Safe Routes To Play (SRTP)

 

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“If we can build a successful city for children
we will have a successful city for all people.” Enrique Peñalosa

Former Mayor, Bogotá, Colombia

About Safe Routes to Play 

Safe Routes to Play (SRTP) is a child-centered  transportation planning process which helps  communities assess the potential to create non-  motorized connectivity between neighborhoods and  parks, playgrounds, trails, and natural areas for  children and their families. “Safe Routes to Play” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License.

Safe Routes to Play Projects in Action

 

LEBANON, NH

GP RED provided technical assistance to the City of Lebanon, NH under a grant from the Healthy New Hampshire Foundation to conduct the inaugural Safe Routes to Play project in the nation, engaging residents and community leaders in developing a blueprint for active transportation. Read the final report here.

 

PhotoVoice Exhibit in Prince George’s County, MD

BLADENSBURG, SUITLAND, LANGLEY PARK, MD

As part of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, GP RED helped the Institute for Public Health Innovation publish “Safe Access to Recreation Opportunities”, a multi-community planning tool for Safe Routes to Play in Bladensburg, Suitland, and Langley Park, Maryland. Click here to read the Executive Summary.

 

Fort Logan Middle School Students an Faculty present their PhotoVoice research in Sheridan, CO

SHERIDAN, CO

 

GP RED led youth and community engagement activities focused on the contribution of youth to active transportation planning in the City of Sheridan, CO working under a Safe Routes to School Non-Infrastructure grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation. Click here to read the final report.

 

PUEBLO, CO

GP RED is currently working in Pueblo, CO under a US Forest Service Cost Share Agreement to conduct listening sessions and Umap exercises with middle school youth in three neighborhoods to determine opportunities and challenges to accessing the great outdoors. This work builds on a previous project called “Plug Into Nature”, conducted with by our project partners Design Concepts, and funded by Great Outdoors Colorado.

Safe Routes to Play Youth Engagement Process

 

Umap Tool Captures the Youth Voice in Community Planning

GP RED works with school districts, parks and recreation agencies, public health organizations, and community planners using simple engagement tools designed to understand the youth perspective on active transportation and community safety.

*A mapping exercise called UMap, created by Dr. Pamela Wridt of the City University of New York, explores children identifying safe and unsafe places in their community to travel independently, and assesses gaps in the active transportation system.

 

Community coalition members participate in a Safe Routes to Play Leadership Summit

*PhotoVoice, a photography storytelling tool, is used to help youth share their perceptions of community safety with policy makers. Spoken word poets and professional photographers have been part of the Safe Routes to Play planning process to help youth develop their unique voice through creative expression.

A policy inventory and assessment is conducted at the local, regional, an national levels to coordinate policy development for active transportation centered around the youth transportation experience.

 

Youth PhotoVoice participant shares her perspective at a Safe Routes to Play Leadership Summit

In collaboration with local coalitions, a half or full day Leadership Summit is designed to brainstorm community solutions, with a youth presentation of PhotoVoice and Umap findings as a key component.

An interactive, ARCGIS online map is created to provide a dynamic plan showing the youth Photovoice and Umap data collected, which informs policy, infrastructure and engagement initiatives.

Public exhibition of the student’s work and youth presentations to policy makers round out the Safe Routes to Play planning process.

With a focus on incorporating the youth perspective and opportunities for children (and families) to make the choice for active transportation, Safe Routes to Play suggests that children are also commuters in their communities, and deserve the choice for active transportation.

How to Become a Safe Routes to Play Community

GP RED staff is available to assist in grant writing and proposal development to support funding a Safe Routes to Play project in your community. Contact Robby Layton, Executive Director, info@gpred.org, 303-501-7697 to explore a collaboration with your community coalition.

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Safe Routes to Play Project Partners 

Our key alliance organizations help advance the Safe Routes to Play movement with their visionary work:

City University of New York Children’s Environment’s Research Group

International Mountain Bicycling Association

Safe Routes to School National Partnership

Design Concepts

GreenPlay, LLC

We are honored to join other national active transportation advocates in transforming
how community transportation can be designed with children’s safety in mind.

Safe Routes to Play Project Videos
from Lebanon, NH

Safe Routes to Play seeks to improve the safety and ease of biking and walking to recreational areas for young children and their families. Watch this introductory video, featuring Nathan Miller, Executive Director, Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission, about the program’s impact in Lebanon, NH.

Safe Routes to Play documents specific, concrete ways to make it easy and safe for children and families to walk and bike to parks and play areas in their own neighborhoods. Watch these videos documenting how Lebanon is helping families get from where they live to where they play.

Safe Routes to Play is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License.