The idea for Impact Teen Drivers was conceived by Jon Hamm, CEO for the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP), in response to the high frequency of crashes involving teens to which California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers respond.
CHP officers consistently report the worst part of their job is coming onto a scene where a young person has needlessly lost his or her life and subsequently having to ring a doorbell to tell parents that they will never again see their child alive.
The devastating impact of these fatal crashes on the teens involved, their families, communities, law enforcement officers, and first responders, motivated the CAHP to work with one of its long-time partners, California Casualty, and later, the California Teachers Association (CTA) to create a powerful intervention designed to alter these grim statistics.
In mid-2007, these three organizations formed a unique partnership to create the 501 (c)(3) charitable organization that is now known as Impact Teen Drivers. Impact Teen Drivers was organized for the purpose of providing awareness and education to teenagers, their parents, and community members about all facets of responsible driving, with the goal of reducing the number of injuries and deaths suffered by teens as a result of distracted driving and poor decision making.
Since our creation, Impact Teen Drivers has been actively planning, developing, and delivering awareness. This has been done through educational materials and programs on teen safe driving with emphasis on the dangers of distracted and reckless driving. Impact Teen Drivers started out as a California-based program that partnered with the California Highway Patrol to deliver the teen safe driving message to California high schools, and has developed into a nationally respected program working with various first responders, educators, health professionals, and traffic safety advocates throughout the United States.
During our first two campaign years, free classroom materials (posters, DVDs, stickers, statistics, etc.) and t-shirts were sent to every public high school in California, reaching over one million California high school students.
The Impact Teen Drivers program received such a positive response from teens, educators, law enforcement agencies, parents, and community members that during the 2009/10 school year the program expanded into 27 states.
We believe that peer-to-peer-led projects can help motivate teens to make smart choices that save lives. In the fall of 2009 Impact Teen Drivers announced the Create Real Impact contest.
The Create Real Impact contest challenges teens to creatively represent the teen safe driving message through multiple formats (video, music, art, and writing). Part of the judging for the projects is done online driving teens and community members to our website to vote for their favorite project while learning more about teen safe driving.