Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104728

Julie A. Sparks, MEd (6/2005), Health Education and Planning, Northern Kentucky Health Department, 2388 Grandview Drive, Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017, 859-363-2080, julie.sparks@ky.gov

Safe Routes to School (SR2S) is a national movement to encourage more children to walk and bicycle to school. Allowing students to travel by foot or bike can assist in decreasing youth obesity, while contributing to the recommended amount of daily physical activity. Healthy People 2010 contains two objectives directly related to increasing the proportion of school trips made by walking and bicycling. SR2S programs not only increase physical activity rates among youth but also contribute to lowering childhood respiratory conditions and pedestrian injuries and fatalities. The Northern Kentucky Health Department (NKHD) in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Public Health is implementing a statewide initiative to expand SR2S programs throughout the Commonwealth. This workshop will introduce participants to the constructs of SR2S and detail Kentucky's expansion program. This expansion program is three-fold including a census study, a pilot initiative and a training program. In June 2005, a study will be completed examining the benefits and barriers of walking and bicycling to school as perceived by all elementary and middle school principals in Northern Kentucky (N=96). The pilot program, currently in implementation, includes classroom-based education and a community-wide effort to develop a more walkable community. This pilot program solicited CMAQ funds from the Kentucky Department of Transportation for program sustainability and sidewalk construction. Julie Sparks, a NKHD health educator, will conduct the statewide training program by July 2005. Ms. Sparks was recently selected as one of forty participants for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Network's national SR2S training course.

Learning Objectives:

• By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe the four constructs of a Safe Routes to School program.
• By the end of the session, participants will be able identify resources to implement a community-specific Safe Routes to School program.
• By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe how the national Safe Routes to School program was expanded throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Keywords: Physical Activity, Environment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.