Community Grants Portal

Overview The Government of Western Australia has made funds available from the Road Trauma Trust Account (RTTA) for community initiatives that assist in promoting road safety messages across the State. The Road Safety Community Grant Program supports the development and implementation of sustainable projects and one-off community activities related to road safety.

Project grants are available for groups to submit an application to implement road safety projects. These projects can run up to 12 months and should comprise of road safety activities that can be sustained after the funding period. The amount funded is based on the assessment of the application and is judged on individual merit. There are two Project grant rounds per year: January & July

Check out some of our successful projects below that include some great Road Safety Initiatives.

Surfing WA developed a simple and easily understood message: No Txt No Wrecks, which aimed to change driver behaviour, help reduce the number of people being killed or seriously injured due to driver distraction and above all getting the community to their chosen surf spot safely.

Some of the project inclusions:

• Driver Distraction Policy, implemented to change mobile phone use culture in Surfing WA
• A code of conduct to encourage the Surfing WA Board, staff, boardriding clubs and registered surf schools to adhere to the policy outlining safer driver practices
• Promotion of the NoTxt NoWrecks through a selection of influential high-profile surfing heroes demonstrating safer driving practices before setting out on their journey
• Implementation of a Safe Driver pledge/rewards programs at events
• Rewards program, to recognize people that demonsted safe driver practices.
• A safe driver competition-based sign up/tag us in and win surf related prizes to continually evaluate progress of the NoTxtNoWreck campaign project Leadership program
• PA Announcements at all Surfing WA events: Social Media - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and EDMs Events & on Beach Promotion. Event lock ups and signage, Promotional Items Ambassadors Print media Road Safety Partner Benefits

Surfing WA is very passionate about keeping the project at the forefront of their advocacy strategy, keeping members safe in and out of water, they value the importance of consistently promoting and activating the NoTxtNoWrecks project.

Surfing WA has established relationships with regional police and local government officers in Margaret River, Busselton, Dunsborough, Mandurah, Dongara and Geraldton. All parties recognise the project importance and support the message. Surfing WA is also opening up conversation with corporate partners to attract future support for the program to ensure it future sustainability

The Nannup town, has honoured the resilient Emu with a recent art installation of a 3m tall sculpture weighting approximately 650kg. With grant funding contributed by the Road Safety Commission, the Living with Emus project enabled the creation of a large emu sculpture from wrecked car parts. The sculpture has been permanently located at the main Trailhead for the new Nannup Tank 7 Mountain Bike Park.

Surrounded by 85% state forest, The Shire of Nannup residents are not far from tragedy as there are many road side emergencies and wildlife fatalities due to road collisions. Crash data collected over five years, until the end of 2019, found that 28.9% of crashes in the region involved an animal.

The Living with Emus project identified road trauma to generate discussions, myth bust, share facts and create an art piece that has meaning for the community. The sculpture aims to continue to create dialogue with locals and visitors in the region to increase road safety.

For more information on the project, visit: https://www.nannup.wa.gov.au/news/living-with-emus-art-sculpture-installation/10062

SOCK stands for ‘Save Our Country Kids’ and is a road safety initiative created by the Narembeen CRC.

It is a week long campaign of education on road safety and the impact poor decision making can have within a small community. SOCK Week is held annually in the last week of June and facilitates a number of activities and events that are designed to be informative as well as engaging. Activities held during the week remember those community members who have been lost in road accidents, as well as raising awareness, promoting safe, legal and responsible road use across several road safety messages, and is aimed at a broad cross-section of the community.

Some of the SOCK week activities conducted by the Shire in 2020 included:

• Creation of a dedicated webpage and suite of downloadable SOCK week resources & promotional materials
• The ‘Coffee Stop’ campaign with local businesses to give out SOCK branded reusable travel mugs to encourage travel breaks, swapping drivers and educating drivers about the warning signs of fatigue.
• A ‘Gopher Safety Talk’ followed by a morning tea for existing and potential future gopher drivers to share information about using local roads safely.
• ‘Wear a Road Safety Ribbon’ day saw local businesses handing out ribbons to customers to pin on their shirts and show their involvement in the SOCK campaign.
• A ‘Bike & Helmet Safety’ Day was conducted by SDERA at the local high school, involving students from Year 1 onwards.
• ‘Turn your headlights on’ for road safety day encouraged the community to keep headlights on during day time, to improve visibility and prevent crashes.
• ‘Fluro Friday’ encouraged community members and school kid to dress up in fluro and ‘be seen’. Surrounding towns also took part in this initiative and were ‘seen’ in photos all over social media.
• A candlelight gathering was held to remember the loved ones lost in road accidents, attended by first responders and the wider community. Candles were arranged to light up the word ‘SOCK’.

SOCK week enables strong and positive contributions for improvements in all four cornerstone areas of road safety; safe speeds, safe roads, safe road users and safe vehicles, with potential to reduce the risk of crashes.

The Shire of Narembeen and the Narembeen CRC welcome other communities touched by road accidents in their communities to come on board and implement SOCK Week in their communities. If your community would like to participate in SOCK Week, you can download the resources from the Shire of Narembeen website to display and share within your community, using the #SaveOurCountryKids hashtag.