Ontario Active School Travel has replaced Active & Safe Routes to School as the name for Green Communities Canada’s active school travel program in Ontario.
The Ontario Active School Travel name, wordmark, website, Twitter and Facebook page will henceforth be used for all program related activities and communications.
Why Ontario Active School Travel?
Green Communities Canada’s mandate is to support active school travel programming in the province of Ontario. Our new program name acknowledges our geographical focus as we continue to work with partnerships across the country.
Our new name communicates our goal to promote walking and wheeling on the school journey and reflects the growing popularity of “active school travel” as the commonly accepted term for the work we do.
What about Active & Safe Routes to School?
Many communities have adopted Active & Safe Routes to School, ASRTS or variants as the name of their committees, activities, and programs and may continue to do so.
However, the Ontario Active School Travel name and wordmark will not be used without permission from Green Communities Canada.
The Ontario project
In 2017, in partnership with Heart & Stroke, Green Communities Canada secured a three-year $3.5M funding commitment from the Ontario government. This historic initiative has enabled the establishment the Ontario Active School Travel Fund for local partnership-based projects that grow and sustain active school travel.
Provincial funding enables us to greatly increase the support we provide to communities such as educational tools, training, mentoring, site visits, partnership-building for program development, and peer networking.
The Ontario Active School Travel Council is being launched this year to address strategic challenges and opportunities for moving forward.
Partners make it happen
After so many years of effort, we are heartened by the surge in interest in active transportation for the school journey. The Ontario Active School Travel Network enhances partnerships with school boards, municipalities, school transportation consortia, public health departments, community organizations, and police forces. Our collaborations help us to achieve progress.
Change is afoot!