One important way to strengthen your Safe Routes to School program is by passing a Safe Routes to School district policy.
Colorful crosswalks. Temporary bike lanes. Playful paths. Creating new green space. These are just a few ways to improve local park access. We just wrapped up work with our first cohort of communities in the Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program, which provides individualized consultation, group trainings, and grant funding to nonprofits to improve safe, equitable park access in their communities.
New to Safe Routes to School?
Walk audits are a great tool in creating communities where residents can participate in making their vision of healthy, safe, walkable streets real.
This blog post was written by Haden Kirkpatrick.
This guide will help California communities understand the process of applying to the Active Transportation Program, with our recommendations for how to plan for, draft and submit your application.
In this case study, we explore how economic growth and poor land use planning are contributing to the decline in community health for the Inland Valley, especially for low-income people and communities of color in the region.
Shared use is a tool that property owners can use to fill a need in their community for recreational facilities and increase opportunities for physical activity. This guide covers two types of promotion: promoting your shared use space to program providers and promoting the activities and programs to community members.
When kids walk to school, they improve their health, gain independence and confidence, and arrive at school ready to learn. A Walk to School Day event is a simple starting place for getting students started safely walking to school, and introducing schools, families, and community groups to Safe Routes to School.
In 2015, the American Heart Association in Hampton Roads, Virginia added a new dimension to its annual 5k Heart Walk by inviting participants to take the Grocery Bag Challenge. Participants carried an eight-pound grocery bag for one mile of the walk to raise awareness of the difficulty faced by people without convenient transportation or grocery stores close to home. Participants reported that it was much harder than they expected!
Join Us on October 24 10am PT/1pm ET
This guest blog post was written by Tiffany Lam, research adviser.
Some schools are experimenting with traffic gardens like the one pictured above. Photo: Fionnuala Quinn/Bureau of Good Roads
This toolkit provides school districts and schools with guidance and resources for a comprehensive communications strategy that supports Safe Routes to School.
“There are too many places in this country where it’s easier to buy a grape soda than a bunch of grapes,” explains Caroline Harries, Associate Director at The Food Trust, when she describes food deserts. Although there are many definitions of food deserts, they are commonly understood as places where fresh, nutritious foods are not accessible within a reasonable or convenient distance to travel. They are often defined as one mile in an urban area and ten miles in a rural area. In a car, those distances are no problem.
This fact sheet describes key steps to ensure your program is well positioned for funding, provides ideas for where to look for funding, and highlights the breadth of funding sources that programs from around the country are currently accessing.
This fact sheet highlights the importance of improving personal safety from crime and violence in order to promote park access.
Facebook, Twitter, school websites, partnerships: what do you use to get the word out about Safe Routes to School?
