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Breastfeeding | Child Care Centers | Farm-to-School Nutrition | Physical Activity In Schools | Safe Routes To Schools
Safe Routes To Schools

To combat high rates of child pedestrian injury and obesity in Miami-Dade County, Make Healthy Happen Miami is working with the University of Miami WalkSafe™ Program. Through the implementation of policy-driven programs containing components of the Safe Routes to School 5-E Model (Education, Evaluation, Engineering, Enforcement, and Encouragement) we are promoting safe active transportation to and from school. This will result in children engaging in more physical activity, which will lead to a reduction in obesity and improvements in health and well being. 

The objectives of Safe Routes to School initiatives are to:

  • Enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school
  • Make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age
  • Facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution near schools

Make Healthy Happen Miami and the WalkSafe™ Program aim to:

  • Develop and implement a countywide system which annually tracks children’s modes of transportation to and from school throughout Miami-Dade County
  • Retain funding for sustainability of an adequate amount of crossing guards in the highest-risk communities of Miami-Dade County

What Families Can Do:

  • Help your child build healthy habits for a lifetime by walking or biking with your child to school
  • Decrease congestion at school drop-off areas and reduce pollution around your child’s school by parking a block away and walking your child to school
  • If your child takes the bus to school, increase quality time and social interaction with your child by taking the long way around the block to get to and from the bus stop
  • Contact the WalkSafe™ program about starting a Walking School Bus or other walking program at your child’s school

For more information: Walksafe™ Program       National Center for Safe Routes to School        Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center