During COVID-19 stay at home orders, improvements to air and water quality around the globe showed how changing our transportation practices could benefit the environment. We also know that physical activities, like walking, can help prevent chronic diseases and promote health. This webinar highlights the multiple benefits of walking and walkable communities, and provides the information and inspiration you need to join the hundreds of public libraries around the country that are contributing to the development of healthy and resilient communities. Learn how to advocate for safe walking routes to your libraries, how to partner with parks and recreation, local transportation departments, and others committed to building safe, accessible, equitable places to walk and move.

Presenters:

• Mike McGinn, Executive Director, America Walks
• Noah Lenstra, Director, Let’s Move in Libraries
• Mary Sizemore, Director, High Point Public Library (North Carolina)
• Jeffrey T. Davis, Branch Manager at San Diego Public Library and author, The Collection All Around: Sharing Our Cities, Towns, and Natural Places (ALA Editions, 2017)

Tweet: #wjwebinar

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Webinar Attachments

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• View chat (xls)
• View captions (txt)
  
• Learner Guide (doc) Use alone or with others to extend your learning.

Related Resources and Links

• Referenced by Noah
  • Let’s Move in Libraries
  • Connecting Activity-Friendly Routes to Everyday Destinations, CDC
  • Physical Activity: Built Environment Approaches Combining Transportation System Interventions with Land Use and Environmental Design, The Community Guide
  • Safe Routes Partnership
  • Wilton Public & Gregg Free Library Transformation Story (pdf), Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces
  • AARP Walk Audit Tool Kit (and Leader Guide)
  • Iowa City Public Library hosted a mural walk to showcase some of the area’s newest artwork, The Daily Iowan
  • Walking History: Library-led sightseeing tours bring local stories to life, American Libraries
  • Come help the Friends of the Library beautify the grounds, The Mountaineer
  • Curious City StoryWalk signs
  • Libraries: The New Engine of Community Engagement and Walkable Neighborhood Advocacy, Noah Lenstra, America Walks blog
  • Take a StoryWalk Through Downtown with the Library, Noah Lenstra, WebJunction.org
  • Think Outside the Library with a Sidewalk Obstacle Course, Noah Lenstra, WebJunction.org
  • 9 Ways To Take a Walk with the Library, Noah Lenstra, Programming Librarian
  • StoryWalk info on Let's Move in Libraries
  • Public Libraries and Walkable Neighborhoods, Noah Lenstra and Jenny Carlos, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019
  • Example of a school-library StoryWalk. Plainfield StoryWalk Pops Up at Elementary Schools Library partners with PSD202 to bring temporary storybook displays to two sites this summer
    
• Referenced by Mike
  • America Walks
  • The Walking College
  • America Walks Webinars and Walking Summits
    
  • America Walk's How to Conduct a Walk Audit in Your Community, with video and resources
  • Community Change Grants
    
• Referenced by Jeffrey
  • The Collection All Around: Sharing Our Cities, Towns, and Natural Places (ALA Editions, 2017)
  • Linda Vista Historical Walking Tour
  • About United Way Born Learning and Trail Kit Ordering
  • Safe Routes to School Programs
  • San Diego Public Library Check Out Nature, backpack lending program
    
• Referenced by Mary, High Point Public Library (HPPL)
  
  • Recipe for Success program (partnership with University of NC at Greensboro) that is the foundation for HPPL Culinary Kids programs
  • EPA’s Local Foods Local Places, the 2020-2021 Application information, and HPPL final report for Local Foods Local Places project with action plan. See additional EPA opportunity, Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities
    
  • High Point Farmers Market, located at the High Point Public Library
  • NC Poverty Research Fund Report, "Surviving Through Together":Hunger, Poverty and Persistence in High Point, North Carolina (pdf)
  • HPPL Urban Hikes Challenge
• Other resources
  • Thinking Outside: Libraries and Placemaking in Pandemic Times, WebJunction.org, includes information on Project for Public Spaces
  • Explore Library Profiles from WebJunction's Health Happens in Libraries project
• Shared in Chat
  • Lewis & Clark Branch Libraries Bring StoryWalk® to Lewis and Clark County
  • About Walk with a Doc
  • Every Wednesday in October the Brooklyn Public Library shut down the street to vehicles to do an outdoor library, Street To Close In Front Of Bed-Stuy Library For Family Fun
  • Another library hosting a farmer's market, SoCo Farmers Market at Deale’s Library
  • Consider a program on Fall Prevention
  • Birding & walking, e.g. The BC Bird Trail
  • Play Walk, Rochester, NY