Given the emergence of obesity as one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States, it is not surprising that healthy lifestyles have risen as an important focus for disease prevention. The use of sidewalks, parks, trails, and greenways play a potentially significant role in increasing lifestyle physical activity and signal an increasing number of partnerships and collaborations focused on health promotion and community design. The Hamer Center teamed up the Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity (PANA), a statewide obesity prevention coalition, to develop a web-based tool to promote walking and biking through school-based community design. The Keystone Healthy Routes Action Kit provides a hands-on tool to over 1,600 schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Action Kit includes: (1) Success stories and best practices; (2) Document templates to organize KHR teams; (3) Downloadable neighborhood and school site assessments for rural, suburban, and urban settings; (4) Follow-up evaluation tools to monitor implementation; and (5) A list of federal, state, and local funding sources.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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One goal for Keystone Healthy Routes is to provide safe pedestrian access to school for children
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Curb Extensions for PennDOT Traffic Calming
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Webshot from the Keystone Healthy Route's web-based tool to promote walking and biking through school-based community design
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Sidewalks play a significant role in increasing physical activity for children
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Kids participate in the installation of healthier routes to school
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Meeting with PennDOT
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