Walking School Bus Program Training
The Walking School Bus (WSB) is a popular and visible program that will improve kids’ health and build community support for active transportation.
The rate of children walking to school has fallen from 50% to 15% in one generation, while child obesity has tripled. Learn how to implement a successful WSB program in which trained adult volunteers supervise the daily walk to school along approved routes. Knowing the kids are safe, parents and staff will feel comfortable encouraging them to walk to school. After completing a one-day WSB workshop you will have the skills, knowledge, resources, and detailed Action Plans to enable you to:
- Design safe routes to school with a walk audit and route planning activity;
- Identify the best outlets to advertize your program and register lots of kids;
- Recruit and train great volunteers to lead the Walking School Bus.
“The workshop was inspiring! They taught it from the ground up. And they gave me everything I needed to get my program going quickly.”
–Meg McFarland, PTA Teacher, Briarcliff Elementary School, Kansas City
Just thirty kids on four walking routes participated in the PedNet Coalition’s first Walking School Bus in 2005. In five years the program has grown to include eleven Columbia schools, more than 400 children and about 100 trained volunteers. Community buy-in has led to pedestrian safety
improvements around schools.
PedNet workshops throughout Missouri and nationwide have led to numerous new programs.
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