The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) is excited to usher in another year of the Active People, Healthy Nation^SM Walkability Action Institute (WAI) project. This year marks the 10^th birthday of the WAI project. The WAI supports states and communities in creating activity-friendly communities. Activity-friendly communities provide welcoming, safe, and convenient places to play, walk, roll, take public transit, and bike to enjoy destinations the community has to offer.

The WAI has become a flagship program of NACDD’s Center for Advancing Healthy Communities. Over the past ten years, the project has provided training and technical assistance to 99 interdisciplinary teams from 36 states, in addition to the United States Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Examples of outcomes achieved include:

• More than 1,400 actions, such as the adoption of Complete Streets policies, implemented to improve walking, reaching over 60 million Americans
• $540 million leveraged across various funding sources to support activity-friendly communities

Through the WAI, participant teams gain knowledge on walkability, movability, and community design, and explore key topics such as influencing the “3 P’s”:

• Helping all people have improved activity friendly routes to everyday destinations
• Redesigning places to encourage participation, gathering, and social connection
• Supporting long-term prosperity through economic growth and community vibrancy

This year, NACDD will convene WAIs in two states – Alaska and Michigan. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NACDD will engage Alaska in its first WAI. With support from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Transportation, NACDD will work with Michigan to implement its second WAI. The WAI format and content will be customized to meet each state’s needs through a combination of in-person and virtual learning sessions. Each state will engage several teams, made up of local, cross-disciplinary community partners, learning from the nation’s top experts and taking part in hands-on activities like outdoor walk/move audits and photovoice assignments. These activities help WAI participants see and experience the concepts taught in the course in real-world settings. At the end of the WAI, each team will create a unified team action plan with strategies designed to impact the policies, systems, and environments within their local communities to enhance walkability and movability.

For more information, please contact Karma Edwards.