In partnership with MOIRA Southern Directions Youth Services, Bayside City Council in Melbourne’s southern suburbs is assisting young learner drivers to secure their licence through a program titled L2P.
VicRoads is funding the program, which has also been rolled out at several other Victorian councils.
The L2P program enables disadvantaged young people without access to a supervising driver to complete their compulsory 120 hours driving practice with the assistance of trained volunteer drivers.
The initiative is a community based volunteer program, designed to provide young learner drivers with equal access to driving experience. All volunteers are given theoretical and practical training, as well as support to assist them to mentor a learner driver in a supplied vehicle.
Young people in the program have professional driving lessons before being matched with the volunteer to ensure the young person has adequate car control skills. 
Having now trained up its volunteers, Bayside’s L2P program officially kicked off this month.
Bayside Mayor Alex del Porto said that the ability to drive opens up a wide range of opportunities for young people to be more involved in their community through accessing education, employment and other services.
“Taking advantage of these opportunities is sometimes made more difficult when young people are dependent on public transport alone to get around,” he said.
For further information contact Troy Laverick at MOIRA Southern Directions Youth Services on (03) 8531 2000.
