Safe and Active Routes to School in Cabarrus County In 2014, Cabarrus Health Alliance became the host agency for the Charlotte region s coordinator in the NC Active Routes to School program. The NC-ARTS program is a collaboration between the NC Division of Public Health (NCDPH), the NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and local health departments across the state. Using national Safe Routes to School strategies in a regional context, it provides staff and resources dedicated to finding ways to improve both public health outcomes and transportation issues by increasing the number of elementary and middle school (kindergarten through 8 th -grade) students who safely walk, bike and roll to school and at school. CHA staffer George Berger is the Program Coordinator for NC-ARTS Region 4, and we ve asked him a few questions: What is Safe Routes to School all about? The Safe Routes to School movement began in the United States in the late 1990 s, when parents, school principals, city/town staff and elected officials, public health and transportation professionals noticed the connection between the drastic reduction in elementary and middle school students walking, biking and rolling to and from school (and getting daily physical activity at school) and the alarming increase in childhood overweight, obesity, early-onset childhood diabetes, asthma, and other chronic diseases caused by a lack of physical activity. In order to try to help reverse that trend, a movement began to take shape initially funded locally and then by the US DOT that encourages safe, convenient, and fun opportunities for children to bicycle, walk and roll to and from schools. Strategies focused on a 6 E s approach: Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Engineering, Evaluation and Equity; and they address both transportation-related and public health-related concerns. SRTS programs can improve safety, reduce traffic, improve air quality near schools; they make biking, walking and rolling to school a safer and more appealing transportation choice, and they encourage a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age. In 2005, NCDOT began funding a SRTS program, which focuses on both infrastructure projects (physical improvements like sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, traffic signals, etc.) and non-infrastructure support (events like Walk/Bike to School Day, education curricula on bicycle safety, and technical resources that help schools with programs and towns/cities with policy guidance). Safe Routes to School is not simply a matter of identifying a safe route to school or a one-size-fits-all program; rather, it s a series of strategies that fit each school s (or community s) individual needs and desires, based on their circumstance and readiness. What is the NC Active Routes to School program? In 2013, NCDOT and NCDPH began funding and administering a new project based on an earlier successful regional public health grant model known as the Community Transformation Grant called the NC Active Routes to School program. In a grant initially funded for three years (and since extended to May, 2019), there would be ten regional coordinators spread throughout the state working from lead local public health agencies who would focus mainly on non-infrastructure SRTS strategies: encouragement (Walk/Bike to School Day events, safer dismissal policies for students walking/rolling, help with ongoing programs like walking school bus and/or remote drop-off programs, etc.); education (walking and bicycle safety and skills programs and curricula); enforcement (working with law
enforcement on traffic issue reduction and coordination and school crossing guard program support); evaluation (data collection and analysis to help assess what s working and what might not be); and equity (working with schools and students no matter the circumstances). And although the NC-ARTS program is primarily a non-infrastructure effort, ARTS coordinators work to facilitate infrastructureoriented conversations and walkability assessments that provide guidance to local jurisdictions and NCDOT that help students walk and bike to/from school more safety improvements that help all community residents, regardless of their age. Additionally since North Carolina is mainly a suburban and rural state, where many (if not most) schools are not within walking/riding distance for their students the NCARTS program focuses attention and resources on walk-at-school programming and support, as well as ideas that involve some physical activity on either end of the daily school bus ride (coordinated bus stops and/or remote bus drop-off). Further, the ten NC-ARTS coordinators work with local community partners on policies related to Open Use of Facilities (so kids can use public school playgrounds and open play fields on weekends and after school), and Complete Streets policies (providing the appropriate infrastructure for all likely users of streets and roadways). How is NC Active Routes to School working in Cabarrus County? Since Region 4 of the NC-ARTS program is based at CHA in Cabarrus County though Region 4 includes ten other counties: Alexander, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly and Union there s no doubt that the county receives its share of time, attention and resources. Starting in 2014 with a partnership with the Safe Kids Cabarrus Coalition to support the annual Walk to School Day events at Concord s Beverly Hills Elementary and R Brown McAllister Elementary schools. From that modest start, efforts to create awareness and activities have been expanding from providing information about proper bike helmet fitting and safe walking/riding at school health fairs and assisting with the bike rodeo the City of Kannapolis annual Fire Safety Day, to partnering with both school districts in the county as well as with city staff in both Concord and Kannapolis. Currently, and as the result of the partnership between the NC-ARTS program and the Cabarrus REACH Grant (more below), there are Safe Routes to School Action Plans in place in 11 schools across the county; with more to come. Some notable outcomes so far, in addition to much collaboration and consensus-building with partners: Walk/Bike to School Day events have been held at Beverly Hills, R. Brown McAllister, Coltrane-Webb, and Jackson Park elementary schools; a new bike rack has been installed at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School; a formal white paper recommending pedestrian-oriented infrastructure improvements around three KCS elementary schools was drafted and provided to the City of Kannapolis Public Works department for consideration; training was provided for all interested Physical Education teachers in the county on the ARTS-provided Let s Go NC! walking and bicycle safety skills curriculum; and in partnership with the NC-ARTS program which provided the curriculum, teacher instruction and bike helmets, Woodrow Wilson ES has begun teaching the Let s Go NC! bicycle safety skills curriculum to all its third-grade students (and this will be an annual part of the school s PE program). The program has even highlighted Walk to School Day and Bike to School Day in front of the City Councils of Kannapolis and Concord and the Cabarrus County Commission. How are NC-ARTS and the Cabarrus REACH SRTS programs working together?
