Sarah Lewis - L2P Program

Sarah Lewis

The Guest Speaker for the night was Sarah Lewis who is the Project Officer for the L2P Program which is conducted by the City of Greater Geelong, and sponsored by the TAC and Vic Roads. The program was introduced into Victoria when the Graduated Licensing System came into effect in July 2007. This system was introduced to have all learner drivers under the age of 21, gain 120 hours of supervised
driving experience before obtaining their Probationary License.
Studies have found that with 120hrs of pre license driving experience, road accidents were reduced.
The L2P program has been set up in 5 Districts in Victoria as a community based volunteer program that would assist young disadvantaged learner drivers who have no contacts or facilities available to gain this learning/driving experience. Most learner drivers have their parents or friends that can provide the time and the car to allow them to gain this training.
The key to the program are the Mentors who volunteer their time to act as the supervising drivers and would normally spend 1 hour per week with the learners. At the present time there are 65 learners involved in the program with 40 supervising drivers.
A mentor Anne spoke of her experience as a supervising driver. She has been doing this now for the last 3 years, and after completing a 4 hour training course, finds it very interesting and rewarding.
A mentee Andy spoke of her experience as a learner, and enjoyed it as she had established a good relationship with her mentor. She said that she felt so proud when she completed the 120 hours experience.
Sarah, Anne and Andy were thanked for their presentations and then answered questions from the audience.

Gladie:

She was pleased to see everyone again and looking forward to her trip around Australia with her parents when they arrive this week. In September she is planning to commence a Degree course in psychiatry with the eventual aim of becoming a Doctor.

Heather Guidolin:

She told us that Ainsley has just moved in with her second Host Family and is enjoying the school experience. Heather did recall how Ainsley was motivated to pursue an opportunity to participate in the Rotary Student Exchange Program. She said it occurred when Ainsley attended a Rotary meeting when Mark Furlan addressed the meeting and told the members of his experiences whilst on exchange in Canada. She thought it was great and
decided to do it herself, and she did!.

Her family is being kept posted with regular reports on Facebook, and will be emailing us in the near future.