classes Number of staff Progress Give an overview of meetings (past and future) Describe the activities that are planned Describe the involvement of stakeholders Give overview of dissemination activities planned Give overview of evaluation activities planned Additional information Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 27

28 Annex 4: Letter of Commitment School name Address Postcode Municipality School phone number School address School website STARS Champion STARS Champion phone number STARS Champion address By signing below, I declare on behalf of our school that the school will participate in the STARS project for a minimum of one school year. In that period, we will commit ourselves to Recruiting a group of Youth Travel Ambassadors from amongst the students, who will organise and conduct a Cycle Challenge campaign and other promotional activities to increase the number of students who cycle to school and the frequency of cycling. Appointing a teacher as STARS Champion to support the Youth Travel Ambassadors in their activities, attend their meetings, and ensure a good flow of communications between the Youth Travel Ambassadors, school management and the STARS Advisor. Offer practical support to the Youth Travel Ambassadors initiatives as needed and when feasible. In order to achieve the STARS goals, the Youth Travel Ambassadors will receive regular visits from the STARS Advisor and customised support when needed. Principal s Name Date Principal s signature Please send the Letter of Commitment to your STARS Advisor <Name> <Address> <Municipality> <Postcode> <Phone number> < address> Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 28

29 Annex 5: Youth Travel Ambassador Meetings Attendance List City: School: School year: Name Meeting 1 <date> Meeting 2 <date> Meeting 3 <date> Meeting 4 <date> Meeting 5 <date> Meeting 6 <date> Meeting 7 <date> STARS Advisor STARS Champion <name Ambassador> <name Ambassador> x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 29

30 Annex 6: Hands-Up Survey for Students Guidance on data collection Completion of a School Travel Survey is an essential requirement for knowing the levels of cycling and active travel in your school. It will also allow you to assess the effects of your campaign activities on your classmates travel behaviour. The School Travel Survey should be conducted annually and comprise the whole school (i.e. all classes). Instead of organising a hands-up survey, you can make use of the Cycle Challenge website, by asking the students to register and complete their profile with their baseline travel habits. In order for this method to yield reliable results, all students in your school need to register and fill in their profile. Try to arrange with the teachers that the registration process takes place during one of the regular classes. The school s data should be collected by the Youth Travel Ambassadors as follows: 1. The school s STARS Champion prints the class travel survey for each class along with the guidance on how to conduct the survey. 2. The STARS Champion distributes the survey to the teachers, who then conduct the class survey. They must return completed forms to the STARS Champion or one of the Youth Travel Ambassadors. Alternatively, the Youth Travel Ambassadors ask for permission to go and conduct the survey themselves in all classes. 3. The Youth Travel Ambassadors check that all class surveys have been returned, that they are both complete and accurate, and then enter the results on the STARS / Cycle Challenge website. Instructions to teachers and Youth Travel Ambassadors on how to conduct a Class Travel Survey Teacher Class Number of students Please carry out this survey on a normal school day, i.e. when most students are in class. All students should be surveyed. If any students are absent, fill in their mode of travel the next time they attend class. Peer-to-Peer Engagement Guidelines 30