Smart Walks to School

First Steps

Walkable Communities Study Group

Smart Coast learned the importance of making communities walkable at the 2008 Smart Coast Mixed Use Conference. Smart Coast formed a Walkable Communities Study Group to research how communities become walkable and what each city and the county already had in place concerning walkability and connectivity. The Study Group decided getting children walking to school again was its top objective. In a 2008 International Walk to School event, Smart Coast surveyed participants about their interest in more frequent walks. The positive responses led to the creation of “themed” first Friday monthly Smart Walks to School (see National Center of Safe Routes to School case study).

Monthly Smart Walks

Now the monthly Smart Walks have become a beloved tradition occurring on the first Friday of the month in Fairhope as over 250 children, parents, & grandparents regularly participate, with strong support from the City of Fairhope and also local merchants. Smart Coast celebrated the 2011 October International Walk to School day by expanding their outreach to include 4 other schools including one in a neighboring town: Silverhill Elementary School. This rural school was enthusiastic with over 150 participants and two fire trucks. The Smart Walk program has achieved strong success; however it needs a much stronger intensity level to truly achieve the benefits of better health for our children.

Currently we are engaged in acquiring funding to support the implementation of a model Walking School Bus program. This will directly affect the soaring rate of childhood obesity by giving parents a safe alternative of allowing their children to once again walk to school, lessening the air pollution and traffic jams associated with taking the bus or driving to school.

We hope to pilot numerous daily “Walking School Buses” in neighborhoods surrounding a local elementary school using trained adult, background checked volunteers as “bus drivers”. Pick ups would occur in the neighborhood at artistically branded “Walk Stops”.

International Walks to School are also another way for Smart Coast to make an impact

Smart Walks in Prichard

Smart Coast, along with Principal Natalie Griffin and the PAC parental advisory team at Indian Springs Elementary School in Prichard, Alabama, organized the first in a series of “Smart Walks” to school. These walks were made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation of South Alabama and the Bedsole Foundation.

Over 40 students, parents, and teachers participated in the program which encourages healthier lifestyle choices. The National Center of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has reported that childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last thirty years and recommends increasing opportunities in schools for students to engage in physical activity. Smart Walks are an effective way to encourage more activity in both students and parents.

Indian Springs Elementary is looking forward to instituting a regular Smart Walk program for their campus after the first two walks were greeted with rave reviews from the participants. “Students were excited about walking and the parents loved walking with their children,” said Principal Natalie Griffin. “Many of my parents and staff talked about how energized they were after the walk.”

The City of Prichard has obtained a “Safe Routes to School” grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) that will make travel to and from school safer for students through the construction of sidewalks. The May walk was attended by a representative from ALDOT’s “Safe Routes to School” program, Ray Pugh. Future Smart Walks can be held on the same path that the new sidewalk will occupy.

Hosted in the community by Mt Hebron Church Ministries, Smart Coast met with Prichard City Council, Mayor Ron Davis, Prichard Police, the Mobile County School Board, and ALDOT in the course of this project and look forward to working with them on future Smart Walks.

National Training for Safe Routes to School

A Smart Coast program director was one of four participants from Alabama that attended the National Course for Safe Routes to School Training Instructors. She was offered this opportunity because of her efforts to create Smart Walks to School projects in the coastal area of Alabama.

There are approximately 200 instructors nationwide who have been trained as SRTS National Course Instructors. The course sets the context for SRTS from a health and transportation perspective.

Smart Coast wants to thank the local hosts: Alabama Department of Transportation, United Way of Central Alabama and the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.

Smart Coast has already gained a reputation for promoting smart growth and creating healthy livable communities through its Smart Walks to School and Complete Streets initiatives. This training allows Smart Coast be a stronger advocate for active living and multiple transportation choices within our coastal region.