Early this summer, The Safe Routes Partnership teamed up with Assemblymember Reyes’ Office and a group of resident leaders known as Soar IE to conduct a community engagement project building on the team’s walk audits. Muscoy is an unincorporated rural area in San Bernardino County that is comprised of 98% Latinx families. Approximately 98% of Vermont and Muscoy Elementary students need Free and Reduced School Lunch Programs.
With community engagement funding from the Southern California Association of Government’s Go Human Campaign, our group worked to construct temporary active transportation demonstrations around Vermont and Muscoy Elementary. The installation included artistic crosswalks designed by the students, bulb-outs and bus shelters.
In June, community members were invited to a bilingual Spanish and English press event and unveiling of the pop-up walking and biking infrastructure. Community members were able to provide feedback at the event on permanent active transportation elements that they would like to see in their neighborhood. Based on 162 responses, 61% asked for sidewalks and crosswalks, 14% for traffic calming, and 11% for bus shelters.
Building on the community demand and input, the Safe Routes Partnership worked with San Bernardino County Public Works Department to write and submit an application to the Active Transportation Program (ATP) to fund infrastructure for Muscoy and Vermont Schools. Funding this project would be transformative for the area for these schools.
In October, the Safe Routes Partnership, Assemblymember Reyes’ Office, Soar IE and SCAG’s Go Human campaign will be presenting best practices for community engagement strategies at the PedsCount 2018 Conference in San Jose, California.
