The National Center for Safe Routes to School is awarding 20 mini-grants of up to $1,000 each to encourage student creativity in new or existing Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs. The goal of SRTS programs is to enable and encourage children to safely walk and bicycle to school. SRTS programs are implemented nationwide by parents, schools, community leaders, and local, state, and tribal governments.
“Communities across the country have been creative and successful in finding ways to make it safer for children to walk and bicycle to school,” says Lauren Marchetti, Director of the National Center. “We want to use these mini-grants to support young people with good ideas who can help create a culture of walking and bicycling in their communities.”
Successful applications will include one or more of the following: student-led activities, concern for the environment, and/or promotion of physical activity. Funded activities must be part of a new or existing Safe Routes to School program. They must occur at elementary or middle schools and activities must have the potential to have long-term impacts on safe walking or bicycling in the school community.
Mini-grant applications are due October 30, 2009, and award winners will be announced by December 1, 2009. To obtain the mini-grant application, go to www.saferoutesinfo.org/minigrants.
Since its creation in 2006, the National Center for Safe Routes to School has assisted communities in enabling and encouraging children to safely walk and bicycle to school. The National Center offers training and resources to assist communities in successful SRTS program development, and funding the mini-grants extends that mission.
The National Center is maintained by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. For additional information about the National Center for Safe Routes to School, go to www.saferoutesinfo.org.
