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Come Walk with Us WYCO

Cleaning up the streets; one neighborhood at a time

 

Leader

Donna Young

Location

803 Armstrong Avenue Kansas City, KS 66101

About the project

Money raised will help fund improving our neighborhood sidewalk, curb, street, and lighting conditions through our Community Action and Youth Community Action Boards. These are community-led groups that provide leadership on issues related to public health in our community.

Walking is the most basic form of human mobility and it’s good for our overall health and wellness! Please read below to learn more, and to see what we have already accomplished, and intend to accomplish with our funds.

The Steps

Step 1: To create a baseline maps and field note sheetsfor each of the neighborhoods. This is our data collection starting point.

Step 2: Host training sessions at neighborhood association meetings. Open to all residents and neighborhood stakeholders including businesses, community policing, faith leaders, civic leaders, elected officials, and school administration.

Step 3: Conduct the walk audit! All volunteers are deployed to walk the designated routes collecting data as trained in the workshop.

Step 4: Technical Experts compile all data collected on the field note sheets and enter this data on the basemap in preparation for Step 5

Step 5: Review the results and identify top priorities for infrastructure improvements.

Step 6: Present top priorities to Unified Government, Urban Planning, Public Works, and other infrastructure improvement stakeholders.

Why we‘re doing it

 

This project doesn’t just improve health outcomes through increasing  mobility, it is a shot of adrenaline for community empowerment, and it provides a deep level of enrichment for the youth who may not otherwise engage with architects, urban planners, community activists, and other community stakeholders. Come Walk With Us WYCO…Cleaning up the streets; one neighborhood at a time!

 

2 years ago, several community organizations hosted listening sessions with residents to identify the top priorities in the northeast area of Kansas City, KS. During these sessions, we learned that our residents were grappling with issues centered in the built environment.

The conditions of streets, sidewalks, curbs and lighting were inhibiting our community’s ability to access and enjoy recreational spaces, safe routes to schools and parks, and limiting social interactions between neighbors. These conditions were reducing our residents’ abilities to fully engage in the community and contributing to poor health outcomes. 

Following these listening sessions, we invited the residents to participate in a community walk audit and prioritization process. These community-based organizations, have leveraged community feedback, a variety of resources, and technical assistance to create a solution that would mitigate the challenge of unsafe streets and sidewalks.

A “neighborhood walk audit” process was designed to allow residents and students to participate in the data collection and prioritization process. As of today, 5 neighborhood audits have been successfully completed. Priority infrastructure improvement recommendations have already helped to inform new sidewalk installation routes where students actually walk to school!

We currently have 3 more neighborhoods ready to execute their neighborhood walk audits…3 of the largest, most densely populated neighborhoods in the historic northeast portion of Wyandotte County. While the majority of the work is achieved through volunteer efforts, there is a portion of the project that does require monetary support.

We need your help, please consider supporting this health-centered, community-building initiative. Increasing walking within our communities can be a strategy for achieving equity by reducing unequal burdens of disease (low-income communities tend to have higher rates of chronic disease); and reducing transportation costs.

$0.24 still needed of $11,774.00