Walking & Wheeling Skills Resource Hub

We recommend that you go through all the information in the “Foundations” section first, to get a sense of what others have done. You can then use this information to guide your decisions about what best suits your community, and to make plans for an effective and sustainable program.

Program Planning Checklist

Print off this page and use it to guide your skills training research and planning, and to compile your ideas and notes all in one place.

• Program Planning Checklist

Existing Programs list (as of April 2022)

Review this list to see if there is an existing walking & wheeling skills training program that already serves your area. If there is, reach out to connect with the program leaders. If not, continue through the steps below.

• Existing Programs List

Lessons Learned Report (published in March 2022)

This report is based on input from 12 programs currently being delivered across Canada, and on interviews with communities looking to launch programs. It will help you map out the type and scale of programming you want to offer and includes lessons learned on budgeting, planning the scope and focus of your project, leveraging existing resources, establishing a program model, etc.

• Full Report: Building a Collaborative Approach to Walking & Wheeling Skills Training in Schools
• Summary: 12 Lessons Learned
• Summary: 5 Collective Calls to Action

Case Studies

These six case studies describe how various organizations have worked to address common challenges:

• Sharing curriculum across jurisdictions
• Incorporating skills training into local schools
• Coordinating on multi-modal training
• Prioritizing equity within instructor recruitment and training
• Consortia-led program development
• Coordinated instructor training

Once you have decided on the focus and scope of your program, you’ll need to consider the resources that will be required to make it all happen.

Program Expense Mapping Tool

This program expenses mapping tool will help you think through all your possible program expenses, which can vary widely from community to community. We’ve provided three sample expense calculations to give you an idea of the range of potential total costs.

• Program Expense Mapping Tool (pdf to print)
• Program Expense Mapping Tool (xlsx)

*Note: These tools are based on the experiences and advice of organizations currently delivering school-based walking & wheeling skills training programs across Canada. They focus on cycling-only programs as there is not enough data available to develop a similar mapping tool for walking-only programs at this time.

Potential Funding Sources

Once you have developed your program plan and budget, check out this list of possible funding sources.

• Potential Funding Sources List

Tested and transferable program models and materials exist, and organizations are willing to share. When planning for your local program, don’t reinvent the wheel. Leverage existing materials and then focus on investing your time and resources on other aspects of program planning and delivery.

Skills Training Curriculum

Below are links to summaries of recommended curriculum resources that you can use in your community. These summaries provide the initial information you’ll need when planning budgeting for your program. When you’re ready to move ahead, get in touch with the corresponding organizations who can provide you access to the latest versions.

• Walking Skills Training Curriculum Summary
• Cycling Skills Training Curriculum Summary

School Curriculum Connections

When promoting walking & wheeling skills training to schools, it’s important to be able to show how your program helps teachers meet existing school curriculum requirements. This will help to make the case for your program within the busy school calendar. Some work has already been done in Ontario to highlight these school curriculum links.

• School Curriculum Connections – Walking

Before launching your program, you’ll need a pool of trained instructors. Exactly how you recruit and train these instructors can vary. As you will have read in our “Foundations” section, there are a few different approaches to instructor training and recruitment. We’ve compiled a few tips on how you can get started without needing to develop your own instructor training program.

Instructor Training Tips

This resource focuses on tips related to walking & wheeling skills instructor training in the Ontario context specifically.

• Instructor Training Tips

Sample Instructor Job Posts

See how other organizations are recruiting their instructors and describing the positions.

• Cycling Instructor Job Post
• Walking Instructor Job Post

Instructor to Student Ratio Recommendations

Instructor to student ratios vary across programs. We recommend that Ontario-based programs refer to the supervision ratios that have been developed by Ophea.

• Supervisor Ratios – Cycling

*Note: Ophea does not have supervisor ratio recommendations specific to walking