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letters Support Ministry of Justice funds Resilience Programme WE are delighted to announce that our Resilience Building Support Programme is to be continued. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has agreed to fund the programme for those bereaved in London and the Home Counties where a driver is being prosecuted for causing the fatal crash. This programme will be run in Autumn 2010 and we will spend the next months publicising the programme among the police forces involved (Met Police, Surrey, Thames Valley, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire) and training additional therapists. The Resilience programme was successfully piloted in Autumn 2009 with funding from Awards for All. RoadPeace Patron, Noreen Tehrani, devised this programme, based on what had been developed for victims of natural disasters. The six week support programme involves developing bereavement coping skills, rather than counselling or one-to-one support. Another key feature to the programme is the contact with others who have experienced similar tragedies. This has proved to be very important. Most of the participants are still in touch with one another, three couples meet regularly at the weekend and share Sunday lunches. The trauma techniques were appreciated, and different tools suited different people, but the group support was deemed as invaluable: “We have made lifelong friends as a result of these meetings and are helping each other through the darkest of days”. Fifteen people participated in the pilot and the Met Police attended the final session to hear their feedback. They supported our proposal to the MOJ and Transport for London has kindly agreed to host the support programme again in their offices at St James Park, Central London. We are actively seeking further funding to continue this programme in London and to expand to other regions. But if you know of any national or local grant-making trusts that would be interested in funding an initiative like this please let us know. ■ National Victims Service THE National Victims Service was launched in January. The government have linked up with Victim Support to deliver the service. The first stage is concentrating on victims of homicide – those bereaved through murder and manslaughter. RoadPeace has lobbied for victims of road crashes to be included in this category and from April 2010 those bereaved through criminal acts of driving will be eligible for support from this service. We are pleased that road crash victims are recognised as being in need of the same services as others bereaved suddenly and traumatically through no fault of their own. However we look forward to a day where all road crash victims receive acknowledgement and support to help cope with their loss. FLO survey ROADPEACE continues to work closely with Family Liaison Officers and is undertaking a survey of best practice in all 43 forces. This is giving us useful information on how different forces approach the investigation process and how deployment of FLOs varies from force to force – and it does! Ursula Saunders, RoadPeace Support Services Manager, took part in the Met Police’s annual FLO training day in February and spoke about the work of RoadPeace and the resilience building programme. New guides and translations WE have new guides for bereaved families and the summaries of our Road Death Investigation Manual for Bereaved families are now available in Polish, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati and Urdu. New Victims’ Commissioner JACK Straw has announced that Louise Casey will be the new Victims’ Commissioner. This is an independent role, building on the work done by Sara Payne, the Victims Champion, who produced a report at the end of last year. New helpline volunteers WE have a core of very dedicated helpline volunteers who provide emotional support and practical information to our callers. The Helpline is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. Helpline volunteers can be trained on a one-to-one basis and we have an annual training/update day in mid-July. If you are interested in being on our helpline, or coming back to the helpline, then do please get in touch. A few hours on a regular basis is always very much appreciated. ursula.saunders@roadpeace.org Barts and the London Bereavement Conference ROADPEACE has been invited to speak on ‘Unexpected Deaths’ at the 6th Annual Barts and the London NHS Trust Bereavement Conference in June. We had previously met bereavement officers at the Whitechapel Hospital who had been interested in our resilience work and RoadPeace’s in-depth perspective on the uniquely traumatic nature of a road death. 4 newsletter
Remembrance World Day of Remembrance THE date of the next World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is Sunday 21 November 2010. The theme of World Day of Remembrance activities around the world this year will be “remembering lives lost and broken”. This calls for recognition and reflection upon the many ways in which lives are cut short or severely hindered because of a road death or road injury. Every year over 30 services are held in cathedrals and churches throughout the UK and an increasing number of other nonreligious remembrance activities take place. We hear from many people who have attended or organised WDR activities and it is clear how much support and recognition this day brings. This is the 18th year of the World Day of Remembrance and we encourage you to think about ways in which you can take part. We are keen to expand the level of access to WDR activities to offer as many people as possible a variety of ways of remembering at a location near them. For many people there is of course a link between remembrance and religious services but people remember in many ways and we are keen that WDR includes non-religious events as well. Recent activities have included public health lectures, school activities, art exhibitions, concerts, marches and events held in prisons. We encourage you to engage your local emergency services, police family liaison officers, MP’s and road safety teams in World Day of Remembrance activities. Please let us know if you are planning an event this year. We also invite you to write a testimony reflecting a life that you know that has been lost or broken. This could be shared at a local event or sent to the London office addressed to Susanna Wright or by email to susanna.wright@roadpeace.org. ■ From left to right: Inspector Nick Semper, Debbie Roberts and Special Constable Bill Morris, West Mercia Constabulary, Hereford Division; Jackie Boys, Social Responsibility Officer, Hereford Diocese/RoadPeace facilitator; Sgt Tony Jones, West Mercia Constabulary, Hereford Division; Shelagh Callaghan, SR Projects Officer/RoadPeace facilitator; Bob Haynes, Traffic Management Advisor, West Mercia Constabulary, Hereford Division. RoadPeace Wood THIS year’s ceremony of remembrance at RoadPeace Wood will be held on Saturday 14 August at 2pm. RoadPeace Wood is at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire. The ceremony is open to all and will take place in the chapel and alongside the trees of RoadPeace Wood. If you would like to sponsor a tree in RoadPeace Wood please contact the National Memorial Arboretum directly (this takes about six weeks). (www.thenationalarboretum.org.uk) Internet Memorial Site WE hope to be launching a newly developed internet memorial site later this year. It will build on the existing model, which offers the opportunity to write and share memorials and testimonies, but it will have a greater capacity for personalised pages and links through to other remembrance and support activities. (www.roadpeace.org/remembering/internet_memorial) Roadside memorial policies AS part of the recent telephone survey with FLO’s we have been gathering information about the different policies that local authorities have for roadside memorials. Please let Ursula know if you have any concerns about your local roadside memorial policy or if you can add any information. ursula.saunders@ roadpeace.org or 020 7733 1603. spring 2010 5
Page 1 and 2: RoadPeace spring 2010 dangernewslet
Page 3: Letter Dear friends, WE are pleased
Page 7 and 8: Criminal prosecution Causing death
Page 9 and 10: Europe and beyond Europe and beyond
Page 11 and 12: Funds Fundraising We are pleased to

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