Safe Routes to School E-News

Issue #185: August 2021

Safe Routes Partnership E-News is a monthly email newsletter published by the Safe Routes Partnership. We are also on Facebook and Twitter. Join us! 

1. SAFE Routes Back 2 School Launch 2 Resources Available Now!
2. Safe Routes Partnership Welcomes Two New Board Members
3. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Makes Meaningful Strides toward Increasing Funding and Improving Safety for People Walking, Biking, and Safe Routes to School
4. Micro Kickboard Maxi Scooter Giveaway
5. Parks + Connections, an Opportunity for Stronger Community Engagement in Tucson

1. SAFE Routes Back 2 School Launch 1 Resources Available Now!

Launch 2 Resources

• Safe Routes Back 2 School Zoom Session #2 - Last week we held an informal session on preparing your Safe Routes to School program for Back to School 2021. Learn about Back to School resources from Safe Routes Partnership, see highlights from Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)’s Safe Routes to School program that engaged students and families during the pandemic, and connect with other Safe Routes practitioners during informal breakout sessions. Visit our website for a recording of the opening presentations, PDFs of the slides, and a link to our new Back to School Messaging Guide.
• Defining Roles and Partnerships for Safe Routes to School - This new resource outlines roles of different partners and opportunities for collaboration. It can be used as a guide in developing a task force or engaging with an existing group of agencies and community partners to support your Safe Routes to School program. 
• Place It! for Safe Routes to School guide, training, and video - Review this guide, recorded training, and (NEW!) video on using the Place It! method to creatively engage students, parents, staff, and teachers around Safe Routes to School. Place It! workshops can help generate ideas for improved routes to school that emphasize visionary and inclusive design solutions.
• Engaging Students with Disabilities in Safe Routes to School - This infobrief provides information for Safe Routes to School staff, volunteers, or program leaders on how to plan and develop a program that considers and meets the needs of students with disabilities.
• Building Blocks: A Guide to Starting and Growing a Safe Routes to School Program - Are you looking to start or grow your Safe Routes to School Program? This toolkit will help you kick off a new program or strengthen your existing one. It provides step by step guidance on how to start a program, how to get your school and city on board, and how to make your program stronger over time. 
• Walk audit toolkit and walk audit next steps - Walk audits are a great tool in creating communities where community members can participate in making their vision of healthy, safe, walkable streets real. Consider assessing the routes to school before the school year starts and working to make improvements so that students are able to walk and bike safely when they return to campus. 
• Trauma-Informed Approaches to Safe Routes to School Programming - We all experienced individual and collective trauma over the past year. Read this blog post to learn about ways that Safe Routes to School practitioners can take a trauma-informed approach to support the varied needs of children, their caregivers, and school partners as students return to school this fall.

Explore all the resources here. Share these resources and accompanying graphics by visiting the SAFE Routes Back 2 School promotional toolkit!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! - SAFE Routes Back 2 School Launch 3 resources will be released on August 18th.

2. Safe Routes Partnership Welcomes Two New Board Members

The Safe Routes Partnership is pleased to announce that this summer we added two new board members to our board of directors.  The Safe Routes Partnership board provides governance leadership, fiduciary responsibility, and strategic guidance to the work of the organization and is critical to its success as a thriving and effective nonprofit.  The Leadership Development Committee of the board is charged with prospect identification, recruitment, and the ongoing development of the board.  The Leadership Development Committee annually reviews the composition of the board to ensure those members recruited support the diversity and inclusion goals of the organization.  The new members added this summer include Dr. Destiny Thomas and Ann Blakey.            

You can read more about the Safe Routes Partnership Board of Directors and its other members here.  

3. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Makes Meaningful Strides toward Increasing Funding and Improving Safety for People Walking, Biking, and Safe Routes to School

With support from a bipartisan group of Senators, the final bill text for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was released this month. This bill reauthorizes transportation funding through 2026 and incorporates priorities originally identified in President Biden’s American Jobs Act. As this bill is currently being debated and amended on the Senate floor, read our federal policy blog for more details on how this bill supports improved safety for walking, biking, and Safe Routes to School.

4. Micro Kickboard Maxi Scooter Giveaway

Micro Kickboard, maker of top-rated, award-winning scooters, offers a great way to safely cruise to school. During the month of August, Micro is supporting the Safe Routes Partnership with a donation from every scooter sold at microkickboard.com. To celebrate this support, we are partnering with them in a (5) Maxi scooter giveaway! The Maxi scooter is their iconic 3-wheeled kickboard, offering a stable, lean-to-steer design for ages 5-12 and is valued at $139.

To enter the giveawa,y fill out the online submission form here, and to help support the Safe Routes Partnership shop at www.microkickboard.com.

5. Parks + Connections, an Opportunity for Stronger Community Engagement in Tucson

In Tucson, Arizona, a new, 10-year bond package for parks and connections is an opportunity to transform how the city does community engagement. In 2018, the City of Tucson, Arizona passed Proposition 407: Parks+Connections, a $225 Million bond package to improve parks and the connections to them over the next 10 years (2019 to 2028). For decades, the city lacked sufficient funding for major park upgrades, and in 2018 they had strong support from the mayor to make parks a priority. Additionally, the city had just written a parks master plan. Living Streets Alliance (LSA), a local nonprofit, saw these projects as an opportunity to transform the city’s approach to community engagement and include more creative, meaningful opportunities for residents to express their vision for their neighborhood. Read how Tucson is coming together to move the city forward through strategic partnerships and community engagement.