Good afternoon, Just received this message from the Safe Routes list and thought I would pass it on as an example of the process and considerations that went into another city's successful effort to get bike and pedestrian education into the schools. Nick
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Owens, Diana" diana@bicyclecoalition.org Reply-To: "Owens, Diana" diana@bicyclecoalition.org Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:21:56 -0500
In March 2009, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health was awarded cooperative agreements totaling $25.4 million over two years for prevention and wellness efforts. Philadelphia received these two awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
- $10 million to decrease tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure - $15.4 million to promote healthy nutrition and increased physical activity
Through these awards the *Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia* was selected, among many others, to help tackle childhood obesity through promotion of walking and bicycling. Since this funding was awarded to us in March, our youth education program *Safe Routes Philly* expanded its programming to include a train the trainer model (our programming started with a direct education piece through TE funding ->> check out our website for more information).
Safe Routes Philly has partnered with the School District of Philadelphia to provide training, support and assistance for elementary school classroom and physical education teachers. Our core lessons include pedestrian safety for 2nd graders and bicycle safety for 5th graders. Our goal over the next two years is to get our pedestrian and bicycle safety materials into all 184 public elementary schools in the School District of Philadelphia. In addition to the core lessons, we have also included many cross curricular lessons and encouragement activities - both of which we plan on expanding. All of this material is available on our website.
We have also partnered with the Office of Teaching and Learning, at the School District, to hold professional development trainings. Elementary School 2nd and 5th grade teachers and Elementary PE teachers receive ACT 48 credit by coming to our trainings. This has proven to be a great way to get teachers to come and participate. If teachers attend they also receive a hard copy of all of our pedestrian and bicycle safety lessons and enough workbooks for every 2nd and 5th grade student they educate. Since our soft launch on November 2nd, we have delivered our materials to 111 public elementary schools (out of 184).
By no means is our curriculum currently considered comprehensive. There are many limiting factors to implementing a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian safety program in the all of the public schools of Philadelphia. One of the biggest challenges we ran into is *time*. By compromising with the school district we have been able to develop pedestrian (2 core lessons, broken down into mini lessons totaling 90 minutes) and bicycle (2 core lessons broken down into mini lessons totaling 90 minutes) safety lessons that meet the PA state standards as well as the needs of the Philadelphia teachers and urban environment. Through our growing relationship with the school district, we hope to continue expanding upon our current accepted lessons.
Please visit our website, www.saferoutesphilly.org, to learn more about Safe Routes Philly and view all of our new curriculum.
Diana Owens Assistant Director of Education 1500 Walnut Street, Suite 305 Philadelphia, PA 19102 -3506 215-399-1598, ext 702 www.bicyclecoalition.org www.saferoutesphilly.org
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-- Nick Hein LCI# 1705 Director, Positive Spin 803 East Brockway Ave Morgantown, WV ph 304-276-0213 --