For 15 years volunteers across Geelong have dedicated tens of thousands of hours to helping young people get safely behind the wheel.
About 110 volunteers are registered with Geelong’s L2P program, which assists young people without access to a car or facing other barriers to driving to gain the on-road experience required for a probationary license.
Many of these volunteers, such as Finlay Sinclair, have given many hours of their time to the program.
Finlay earned recognition at the Geelong Youth Awards in June for devoting more than 700 hours to L2P over four years, helping 13 young people obtain their driver licence.
Described as compassionate, kind, patient and incredibly humble, Finlay epitomises the kind of people that volunteer for L2P.
Together, these volunteers provide about 480 hours of driving practice per month for an average of 85 active learners. This equates to almost 6000 driving hours a year.
But, with a wait list of 140 learners, the program’s coordinators are always looking for more volunteers.
And giving as little as one hour of your time each week can make a massive difference for a young person without access to a vehicle or supervising driver.
So, how does it work?
First, participating learners have access to several free driving lessons with a professional instructor to build their skills before getting in the car with their mentor.
Then, the L2P program matches eligible learners with their fully licensed volunteer mentor to help them gain the 120 hours of driving experience they need to obtain their licence.
L2P provides the car and pays for insurance, petrol and servicing, along with training for volunteers to ensure they’re well prepared to mentor their learner.
To be an L2P mentor, volunteers must:
be older than 21 years of age,
hold a current full Australian driver licence,
have a satisfactory driver license history report,
be medically fit to drive,
not currently work as a professional driving instructor, and
be able to commit at least one hour a week.
Volunteers will also need to provide a valid (volunteer) Working with Children’s Check and a satisfactory National Police Check as part of the application process.
Over the 15 years almost 550 young drivers have graduated the Geelong L2P program and obtained their probationary licence.
But the program is much more than that – we want to train drivers who are safe, not just to pass their licence test.
L2P is your chance to help make the next generation of young drivers safer, reducing the risk of harm on our roads for all of us.
And, like any form of volunteering, it feels great to help others.
So, if you are interested, please phone the City of Greater Geelong on 03 5272 5272 and ask for the L2P Project Officer or email l2p@geelongcity.vic.gov.au.
The L2P program is funded by the TAC, administered by the Department of Transport and coordinated by the City of Greater Geelong.
