The award-winning Ford Driving Skills for Life (Ford DSFL) program teaches teens the skills they need to be safe on the road. The program features a website, hands-on driving events and other materials focusing on the key skill areas of driver distraction, speed and space management, vehicle handling, and hazard recognition.
2021 Activities
In partnership with Ford Motor Company Fund, GHSA released a new report that examines the significant role speeding plays in teen driver fatalities and offers practical tools to help parents rein in this lethal driving habit. The report, Teens and Speeding: Breaking the Deadly Cycle, is the first look in recent years at the role speeding plays in teen driver deaths and incorporates recently released data that includes state-by-state statistics. In addition to the report, a series of infographics illustrate highlights.
To support recommendations in the Teens and Speeding: Breaking the Deadly Cycle report, the Ford Driving Skills for Life program will provide competitive grants totaling $100,000 to states.
2020 Activities
As the 2020 National Tour has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford DSFL is now offering more digital resources for novice drivers and their parents. In fact, they're bringing their training directly to your living room with "The Daily Drive Podcast," available on Facebook and YouTube. Episodes feature conversations with traffic safety experts, parents, teens, professional driving instructors and others discussing safety tips, campaign ideas, personal stories and more. GHSA's own Pam Fischer and Tim Burrows have been guests on the program.
For more information and to view past episodes, click here.
Due to concerns about COVID-19, the Ford Driving Skills for Life Teen Safe Driving Grants are delayed until 2021.
State Grants
Since 2008, Ford DSFL has been offering grants to State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) to support and develop teen safe driving programs in their respective states. To date, 30 states have been awarded a total of $1,000,000, and funds have supported everything from educational campaigns at state fairs to student video contests and hands-on instructional events.
Check out some completed Ford DSFL state grant projects:
In April of 2019, through a grant from Ford Driving Skills for Life (Ford DSFL) and GHSA, the Nebraska Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office (NDOT-HSO) educated 16 teen drivers about the importance of safe driving.
Through a grant from Ford Driving Skills for Life and GHSA, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission partnered with the Cascade Pacific Action Alliance's (CPAA's) Youth Marijuana Prevention and Education Program (YMPEP) for a campaign warning teens about the dangers of marijuana-impaired driving.
In 2018, Montana’s State Highway Traffic Safety Office (SHTSS) was awarded grants by both Ford Driving Skills for Life and The National Road Safety Foundation, Inc.'s partnerships with GHSA.