Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Promotes Active Communities

Bridging the gap among trail, community development, and public health professionals to promote community health

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which has worked for 18 years to create dedicated walking and bicycling pathways nationwide, developed a health-related component for the organization's 2001 and 2003 conferences.

Key Results
Under the grants, the Conservancy's new Public Health Leadership Initiative accomplished the following:

  • Developed health-related sessions for the 2001 conference, including the opening plenary, five workshops, a roundtable discussion and two mini-plenary sessions.
    • Developed two fact sheets, Health Community: What You Should Know about Trail Building and Trail Builders: What You Should Know about the Health Community, and distributed 1,000 copies at the conference.
    • Added a health page to its Web site.
  • Developed health-related sessions for the 2003 conference, including four workshops, one mini-plenary session, one roundtable discussion and one mobile workshop. All speeches are available at Speeches available online.
    • Completed a report describing best practices nationwide, Creating Active Communities: Ten Case Studies of Programs and Partnerships, and disseminated some 1,500 copies. The report is available online.

Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with two 12-month grants totaling $150,842, running from July 2001 to February 2004.

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