3M extends support of SR4S as Global Programme Partner for two more years

Building on an existing 3-year partnership supporting the SR4S vision of a world where children travel safely to and from school, 3M announced that it will continue to support SR4S as a Global Programme Partner for two additional years. The partnership began in 2020 and will now extend to 2025.

This extension will enable the SR4S programme to continue supporting partners in their efforts to improve safety around schools and the related partnerships with 3M teams globally. 3M’s contribution will help ensure SR4S tools remain free for use worldwide and are continuously improved. SR4S has been used to assess more than 1000 schools, with 359 of these being improved, providing safer school journeys to more than 300,000 students around the world.

“We are very pleased to partner with iRAP and together advance road safety globally,” said Dave Wilk, Vice President, 3M Transportation Safety. “Through the SR4S process and implementation of simple and effective treatments such as safe crossings, footpaths, line markings and signage, iRAP and Programme Lead Partners are making an impact on the lives of school children around the world.”

3M has been a champion for safety around schools and is an active member of the SR4S network. During the first year of the partnership with iRAP, team members from 3M in Latin-America were trained on the SR4S programme and how to structure and undertake school assessment projects with support from the tool. The trained team have become SR4S trainers and have been accredited as SR4S Quality Reviewers, now able to deliver support to governments and organisations worldwide on using the SR4S. This successful model is now ready to be replicated across 3M teams from the other continents where 3M works.

In 2022, 3M launched the “Global School Zone Program”, an initiative aimed to raise global awareness of the road dangers children face travelling to and from school. From this year to 2024, 3M aims to strengthen government commitment to improve infrastructure safety with its school zone transformations. Starting with 100 schools around the world, 3M´s “Global School Zone Campaign” seeks to execute interventions with science-driven innovations to make road improvements to help protect the lives of children and allow them to have access to education.

3M joined SR4S in 2020 as the first of five Global Programme Partners to support the SR4S Programme, along with the Founding Sponsor FedEx and Major Donor FIA Foundation. In 2023, Prudence Foundation announced their commitment as SR4S Global Programme Partner alongside 3M.