Belgrade, Serbia: On 17th and 18th July, iRAP’s Global Product Director James Bradford and EASST’s Donations and Project Coordinator Emily Carr partnered with representatives from AMSS, UAB, AMSM and SHAMD to train them in the use of the Star Rating for Schools App (SR4S).

Teams were trained in both the theory and the practical usage of the app in the field.

Training was part of a FIA small grant that will apply the Star Rating for Schools techniques across a number of schools in Serbia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The work is a partnership between the FIA clubs within these countries: AMSS Autoclub Serbia, Bulgarian Automobile Union (UAB), Auto – Moto Association of Macedonia (AMSM) and Shoqata Auto Moto Dardania (SHAMD).

Ten lead NGOs are facilitating global delivery and oversight of the Star Rating for Schools pilot, and data has been collected for more than 200 schools across five continents including trials in the USA, Vietnam, Uruguay, Jamaica, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico and Kenya.

The Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) is the latest NGO to join as a lead SR4S programme partner and will be important for providing support and expertise for road safety NGOs in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

EASST’s Donations and Project Coordinator Emily Carr said, “We are delighted to be a lead partner implementing SR4S.  The training demonstrated the App is a user-friendly tool to assess and evaluate safety around schools. EASST is excited to share it with our NGO Partners and to integrate it into our work to ensure a safe journey to school for every child.”

SR4S combines an easy-to-use android tablet app and a web-based global reporting application for processing and sharing results. The applications work together to harness the power of the iRAP Star Ratings to measure the risk children are exposed to on their journey to and from school.

The SR4S tool enables stakeholder groups and donors to apply the iRAP Pedestrian Star Rating in an easy to use and repeatable way. It provides an objective measure to assess the safety of school routes, guide investment, and benchmark and track safety performance over time.

With millions of schools worldwide, the low-cost app will enable leveraged resources and an evidence-based standard for safe school journeys that ultimately save lives.

For further information, visit www.starratingforschools.org and sign up to receive newsletter updates.