NACDD’s Center for Advancing Healthy Communities (CAHC) celebrates a very successful year in its implementation of the Active People, Healthy NationTM Walkability Action Institute (WAI) project.
In 2023, in partnership with the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity and some of nation’s leading experts in public health, equity, and community and transportation design, the CAHC implemented four WAI events in various formats on the mainland including a National Walkability Virtual Academy (WVA), a Louisiana WAI, and two Hybrid WAI/WVA events (Michigan and South Carolina). With these events, the CAHC added 19 new participant teams to its National WAI Alumni Network. Following participation in their respective event, these 19 teams developed team action plans comprised of policy, system, and environmental approaches for improved walkability, movability, and community and transportation design in their locations.
In addition, the CAHC implemented a WAI with a U.S. Pacific Territory, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian, and Rota). At the close of its ninth project year, 95 interdisciplinary local/regional teams across 34 states and two U.S. Territories have received WAI project training since the course’s inception in 2015, have achieved approximately 1,000 sustainable outcomes to improve active transportation, and are helping increase NACDD’s walkability and movability footprint across the nation.
Outdoor walk/move audits during the Louisiana WAI (left) and the South Carolina Hybrid WAI/WVA (right).
The start of 2024 marks the 10th anniversary for the WAI project. It brings an opportunity to celebrate the hard work of many who continue to believe in and use this innovative and experiential course as the catalyst for creating and sustaining design changes in our communities and states. Improved community and transportation design help redesign the places where we live, learn, work, play, pray, and receive care so that we can more actively access the amenities we need to survive and thrive. The WAI exists as a learning mechanism to engage in necessary and uncomfortable conversations in a comfortable way, intentionally think about people that may not look like us or move like us, and help teams begin to invest in areas that are habitually not invested in and/or are often left out of funding and infrastructure opportunities. One 2023 participant summed it up best by saying, “The WAI is simply the most magical experience for change.”
For more information on NACDD’s WAI efforts or for a consultation on how to bring the WAI to your state or territory, please visit NACDD’s WAI project page or contact Karma Edwards at kedwards_ic@chronicdisease.org.