By Mikayla van Loon
Building up confidence on the roads as a learner is challenging enough but for some young people even having access to a vehicle or licensed driver means getting those hours is difficult.
The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) funded L2P Program matches learner drivers with a licensed mentor to help them gain confidence and increase their hours ready to take their driving test.
Yarra Ranges Council’s L2P project officer Steve D’Abico said the program has been running in the Shire since 2010 but in 2019 it was expanded with a funding boost to help more people.
But with the onset of the pandemic, the program was significantly reduced and some volunteers have not returned to mentor these drivers in need.
“We were impacted quite negatively with the lockdown. During those times where people might have been able to drive with their parents, for people in our program, obviously, they might not have been able to,” Mr D’Abico said.
“So for a lot of our young people, they weren’t able to drive for almost two years. As we came in and out of lockdowns, some volunteers chose it was time to move on and retire, which is great, they put in an excellent time of service that they supported the program and helped us get through.
“There’s a big demand there from learners in the program and we want to try and be able to meet that demand with the amount of volunteers that we have.”
Mr D’Abico said usually the program likes to have 40 or more mentors but currently there’s only 20 with a wait list of 60 learners wanting to take part in the program.
“There’s always a need in the Yarra Ranges, with four major population hubs. We want to try and be able to service each hub,” he said.
“40 people, it’s not a huge number when we’ve got 20,000 young people in the community and of those 20,000 young people, there’s definitely a percentage that would need a program like this.”
Mentors are paired with learner drivers, to help create and build a relationship, something Mr D’Abico said not only helps with the driving but also in other areas of life.
Many people come from various backgrounds and with different challenges, including limited financial means, being at risk of homelessness or supporting their own children.
“The program supports learners who either don’t have access to a vehicle or to a person that can supervise their driving, or maybe has other barriers that are limiting their ability to get the hours up for their licence, by connecting them with volunteers,” he said.
“[It helps] them so they can build that practice and get their licence to move on to employment or work or study or different things in different spaces.”
Volunteers interested in the program and mentoring young drivers are encouraged to apply via the yarraranges.vic.gov.au/L2P website. Mentors need to be fully licensed and have available time.
Qualified driving instructors who would be interested in taking part in the program are also urged to contact the L2P Program staff at L2P@yarraranges.vic.gov.au
