Foundation Report: Establishing the Missouri Safe Routes to School Network

This is part of a series, "What has MoBikeFed done for you in 2010?"  Read the remaining articles here. 

This time of year many are asking--what have you been doing?  What have the Federation and the Foundation been doing?

We've put together a multi-part report.  Here is part one--about the activities of the Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking so far this year:

Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking: Recent Activities Summary
16 April 2010

Missouri Safe Routes to School Network

The Foundation is the lead organization and organizer of the Missouri Safe Routes to School Network.   The Network, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control with matching grants from the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Incarnate Word Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Region VII Office of Minority Health, brings together over 75 Missouri agencies, organizations, and key individuals to work towards more and safer bicycling and walking to school.

Active members of the Network include

• City of Columbia,
• City of Kansas City, Missouri
• Kansas City Bicycle Club
• Missouri Coordinated School Health Coalition
• Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition
• Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
• Missouri School Boards Association
• Ozark Transportation Organization
• PedNet Coalition
• Columbia Raytown C-2 School District
• Scenic Missouri
• St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation
• Trailnet, St. Louis
• Transtria, St. Louis
• University of Missouri Extension
• Hurley R-1 School District
• The Whole Person, Kansas City
• Warsaw Missouri Parks and Recreation
• Many others--see the full list at https://www.saferoutespartnership.org/state/srts-in-your-state/missouri

The Foundation provides the capacity to organize and lead monthly meetings, communicate and coordinate between meetings, and chair or take the lead role in the majority of the Network's Action Teams.

Since January the Network has worked to create a sweeping twelve-point Action Plan, with Action Teams organized for each of the twelve points. From now until December 2011, the Network will work to implement the plan.

The Action Plan builds on the national model for promoting more bicycling and walking among school children by working on such diverse topics as

• Promoting and working for implementation of Complete Streets policies
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety education and large-scale instruction
• Creating a Missouri Safe Routes to School Non-infrastructure Plan
• Organizing mass communication and social media to facilitate communication among dozens of organizations and agencies across Missouri working on Safe Routes to School
• Improving School Wellness Model Policies for Missouri
• Researching and promoting Joint Use Agreements (to allow community members to use school tracks, gyms, and other facilities for exercise and recreation)
• Working to create model school siting policies to encourage schools to be located in areas conducive to more students bicycling and walking
• Gathering and analyzing data about bicycling and walking to school across Missouri--data that has never been gathered or analyzed before.