This blog post was co-written by Safe Routes Partnership staff Keith Benjamin, community partnerships manager, and Mikaela Randolph, community engagement and evaluation manager.
"Sometimes we have to tokenize ourselves for the sake of pushing the movement forward."
This 2013 Institute of Medicine report is based on work by a committee of experts assembled at the request of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation due to the disturbing trends of increased sedentary lifestyles and decreased health metrics among US children and youth.
Welcome to my new blog on federal policy!
Like a number of my colleagues, I have the privilege of writing my first post as I prepare to travel on work-related business.
Two very diverse states and a federal district. The Greater Washington region of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia is certainly an interesting place to live for many reasons. But it is an even more interesting place to work, especially when working in the policy realm.
April 2-8 is National Public Health Week, a time to reflect on what we can be doing personally each day, and in our homes, communities, schools, states and across the nation to support public health and prevention.
Just this morning I was enjoying my favorite aspect of walking to school with my boys – the occasional grabbing of my hand by my 1st grader. I was soaking it up, I know these moments are fleeting as I watch my 3rd grader walking up ahead at his own pace, in his own thoughts.
The San Francisco Bay Area is struggling to meet the region's climate change goals required under California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008.
Sustaining a Safe Routes to School program is on everyone’s mind.
Growing up in Berea, Ohio, I walked to school, played outside and rode my bike in our part of the Cleveland Metro Parks. My love of the outdoors and community service started there during elementary school –a park cleanup and stream restoration in the 5th grade showed me how people can make positive changes in their community.
In my last post, I shared some of my aspirations for the great state of Mississippi with regard to the advancement of Safe Routes to School initiatives around the state.
Superheros Among Us: Last week I had the pleasure to attend a New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids strategic planning meeting where I got to meet many of New Jersey’s real life superheroes. If you were there, you know that as part of the introductions, we all got to declare what our super power would be if we had one. They were all noble.
Since 2017, the Safe Routes Partnership has worked with community-based organizations to make park access safe, convenient, and equitable for people walking and biking. However, making changes to a sidewalk or holding one community engagement meeting is not going to have as long-term of an effect if we don't zoom out to see the whole system that created unsafe routes or inequities in the first place. That is why in 2021, after assessing the national landscape of planning and funding opportunities at the state and regional levels, we built a cohort of state agencies along with state-based local leader networks to begin applying promising practices that engage grassroots and grass tops, then assessing how they work in the field. Below is a summary of our approach and high-level take-aways.
A couple of exciting Pro Walk/Pro Bike® Conference updates (September 10-13 in Long Beach, CA)! First, check out their new website – everything is so easy to find, including their recently released program.
In my first blog post, I indicated the Greater Washington, DC area regional network brought the unique challenge of encompassing two states and a federal district.
NOTE: An update on the outcome of this vote follows the original post.
I realize you might think I am being a bit premature with this declaration, but I am not talking about the November elections. I am referring to a critical vote—a referendum—in Georgia that will influence the direction of transportation funding in the coming years.
Like many organizations, we at the Safe Routes to School National Partnership like to have data to back up our opinions.
It’s back to school time! Time for new experiences, teachers, friends, classrooms, subjects and maybe even shiny new Safe Routes to School infrastructure projects.
