The Chrysler Brand to Support Bullying Prevention Initiative Through "Drive for the Kids" Program

  • As Chrysler Group LLC celebrates the 30th anniversary of the minivan and students are back in school, the Chrysler brand’s “Drive for the Kids” program will supports Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights bullying prevention initiative
  • October is national “Bullying Prevention Month”
October 8, 2013 , Auburn Hills, Mich. -  The Chrysler brand will continue its support of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights’ bullying prevention initiative – RFK Project SEATBELT – to coincide with students now back in school.  The campaign will include digital and social media elements, including an online “pledge” that empowers students to engage their communities to prevent bullying. The Chrysler brand, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the minivan, will also employ its Drive for the Kids program to support the measure.  More information about the Chrysler brand’s support of the RFK Project SEATBELT bullying prevention initiative (which launched online in June 2013) can be found at www.projectseatbelt.org and Chrysler brand’s Facebook Page/Drive for Kids Tab.
 
“The Chrysler brand is committed to using its resources to help build strong and safe communities, and that includes education about bullying prevention,” said Saad Chehab, President and CEO - Chrysler Brand, Chrysler Group LLC.  “As the Chrysler Group LLC marks the 30th anniversary of the minivan and our ‘Drive for the Kids’ continues through this fall with our Town & Country minivan, we wanted to utilize that program to both support and foster conversation about this important issue.”
 
In addition to the Drive for the Kids integration through the Chrysler brand’s Facebook page, the bullying prevention initiative will include a social presence through the Chrysler brand’s Imported from Detroit site. As part of the initiative, Chrysler, RFK Project SEATBELT and Google+ will also offer engagement through five “Hangouts” throughout the month of October that are led by experts to foster conversation about the topic. The “Hangouts” can be seen live on Chrysler’s YouTube Channel or visit afterwards to watch a recorded version. The schedule for October’s “Hangouts” are as follows:
 
- How to Set an Example to Help Prevent Bullying: An Educator’s Perspective (Oct. 10 from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. ET)

- Youth Leadership: How Youth Can Change the Culture of Bullying (Oct. 17 from 3 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET

- How to Set an Example to Help Prevent Bullying: A Parent's Perspective (Oct. 23 from 3 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET

- Youth at Risk: Why Some Bully and Some Are Bullied (Oct. 30 from 2 p.m.–3 p.m. ET) 

The Chrysler brand is supporting RFK Project SEATBELT’s “Trick or Treat for Bullying Prevention” campaign during the month of October. The campaign empowers students to engage their community by encouraging adults to sign a pledge to prevent bullying. Student registration and the pledge to promise to take a stand to prevent bullying can be found at www.projectseatbelt.org and Chrysler brand’s Facebook Page/Drive for Kids Tab. In addition, schools participating in the Drive for the Kids program will receive a kit from RFK Project SEATBELT with bullying prevention materials to share with their students and parents, and the Town & Country vehicles will play a video speaking to bullying prevention on its in-car video monitor during the drives.
 
Since its inception, the national Drive for the Kids program has raised almost $5 million for education through test drives of the Chrysler Town & Country minivan. With more than 300 schools participating nationwide, the top five schools with the most test drives from their individual Drive for the Kids events, taking place now through the end of 2013, will each receive $5,000 through the Chrysler brand’s Drive for the Kids initiative.
 
About Drive for the Kids 
Chrysler brand has long been committed to enriching the lives of youth across America. Since 1993, when Drive for the Kids was first introduced, the Chrysler brand and its dealers have worked with parents and educators in communities across the nation contributing almost $5 million directly to local schools for student needs. Participating schools received a $10 contribution from Chrysler brand on behalf of everyone who took a brief test drive in a Town & Country minivan— the highest-ranking minivan in the 2013 J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality StudySM—or another Chrysler brand vehicle that was available for test drive on the day of a test drive event. From playgrounds and field trips to reading programs and new computers, the Chrysler brand is proud of this tradition of community involvement.  In 2013, the Chrysler brand has planned over 300 Drive for the Kids events across the country.
 
About RFK Project SEATBELT
RFK Project SEATBELT (Safe Environments Achieved Through Bullying prevention, Engagement, Leadership & Teaching respect; projectseatbelt.org) was designed by Dr. Deborah Temkin, who previously led the White House bullying prevention efforts at the U.S. Department of Education. In partnership with the Making Caring Common project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Safe School Certification Program in Iowa, the initiative provides accessible, evidence-based resources to prevent bullying for parents, educators, and community members. And the name SEATBELT, along with being an acronym, is a response to those who say bullying is an ingrained behavior that is unlikely to change, and a reference to the profound shift in social mores over the last few decades that has made putting on a seat belt in a car an automatic behavior, where once it was considered optional.  The initiative launched online in June 2013 at www.projectseatbelt.org.
 
Chrysler Brand
The Chrysler brand has delighted customers with distinctive designs, craftsmanship, and advanced innovation and technology since the company was founded in 1925. Chrysler continues to build on that nearly 100-year legacy of creating ingenious products and technologies for mainstream customers, moving forward on an electrified transformation that will launch the brand’s first battery-electric vehicle in 2025 and an all-electric portfolio in 2028.

The Chrysler Pacifica continues to reinvent the minivan, a segment Chrysler created 40 years ago. The Chrysler Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid symbolizes the brand’s electrification evolution, representing the first electrified minivan in the segment and achieving 82 MPGe, an all-electric range of 32 miles and a total range of 520 miles. Chrysler Pacifica delivers the most standard safety features and most advanced available all-wheel-drive system in its class and is also the most awarded minivan over the last seven years with more than 175 honors and industry accolades since its introduction as a minivan.

Chrysler is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.

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