Technical Assistance

Consulting: Policy and Program Assistance to Get People Walking and Bicycling in Your Community

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TA MarketingFor more than a decade, Safe Routes to School programs have flourished across the country. Now, communities are boosting walking and bicycling to school and in daily life through sustainable, long-term policy change. The Safe Routes Partnership’s Technical Assistance Team has experience with a wide array of Safe Routes to School programmatic and policy scenarios, from the challenges of rural communities to making a difference in underserved neighborhoods. Our staff is comprised of national experts who are experienced with the challenges of making change on the local level.

Individualized Technical Assistance

Each community is unique. Through our individualized technical assistance we provide strategic support to local, regional, and state program and policy leaders. Once we understand your needs, our expert staff can help guide your policy and programmatic change efforts.  

We can assist by:

  • Providing best practices, case studies and model policies from around the country
  • Providing assistance in building bridges between departments of health, planning, transportation, and education
  • Helping develop and implement campaign plans, especially around creating coalitions and building capacity 
  • Facilitating data collection and evaluation
  • Bringing a health perspective to planning and funding by identifying successful ways to incorporate health in all policies
  • Developing community equity improvement plans including analyses around placement of facilities, access to safe routes, lack of infrastructure, and violence prevention
  • Providing guidance on ways to navigate federal transportation fund spending regulations 

Reports, Analyses, and Fact Sheets

  • As part of our technical assistance, we can provide reports, factsheets, or internal memos and analyses. This work can include:
  • Conducting policy assessments or scans focusing on topics such as Complete Streets, infrastructure, health impact, transportation planning, strategic and long range planning, shared use, school siting, school wellness policies, and school travel plans 
  • Identifying existing policies that need to be strengthened or enforced
  • Recommending and writing policies that should be implemented
  • Developing materials and action plans for grant applications and helping leverage additional funding for programs and infrastructure

Webinars, Workshops and Trainings

Sometimes community leaders need the inspiration and know how of national experts. Our staff brings best practices from around the country and can help turbo-charge your community into action. We can help you produce and lead inspiring and effective Safe Routes to School and active transportation policy workshops designed to get critical stakeholders thinking about and invested in the big policy picture and community-wide Safe Routes to School efforts. These workshops can include local site visits, customized presentations, participating in or leading stakeholder meetings, and conducting walkabouts at schools to assess infrastructure needs. We can also follow up with individualized technical assistance via phone and email to build upon the meetings with stakeholders, and to develop materials and action plans. 

We Inspire Change

We bring ideas and offer solutions, and help you to translate them into action. Here are a few examples: 

In Evansville, IN, we provided a policy workshop to inspire and galvanize local leaders. Working with local advocates, we helped establish a comprehensive Safe Routes to School policy at the school.

In Portland, OR, we worked with local leaders and a technical advisory committee to finalize a comprehensive citywide Safe Routes to School policy to guide their nationally-recognized program into the future. Launched in 2004, Portland’s Safe Routes to School program has increased walking and bicycling to 40 percent of the mode-share at more than 80 participating schools. 

In Santa Clara County, CA, we worked with more than 100 elected officials, agency staff and advocates over the course of two days to inspire them to work together and move forward with policy change and community-level programs that support Safe Routes to School. 

In Kauai, HI, we worked with local leaders to develop a countywide team and school task forces for Safe Routes to School. We also collaborated with local leaders on state advocacy, which resulted in the governor of Hawaii committing to spending the $7.1 million of federal Safe Routes to School funding that had been previously unspent.

Use the Safe Routes Partnership’s Technical Assistance to:

  • Build partnerships, local leadership, and community support for walking, bicycling, and Safe Routes to School
  • Develop quality Safe Routes to School community-wide programs and policies that advance healthy, active lifestyles
  • Leverage money that will support walking and bicycling as a permanent part of your community’s future 

We look forward to working together to get results in your community.

Contact:

Sara Zimmerman, JD
Program & Policy Director
sara@saferoutespartnership.org