In addition to the stand-alone efforts at outreach and encouragement, the NC-ARTS program has been successfully collaborating with CHA staff working on another major initiative the Cabarrus Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant; which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The REACH grant is a policy-oriented approach designed to develop sustainable, community-based initiatives that provide opportunities for healthy and active living throughout the county. The REACH effort for Safe Routes to School has provided for eleven SRTS Action Plans at the following schools: Shady Brook, Jackson Park, Kannapolis Intermediate/Carver, Fred L. Wilson and Woodrow Wilson (in the Kannapolis City Schools district); and Beverly Hills, R. Brown McAllister, Carl Furr, Coltrane-Webb, Rocky River and C. C. Griffin Middle (in the Cabarrus County Schools district). These plans have been developed with the assistance of nationally-recognized SRTS consultants; and they lay out recommendations and strategies that each school can adopt and implement based on their individual school community, geography, and resources. The plans also make recommendations to other agencies notably, the city transportation/public works and law enforcement departments and the NCDOT division who need to play significant roles in funding and developing physical improvements and safety programs. The SRTS partnership between NC-ARTS and Cabarrus REACH has also provided two other very significant outcomes. The REACH grant has been able to fund the purchase of bike racks and benches for each of the schools in the program; and a separate (but coordinated) initiative of the REACH grant has facilitated a new KCS Board of Education policy that now allows the public to have access to the playgrounds and open play fields at all of the district s elementary-grade schools in other words, if a child wants to play ball or use the playground on a weekend or in the summer, they are available. There s one more year of the REACH/ARTS collaboration to come; starting in October, the team will be working with Forest Park Elementary on its SRTS Action Plan. Other next steps? One of the biggest challenges facing the NC-ARTS program has been how to provide bicycles and logistics so bike skills and safety education can be taught more widely. Federal and state funding requirements restrict the program from purchasing bicycles and trailers so they can be used by schools and other partners (Safe Kids Coalitions, for example) who would otherwise be able to use them. So although we have a conceptual framework in development that would enable KCS to expand the 3 rd grade Let s Go Biking! pilot program to all the elementary schools, we need to find a funding partner for size-appropriate bicycles and a trailer to move them from school to school. The Safe Kids Cabarrus Coalition is a willing partner for transportation; and that organization would also be able to use the bicycles for bike safety skills course (bike rodeos) across the county. Another next step on the horizon is to expand the number of schools across the county who provide walk-at-school programming during the school day. Physical activity through the school day helps with both student achievement and discipline; and there are now a number of walk-at-school programs that can be implemented easily and inexpensively. Finally, the NC-ARTS program will be working with schools throughout the county to help support and encourage more Walk/Bike to School Day events, activities and sustainable ongoing efforts that can be repeated throughout the school year and beyond. Dr. William F. Pilkington, CEO of CHA and Public Health Director for Cabarrus County noted that we are happy to play a lead role in this important initiative across the region and state, which is at the
intersection between improvements in public health and improvements in communities. It s clear that a lifetime of being active can begin with a walk to school. Woodrow Wilson Elementary (KCS) PE teacher Travis Rodgers leading 3 rd -graders in their Let s Go Biking! curriculum module.
R. Brown McAllister Elementary (CCS) School Resource Officer Maria Fink leads a Walk to School Day event. Walk At School program kickoff event at Davidson Elementary School. (What to do if it s raining walk inside!)
Bike safety skills course instruction how to use bike hand signals!
NC-ARTS Coordinator George Berger with R Brown McAllister Elementary students collecting student walk speed data.