Alive At 25

Cheryl Sutton (President, The Joshua Project), and I attended a class given by Waubaunsee Community College entitled Alive at 25. Its goal is to teach young drivers how to drive more safely, and to try to instill in them the idea that all choices have consequences.

The Alive at 25 concept began in Colorodo and is supported by the National Safety Council. In Kane County, the class is given as part of a requirment of probation to youths that have received a speeding or other traffic violation.

The class is 4 hours and helps students identify the seriousness of their actions and lets young drivers know that there are consequences to any action and that it makes good sense to think about how you will conduct yourself, and your passengers, while behind the wheel of a car. The program also delves into driving while under the influence, and pictures are show of various auto accidents that were caused by alcohol, drugs, and also just taking your eyes off the road due to distraction.

The class we attended was taught by John Sizer, a 32 year verteran of the police force, now working in Sugar Grove as the lead crash investagator. The car crash examples he shared in class were examples of crashes he had personally been involved with in his investigations. According to John, since its introduction, the class has reduced the number of fatal crashes by young drivers by as much as 20 - 30%.

The Joshua Project got involved when a friend told Cheryl that Josh Sutton's accident was used as an example.

The Alive At 25 program is currently being given as a result of a traffic violation (usually speeding) but Waubaunsee Community College would like to start giving the class as part of the driver's education curriculum at the schools around the area. Kaneland High School has already made this class mandatory for all driver education students.

This class teaches all of the things The Joshua Project is about: self responsibility; that there are consequences for your actions; and also not to drink and drive. The Joshua Project is currenlty looking at ways to try to get involved to give this class more exposure, and to get more schools to give this class as part of the curriculum for driver's education classes, and to try and make this more proactive and teach kids these things before they get into an accident, or recieve a traffic violation. We will keep you updated on our progress. In the meantime, I have put a link to the Alive at 25 web page on the right.