National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS)

After the initial coalition was brought together at the National Organizations for Youth Traffic Safety Collaboration Meeting in 1994, the team spent over a year establishing the goals and purpose of the collaboration. During the development of the goals and purpose, a steering committee worked with legal assistance to make sure that the goals and purpose reflected the framework and feasibility plan that had been established. Recently, these were reviewed by new members of the board of directors to ensure that they are still current and clear. While the review found that the framework is still meeting the needs of the growing coalition, it was suggested that policies related to social networking and the use of communication devices by employees while driving should be refined.

NOYS has developed close ongoing relationships with federal partners. While NHTSA helped to provide the initial spark for the collaboration of non-profit groups working around youth safety issues, NOYS continuously works with its federal partners including the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP) Office of Justice Programs, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), and NHTSA. Each of these organizations participates on the board of directors. NOYS relies on federal partners for content expertise and provides its federal partners with information and assistance on working with and engaging youth. For example, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and NOYS recently worked together to develop and host a poster contest for youth focused on drugged driving. Through this effort NOYS provided support for youth to develop informational youth-friendly poster ideas that ONDCP will use in the collateral materials for its Above the Influence campaign.

NOYS recognizes the need for its new members to learn about NOYS, the available resources, and the other member organizations. Twice a year new member orientations are held as part of the NOYS membership meetings to disseminate this information.

A yearly membership survey is sent to all NOYS members and is used to establish dates for the bi-annual membership conferences, find out about new programs and products, and collect information about newly released research. NOYS recognizes that it not only needs to provide information to its member organizations, but to gather information from the organizations that make up the collaboration.

NOYS encourages ongoing youth involvement and leadership by inviting youth to be involved in the membership meetings and involving at least four youth on the board of directors. NOYS also involves youth through a cross-age mentoring program where older youth work with younger youth within the collaboration. AlumNOYS offers an opportunity for former youth representatives to provide ongoing support and training to new representatives and to remain active and involved in NOYS even after they have graduated from high school.

NOYS works to involve partners with leadership experience. The board of directors includes leaders of national non-profit organizations and business leaders. These leaders are able to bring their expertise and knowledge to NOYS. For example, one board member helped to provide resources and expertise to overhaul and improve the NOYS website. See Collaboration Structure for more about the role of the board of directors.