Make 2008 the healthiest year yet
Every year brings with it new resolutions. And usually, those resolutions dissolve before the holiday decorations come down. You can make 2008 different. Resolve to make this year the year that you make the children in your community healthier. Here’s how:
Parents
You’re the primary influence in your children’s lives. This year, make walking or biking to school a priority. Work with your children to develop a route, then walk or bike that route with them over the weekend so they get the hang of it. Along the way, point out any potential hazards and enlist the help of a few neighbors on the way so your children will have a safe place to go if approached by a stranger. Remember, the more active your children are now, the more likely they are to carry those habits into adulthood. You can help ensure that your kids live long, healthy lives by taking just a few hours out of your weekend to help plan their walking or biking route.
Educators
Most school-aged children will spend as much time with you as they will with their parents! In just a few minutes, you can design an incentive program that will have kids wanting to walk and bike to school each day. Simply build a board with each child’s name on it. Each time children walk or bike, staple a construction paper shoe under their name. When each child’s shoe stack reaches the top of the board, give him a prize. Many community vendors will be willing to donate prizes to help encourage healthier habits. Try a frozen yogurt shop or sporting goods store to reinforce healthy habits with the prize the children receive.
Community groups
Want to make your community more walker/biker friendly for kids? If you live in an urban area, consider organizing a walking school bus, where one adult walks a group of students to school, stopping at each student’s house on the way. This will help ensure that kids stay safe while making for a fun exercise time every morning. In a rural area, consider arranging a park and walk stop. Basically, you’d designate a drop-off time and place about a half-mile from school where parents can drop off their children. From there, the kids will walk to school with an adult chaperone.
Governmental officials
A successful Safe Routes program requires communications across multiple organizations. If you want to see a program started, begin by getting all the right people in the same room. Members of the school board, city council, planning commission, PTA, health and human services departments, and more will all have input on the topic and can make the program run smoothly once it’s implemented. Why not make sure all of these people are together from the beginning so you can develop a singular plan that everyone can get behind?
Want more tips?
Visit www.SafeRoutesNE.com for a wealth of information about how to create and
maintain a successful Safe Routes program in your community.
Safe Routes in action: Lexington Community Fitness Initiative
Safe Routes Nebraska is often thought of as a “sidewalk program” . . . meaning that we award funds so that communities can make physical infrastructure improvements. While infrastructure improvements can be an important part of a Safe Routes program, they’re not always necessary for success.
One of Nebraska’s most successful noninfrastructure programs is run by the Lexington Community Fitness Initiative (CFI). This program focuses on traffic enforcement and education near schools, student and parent education, creating awareness of the health problems caused by inactive living, and program personnel training.
Community crossing guards
“The largest success from this grant has definitely been the crossing guard program,” said Dana Steiner with CFI. “It has really had positive support.”
By coordinating volunteer crossing guards at key intersections near the school, CFI has been able to create a safer walking environment. Each of the initial volunteers has been trained by a local police officer. And because the volunteers come from other concerned groups in the community, the program has sparked good word-of-mouth promotion as well as inter-organizational cooperation.
“The program is communitywide so many of the volunteers are members of other groups in the community, so many know of the program and are supportive,” said Steiner. “All of the elementary schools have been supportive and cooperative in helping us to successfully implement this program.”
Getting students up and moving
CFI has also provided each elementary school child with a free pedometer to track success in the “Walk Across Nebraska” interschool challenge.
“Each school has a game board that looks like the state of Nebraska,” said Steiner. Each class uses this board to track the progress of the student walkers. “The class that reaches its destination first wins.”
Public awareness and education
CFI has also been running newspaper and radio PSAs, submitting newspaper articles, posting flyers, and holding events to make the Lexington community aware of the importance of physical activity for children.
The group has already hosted two forums for parents featuring expert speakers on Safe Routes topics such as nutrition and activity. Two more forums are planned for the spring semester.
Making it work
Lexington CFI has been successful because of its well-planned, multifaceted approach that targets students, parents, drivers, and the community at large. By earning the support of the community, the CFI Safe Routes program is poised for long-term success.
“The community has been supportive about the implementation of this program,” said Steiner. “Just from our random counting and watching trends, it seems that the number of children [walking] did increase from the first week.”
How healthy are Nebraska children?
Ask Nebraskans about how they think our state is doing at keeping our kids fit and you’re likely to get one of two answers: great or terrible. A critical examination of the facts says that both are wrong.
