From the Inside-Out: Safe Routes to School in Virtual Reality

Lorrie Lynn, MA

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a program that encourages the use of active transportation to and from school to reduce childhood obesity, improve safety knowledge to reduce pedestrian injury, inform needed infrastructure changes and reduce carbon emissions. Employing the Health Promotion model of the 5 Es (Education, Equity, Engagement, Engineering and Evaluation) and incorporating the Transtheoretical Model of Change theory. SRTS aims to improve SDOH and reduce inequities in our communities, supporting several social determinates of health; infrastructure for safe active transportation, reduction of crime and improving environmental conditions such as air pollution.

When COVID 19 rates were climbing, the California government mandated a lockdown for all non-essential institutions. On March 20, 2020, schools closed and were faced with the challenge of how to reach families to continue education for students. The Center for Healthier Communities at Rady Children’s Hospital had two long standing Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs which quickly found themselves “locked out” of reaching the populations they were charged with serving. The team quickly went into action by developing a virtual curriculum for schools and families. Education programs that incorporated lessons, videos, and evaluation was the template that informed all development. All education was translated in into Spanish and Arabic. Incorporating Instagram and Facebook to share safety and mobility messaging including how to properly fit a bicycle helmet. QR codes were used to give access to lessons and evaluations.

Rolling out the digital platform met with many challenges that lead the team to re-think the best way to reach the families with limited access to technology. The first of pedestrian education had only one student complete the evaluations. To reach families with valuable education and resources the team worked with school leadership, community organizations and family liaisons to provide paper copies of the lessons from the digital platform at food drop off, community virtual events, and community organized drive-in movies. The conversion increased the number of student evaluations returned after each lesson. At a Halloween drive-in movie QR coded tickets were given to movie attendees. The QR code went to a pedestrian lesson and evaluation. Thirty-three evaluations were completed. These strategies including parent surveys, walking tallies and program evaluations all showed positive change brought about by SRTS education, encouragement, and engagement.

Recognizing the digital divide and adjusting activities to reach all families with education and encouragement led families to begin or maintain healthy habits of walking or biking as demonstrated by parent surveys at a Walk to the Park Campaign, August 20, 2020. These surveys showed that 80% of families still walked 3-5 times, even during COVID-19 lockdown. By seeking guidance from community (school) leaders and support personnel (family liaisons) for direction and communications SRTS teams were able to maintain trust throughout the ever-changing environment.

1. Identify effective online educational programs to improve safe pedestrian and bicycling behaviors in youth.
2. Describe community resources for safe active transportation during COVID-19
3. Employ appropriate evaluation tools to achieve our incremental changes in attitudes and behavior for active transportation during a pandemic