Diverse school community engagement with the North Carolina active routes to school project: a diffusion study

Abstract

BackgroundSchools located in rural parts of the United States and North Carolina have benefited proportionally less from the federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program than their more urban counterparts. We investigated whether and how diverse elementary and middle school communities throughout North Carolina have engaged in a SRTS-inspired, multi-sectoral initiative called the Active Routes to School (ARTS) project over the course of 5 years (2013 through 2017).MethodsAnalyses included a study sample of 2602 elementary and middle schools in North Carolina, 853 that participated in the ARTS project over the five-year study period and 1749 that had not. Statistical models controlling for county- and school-level confounders predicted schools’ involvement in walking and bicycling-promotive events, programs, and policies over time.ResultsSchools’ engagement with ARTS Project programming increased significantly over the study period, with 33% of eligible schools participating with the project by the end of 2017. Participation was most common in promotional events. Such event participation predicted engagement with regularly recurring programming and school- and district-level establishment of biking- and walking-facilitative policies. Lower income schools were more likely to establish recurring bike and walk programs than wealthier schools, whereas rural schools were less likely than city schools to participate in promotional events, yet equally as likely as other schools to participate in recurring bike and walk programs.ConclusionsSchools’ engagement with the North Carolina ARTS Project diffused despite many schools’ rural geographies and lower socioeconomic status. Further, participation in one-time promotional events can portend schools’ establishment of recurring walking and biking programs and supportive policies.

Supporting children’s participation in active travel: developing an online road safety intervention through a collaborative integrated knowledge translation approach

“…In accordance with this approach, we sought to design objectives and incorporate educational strategies and materials specifically adapted to AST which aligned with previous implementation suggestions. We thus aimed to ensure the inclusion of sufficient planning activities (Koester et al, 2021 ), while also constructing the intervention in manner that its “designed for diffusion” (LaJeunesse et al, 2019 ) in larger school health and health promotion systems by creating an intervention with a variety of potential applications: independent mobility/AST promotion (e.g., Module 1: “ explore the benefits of active transportation on physical, mental, and social well-being ”), general AST/active transportation education (e.g., Module 2: “ identify safety risks associated with being a pedestrian” ), and pedestrian and cyclist skill development (e.g., Module 3: “ teach children the concept of right of way, and how right of way applies to pedestrians and motorists at intersections ”, and Module 4: “ teach children how to ride safely on the road and/or sidewalk” ). …”

“…As the need for more rigorous developmental assessments has seemingly grown, recent studies have begun reporting findings related to AST intervention design processes. Of note, findings suggest that engaging in ample planning activities (e.g., ensuring buy-in, opportunities for engagement) (Koester et al, 2021 ) and “designing for diffusion,” or developing an approach for diffusion in a larger system (e.g., AST interventions with strategies for use in health promotion systems) (LaJeunesse et al, 2019 ) might improve the success of such interventions. Similarly, within the larger context of PA intervention design, approaches for programme development have identified the mobilization of intersectoral partnerships (e.g., informational, social, and behavioural, policy inputs) and engagement in capacity building partnerships (e.g., community stakeholders (Heath et al, 2012 )) as effective strategies to generating materials with sufficient scope and relevance.…”