In fact, it’s a more complicated issue than many think. And in some areas, Nebraska is doing great. And in other areas . . . well, let’s just say we need some improvement. Overall, we’re doing pretty well. In 2007, the United Health Foundation ranked Nebraska as the 10th healthiest state in the country. That’s up two spots from the previous year. Among the study’s criticisms was our high rate of obesity—26.9 percent—which is slightly higher than the national statistic.
When looking specifically at the fitness of our children, there are three areas to check: childhood obesity, activity levels, and nutrition.
Childhood obesity
According to the Trust for America’s Health, this is one of our stronger areas. Only eight states performed better than Nebraska when it comes to combating childhood obesity. While our adults are a different story (they’re the 18th fattest in the nation), on the whole, Nebraska kids are staying slim.
Activity levels
One of the main contributors to childhood obesity is inactivity. According to the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) in 2003, Nebraska’s 9th–12th graders are among the nation’s most active. Notably, 36.4 percent of Nebraska students attend physical education every day. That’s a full 8 percentage points higher than the national average. On top of that, only 32 percent of Nebraska students did NOT engage in regular vigorous or moderate exercise the week they were surveyed. At the national level, 62.6 percent of students did not exercise. Only 28 percent of Nebraska students watch three or more hours of television per day. That’s 10 percent fewer than students nationwide.
Nutrition
Nebraska comes up short when it comes to serving up nutritious fare for its kids. The state does not require that school meals exceed USDA nutrition standards. And the state has set no nutritional standards for in-school vending machines, stores, a la carte selections, or bake sales, meaning that there are plenty of dangerous food choices still available in schools.
We can be doing better
By implementing and maintaining an effective Safe Routes program in your community, activity levels will climb even higher and childhood obesity levels will continue to decline. And by coupling activity programs with high-quality nutrition education, we can help ensure that our kids grow up strong, healthy, and happy.
Safe Routes in the country
Implementing a successful Safe Routes program in a rural community comes with a unique set of challenges. Here are five tips to help you overcome these challenges and help ensure a safe, healthy, active way to school for rural children:
-
Park and Walk
Organizing park and walk stops is one of the most convenient, cost-effective ways to create a safe route for kids who live outside of town. Simply designate a spot about a half-mile from school, and instruct parents to drop their kids off there. The kids will then walk as a group to school. If necessary, consider asking the local parent-teacher organization to provide volunteers to take turns walking the kids.
-
Bus Stops
Children who take the bus can get additional exercise by using a bus stop that’s farther from their home. Schools can also work with parents to see that children are dropped off at a designated park and walk stop.
-
Designated Safe Routes
Consider using street signs to designate certain routes as “Safe Routes” with lower speed limits during walking/biking times. This can help allow older children to walk and bike alongside motor traffic on roads.
-
Bike Trails
Work with the municipalities and private landowners to create a bike route that cuts away from roads and gives kids a clear path to school. Parents and bus drivers can use the trailhead as the park and walk spot when bringing kids to school.
-
Road Improvements
Sometimes an infrastructure solution is the best way to go. If kids in your rural community have to cross a busy highway to reach school, creating a footbridge might be the answer. Creating sidewalks around the school can provide additional safety for kids in town as well as park and walk students.
Questions for Kelly
Kelly Morgan serves as the Program Coordinator for Safe Routes Nebraska. Throughout the year, she receives and responds to any question you can imagine. Here are some of the most common queries to cross her desk:
Q: Why should we survey parents about walking and biking to school?
A: The survey gathers information about factors that affect whether parents allow their children to walk or bike to school, safety concerns along routes to school, and other background information. Results help determine how to improve opportunities for children to walk or bike to school as well as measure parental attitude changes as local Safe Routes programs are implemented.
Q: What are some ways to increase my child’s safety on the route to school?
A: Parents are encouraged to walk with their children to school. This is a great way for families to spend time together and get physical activity at the same time. While this is ideal, it’s not always possible. Older children and younger children walking together in groups can also provide a level of protection. Sometimes parents or adult volunteers take turns leading a walking school bus—a group of children that walk together from a neighborhood.
Q: My children live too far from school to walk. Any ideas for me?
A: Try driving your kids only part of the way to school. Work with your children to identify a safe drop-off area that enables kids to walk a few blocks to school. This saves parents time and allows children to be more physically active, arriving at school more alert and ready to learn.
