All motorists, cyclists and pedestrians should feel safe using the road. What would make your local roads safer? What type of awareness campaign would be effective in your community? We want to hear from you!

Date: Wednesday May 15, 2013

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Location: Exhibition Room, 5410 Spring Garden Road (Ralph M. Medjuck Building), Dalhousie University – Sexton Campus, Halifax

Refreshments and door prizes will be provided.

A workshop will be held in HRM to explore options for improving road safety for all users. This session will present successful campaign examples and invite you to contribute ideas for how to make your streets safer for all users. This is a project of DalTRAC (Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory) and Dalhousie University with support from the Ecology Action Centre.  Supporting partners include: the NS Department of Energy, Halifax Regional Municipality and the NS Road Safety Advisory Committee. Learn more here: http://tiny.cc/f4gbww.  

Upcoming Making Tracks Train-the-Trainer Sessions (for adults and youth): Cycling (HRM May 4^th and Mahone Bay May 16^th)

Is your recreation department, school or community organization looking for a new way to engage children and youth in a physical activity program that is both practical and fun?  Are you a high school student/do you know older youth looking for leadership opportunities?  Do you want to teach children and youth cycling, skateboarding, pedestrian or inline skating safety in a fun, hands on way?

We have two upcoming training sessions in cycling.  The program is approved by the Department of Education, meets multiple curriculum outcomes and its modular design can easily fit into recreation, school, safety and community programing.

These training sessions are aimed at adults and older high school youth to learn a mode of this fun, experientially focused program to then teach these active transportation skills directly to children and youth.  Once trained, you’ll have free access to Making Tracks manuals, passports for children/youth to track their learning progress, equipment to borrow (cycling tool kit, etc.), and support from the Ecology Action Centre to help make your program a success.  We’d love to see you there so you can learn the program to teach children and youth cycling safety to get them active in your communities!  Please distribute this widely.

Making Tracks Cycling HRM:  Saturday May 4^th, 1-7pm, $20/person (if cost is a barrier please let us know) Location TBD, Peninsular Halifax.  Please contact Jennifer McGowan for more information 442-5055 or walk@ecologyaction.ca.

Making Tracks Cycling Mahone Bay:  Thursday, May 16^th, 330-9pm, Mahone Bay, Bayview Community School

110 Clearway St., Mahone Bay, NS.  $20/person.  (If cost is a barrier please let Jennifer McGowan know 442-5055 or walk@ecologyaction.ca).  Please contact Rose MacEachen, Sweet Ride Cycling, 902-531-3026 or rose@sweetridecycling.com by May 9^th to register.

The Making Tracks program, developed by the Ecology Action Centre in partnership with St. FX University and Skate Pass (TM), teaches children and youth the skills needed to safely walk or wheel around their community in a fun and experiential way!  Choose one or more of the four modes offered (Cycling, Walking, In-Line Skating and/or Skateboarding).  Using a ‘train-the-trainer’ model recreation staff, teachers, police, youth mentors, and/or adult volunteers can be trained to deliver the program as part of a recreation camp, after school program, physical education class or community programming. 

Questions, inquiries or to set up a training in your community, please contact Jennifer McGowan, Youth Active Transportation Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre, 442-5055 or walk@ecologyaction.ca.  

Making Tracks is made possible with the support of the Province of Nova Scotia, The North Face® Explore Fund™, Halifax Regional Municipality, Mountain Equipment Co-op, St. Francis Xavier University, and Skate Pass ®.

Heart&Stroke Walkabout™ is supporting thousands of Nova Scotians to walk more and we canʼt do it without you.

Join us for Walkaboutʼs five year celebration on Thursday, April 18th from 12:00 to 1:15 at the Truro Holiday Inn. We will be hosting a lunch where we will discuss Walkaboutʼs success to date. Some regional results will be shared.

Partnerships and collaboration in communities have been key to the success of Walkabout. We will share how you can benefit from Walkabout in your efforts to promote physical activity.

Please RSVP by April 10 to Deborah.Fram@gov.ns.ca.

This event precedes the Physical Activity Practitioners Exchange gathering at 1:30.

The Nova Scotia Cricket Association is proud to deliver a program for youths in the Halifax Regional Municipality that promotes healthy exercise and fun.

Cricket For Youths offers kids 10 to 15 years the opportunity to kick start their participation in the sport of Cricket, learn and practice skills like batting, bowling, catching and throwing, as well as take part in a variety of games which allow them to experience playing Cricket and most importantly – HAVE FUN!!

Please see the poster attached!

Cricket_youthposter

via http://clean.ns.ca/programs/transportation/commuter-challenge/

Greetings fellow Commuters!

You and your workplace are invited to take part in Commuter Challenge 2013 taking place during Environment Week June 2-8th:

Is your productivity sitting around in traffic?

• The average time a person spends commuting is equivalent to 32 working days per year!*

Give your car the day off and explore the walk, rollerblade, cycle, carpool, ride the transit system or work from home. Join the friendly, week-long competition between Canadian cities and workplaces and demonstrate your organization’s commitment to employee health and the environment while fostering active, safe, and vibrant communities.

Be sure to visit www.commuterchallenge.ca to register your workplace or to sign up as an individual.  The registration process couldn’t be easier and is highlighted below.

Step 1: Register

Become a workplace coordinator – it’s easy, fun and encourages creativity!

<— Register/find your workplace

For assistance: 902-420-7944; dgillis@clean.ns.ca

• Register yourself as an individual within your organization
• Encourage co-workers to join you
• Access resources online 

Step 2: Prepare

Gear-up for Summer and HRM Bike Week, May 31 – June 9^th, with FREE SmartCycle lunch ‘n learns for your workplace/organization provided by:

 <— Learn to SmartCycle

Step 3: Take the Challenge & give your car a break!

 <— Login June 2-8 & track your commute

• Ride your bike; work from home; start a carpool; take transit; use your feet…
• Log your daily commute trips and get automatic progress reports: CO2 avoided, fuel saved, and calories burned! 
• Be active, get results!  Prizes to be awarded!

Step 4: Share your story

Stepping Up Halifax is creating a movement towards an active Halifax region and would like to hear from you! Step up and sign the physical activity declaration, sharing your alternative/active commute stories – new discoveries en route, highlights, advantages, challenges, and suggestions to inspire and keep us all moving forward.

 <— Sign the physical activity declaration

Local sponsors:

 ^* Stats Canada