In this age of intensified polarization, there's hardly an issue the masses can come to a consensus on. But in the deep muck of non-sequiturs and insults that seem to increasingly inhabit our most important debates, there's one issue that still comes away as a winner for all involved almost every time. That is, improving the health and safety of our kids.
And in the tiny village of Newberry, Yoopers and Michiganders alike are seeing the benefits of collaboration in the form of the Safe Routes To School Program currently underway at Newberry Elementary School.
Safe Routes To School
The
Safe Routes To School program is an international movement tasked with the challenge of making commutes on foot and bicycle convenient, safe and fun for children. Advocates see the movement as both a green and a health issue. Not only are cars being taken off the road by offering parents an alternative to driving kids to school, but the program also is encouraging youngsters to embrace an active lifestyle.
Bev Holmes, village manager of Newberry, says the town initially became involved after collaborating with the nearby
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and hospital.
"The tribe did a financial donation to the village's match grant, which is the first step toward the Safe Routes grant," explains Holmes who is referring to the Michigan Department of Transportation's promise to fund safe routes program with a 10 percent match.
The village is currently employing an engineering firm to do sidewalk assessments to identify what improvements are needed in this non-motorized transportation plan, and will submit an application to
MDOT for the remaining necessary funds in the fall.
If successful with MDOT, Holmes envisions an infrastructure transformation most can only dream about.
"That will replace a couple hundred thousand dollars of bad sidewalks for the children, and make them more accessible for children walking to school," says Holmes.
"System Change"
Donna Norkoli, project coordinator at the Sault Tribe Strategic Alliance For Health, explains how and why the tribe got involved with
Newberry Elementary.
"We have grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control," Norkoli says. "In 2011, we received a community transformation grant to increase infrastructure in communities for walking and biking in order to increase fiscal activity and active lifestyles."
Considering the number of students who have said they feel unsafe walking to school in Newberry, the village seemed like a natural fit to make something special happen.
"When you create infrastructure that makes it easier for people to be active, that's what works in increasing fiscal activity," explains Norkoli. The idea is that people are much more likely to patronize a store if it's easy to walk to. And businesses are more likely to locate in an area with safe and accessible sidewalks, especially as the importance in building walkable communities increases. Norkoli also believes that a "system change" is the best way to nip problems like childhood obesity in the butt.
"Before, public health was a lot of one-on-one and doing classes and telling people to be active," says Norkoli. "We've found that really doesn't work as well as finding ways within the environment through infrastructure change."
Positive Collaboration
One of the primary faces of this collaboration is Stacy Price, the sixth grade principal and elementary coordinator at Newberry Elementary who also heads the school's wellness committee.
"We found that we had a big portion of our students that were coming to school by car," says Price.
The committee conducted a survey last year to find out why kids weren't walking.
"We found out there weren't sidewalks where the students came from or they felt the sidewalk was dangerous and they didn't feel comfortable," she says.
In preparation for the grant application, Price and her committee are currently gathering information regarding how many kids live within walking distance to school. At the same time, Norkoli and her team created a dot graph to show Price where the high density of population is in Newberry within walking distance of the school.
"We're also actively involved in surveying the sidewalks to see what kind of shape they're in," notes Price.
If successful in winning MDOT's assistance, all involved believe the Safe Routes program will fundamentally change Newberry for the better. Kids will take the opportunity to walk, but it's anticipated that seniors and other populations will also choose the new sidewalk system over unnecessary short trips in the car. Perhaps best of all, Newberry is showing that collaboration for the proverbial greater good is still possible.
"It's really good for our community that everyone is working together in this initiative to improve not just how kids get to school, but the community itself," says Price.
The collaboration itself has grabbed the attention of
Munetrix--a "transparency portal for the average citizen to be able to understand what's going on with their local government," explains co-founder Bob Kittle.
Kittle says Newberry is using Munetrix's service to enter in records to show the governor's office how they're using their government coffers. And in an age of fiscal stress, Kittle says Newberry is showing cities across the country, both big and small, how to collaborate to get things done.
"They need to be recognized," says Kittle of Newberry. "And it comes to light in our database," where Newberry's Safe Routes program is listed as an example of positive collaboration.
That is to say, any entity around the globe can find details of Newberry's Safe Routes program through Munetrix and use their collaborative example as a model to solve a problem. Now only time will tell if the state of Michigan will recognize Newberry's efforts, too.
"We need to replace sidewalks and get kids and seniors back on the sidewalks," says Holmes. "We've already had to eliminate our police department and continue to receive reduced budgets from the state, so this is a great opportunity at low matching cost for the village."
Joe Baur is a freelance writer and filmmaker based in Cleveland. He's also the Sections Editor of hiVelocity. You can contact him at joebaur.com.