National Organizations for Youth Safety and Bentley Systems

Announce Your Voice, Your Action = Youth Infrastructure Safety Contest ^®

Washington, D.C. – June 22, 2023 – National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) today announced the Your Voice, Your Action = Youth Infrastructure Safety Contest, which encourages young people to identify a problem in their neighborhood that affects pedestrian safety and propose a solution to fix it. The contest, which is open to young people in the United States age 15 to 29, was developed by NOYS in partnership with Bentley Systems, Incorporated, (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company.

The Your Voice, Your Action = Youth Infrastructure Safety Contest aims to give young people in the United States a voice by hearing their opinions on what infrastructure improvements are needed in their neighborhoods to support safe walking, cycling, and equitable use of street spaces for all road users. The contest will be their space to assess the state of the local infrastructure and propose design alternatives, and justify how their proposal will lead to a more secure, environmentally friendly transportation system for all road users.

Jacob Smith, Executive Director of NOYS, said, “Young people have the creativity, expertise and lived experience to propose infrastructure solutions that are directly impacting them. I’m pleased to partner with Bentley Education to center the voices of a generation that is being disproportionately impacted by poor infrastructure across the country.” 

The contest incorporates a learning, ideation and design and visualization component. Participants attend master classes from Bentley experts to develop and strengthen their computer aided design (CAD) skills using Bentley’s MicroStation. The participants are invited to submit their ideas to improve pedestrian safety within their community either through video, song, poster, collage, film, or any other creative expression to describe their views.

Zeljko Djuretic, head of Education with Bentley Systems, said, “We are excited to be continuing our partnership with NOYS to empower youth in promoting a safer pedestrian infrastructure. What is amazing about this contest is that it puts power to improve infrastructure into the hands of future generations and helps them understand how they could go about doing so in real terms. At Bentley we’re no strangers to the power that infrastructure has to shape our world. Through initiatives like this contest, our aim is to equip youth with digital skills, nurturing their creativity and enabling them to take impactful actions.”

A $1,500 prize will be awarded to the winner by a panel of expert judges. Additionally, each participant will receive a certificate of training from Bentley Systems following their successful completion of activities.

Those who are interested in participating in the challenge should register and submit their projects before December 31, 2023. To register and learn more about the submissions, judging criteria, and other information, click here.