The Active Living Regional Team

Creating opportunities for active living in the natural and built environment

Title
The Active Living Regional Team

The Active Living Regional Team directs the work of creating opportunities for active living in the natural and built environment in northeast Iowa. 

The Team has representation from each of the six counties and school and trail enthusiasts. Some of the key organizational champions behind this work include: Schools, City Parks and Recreation, County Conservation, Trail enthusiasts, Iowa DNR, Civil Engineering, Community Planners, Resource Conservation and Development, ISU Extension, Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission, State Safe Routes to School with Dept. of Transportation, Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and Luther College.

Active Living News, June 2010

Plan for Year 1: 
The Active Living Regional Team will participate in a learning community conference. The Active Living Team will create a strategic plan for engagement and strategies for expanding community walkability in the first 12 months.

Strategies:
Ensure that school district policies and practices support healthy living of children, families and community members.

Ensure that communities have a built environment that supports abundant opportunities for physical activity and play.


Policy and system change targets:

  • Promotion of physical activity in school curricula
  • Promotion of school facility use by children and the public outside school hours
  • Development/maintenance of infrastructure for walking and bicycling for local transportation

Tactics and actions:
  • Implement Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program in six schools.  These schools will complete SRTS assessments, convene a school-community team, assess readiness of teams to conduct SRTS community workshops, support teams to create plans for their schools and communities.
  • Provide Safe Routes to School mini-grants for 6 additional schools.
  • Increase youth and family participation opportunities, programming, and system/plans for physical activity and active play every day.  This can be accomplished by expanding the use of school gyms and yards for community after school hours and assisting schools and communities in the development of joint-use agreements.
  • Integrate additional minutes of daily physical activity into school curricula.