What is the Use It or Lose It high school challenge?

With the support of a grant from Kohl’s Cares for Kids, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital has designed Use It or Lose It to increase teens’ seat belt use in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.  Schools compete in raising safety belt use rates and designing peer messaging, with the chance to win money for your school and cool prizes for students.  In building school spirit around the call for buckling up, Use It or Lose It capitalizes on the fact that the majority of teens do buckle up regularly and puts social pressure on those who do not.

How does Use It or Lose It work?

The Use It or Lose It challenge is an education and outreach program that runs from April 20 through May 3, 2009, and is open to any high school in Cuyahoga County.  Schools compete against each other to have the highest proportion of teens buckled up as they leave or enter the school grounds, based on counts held at the beginning and end of the program.  In order to win the Use It or Lose It challenge and triumph over the other schools that participate, your school needs to work hard to get the message out to students and build school spirit around the issue.  The schools with the highest overall belt use rate and the most improved belt use rate at the end of the contest each win $500.

Download the 2009 Use It or Lose It Challenge Handbook 

In addition to the competition for highest belt use, classes or individual students in participating schools also can choose to enter any or all of the three creative messaging contests:  creating a public service announcement, song/rap, or billboard art that promotes teen seat belt use and responsible driving.