“Healthy Places by Design’s involvement has been essential for ensuring that course content includes a focus on equity, inclusion, and social and environmental justice.”
“Healthy Places by Design’s involvement has been essential for ensuring that course content includes a focus on equity, inclusion, and social and environmental justice.”
The Walkability Action Institute (WAI) is an annual multi-day course for interdisciplinary teams comprising public health, transportation, planning, elected officials, and other disciplines. Healthy Places by Design has co-facilitated the WAI Community of Practice (CoP) since 2015. The CoP is a peer learning and exchange network of WAI alumni that build their capacity to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes to make communities more walkable.
The WAI training is a critical component of CDC’s efforts to increase walkability. The trainings include walking audits, discussion sessions with peers, capacity building, and workshops with leaders in the walkability movement. Each WAI team formalizes what they learn by creating a detailed community action plan. In many cases, action plans help drive positive change in regional transportation systems to support safety, health, and equity.
To complement these efforts, Healthy Places by Design co-facilitated calls with NACDD staff to create the Community of Practice, an opportunity for additional peer learning that focuses on specific walkability topics, shares resources, and addresses local challenges. Our team identified important themes, recruited subject-matter experts, and facilitated discussions on pedestrian safety, equitable planning approaches, community-level data systems, and other active transportation topics.
Karma Harris, Public Health Consultant, NACDD