Hi. I am Ana. I am 8 years old and I am in the 3rd grade. Of school, of course. Did you read that article about me? On me and my way to school? How we started to change how I go to school. And my friends as well. No longer by car. At least not all of us. And not each morning. We checked nice ideas like school streets, WalkingBuses, drop-off points, sidewalk murals and walking routes. We want a cycling training for pupils as well. And we did the Traffic Snake Game! That was fun.
Wait. You cannot follow my talk? Do you know about WalkingBuses? PediBuses? Or a school street? If you are not sure, take a look at that article. It tells you about that.
So, getting back to how I go to school today: I do not drive along with my mom and dad each day. I walk with my friends. We are a “Driverless-WalkingBus”, you could say :)
They called us like that in the URBACT local group. That’s where me, my parents, my friend Maria - she works for the city! - and more people start the change on how all children go to school in my town. We have set up a plan: we took up good ideas and tested some of them in my school. Like the Traffic Snake Game. And now, we want to deliver this to all schools. But we are not all too sure if we are on the right track.
So, Maria had a good idea: to take a look at how the SCHOOLHOODs cities did this. We know about their actions. And we want to get the best out of that. Since: what better can we do than to learn from how others do? But guess what! They decided to send ME to visit all the cities! Why so? Maria told me that they want to get this from the eyes of a child. To make sure that actions in our city fit to our needs. Children’s needs. “Since it is about how YOU go to school”, Maria told me.
Of course I did not go alone. My parents went along with me. It was not too hard to convince them. They said that this reminds them on their youth when they travelled Europe by train. “Interrail” or something they called it. They always smile when they talk on that time.
So, I did a road trip to all SCHOOLHOODs cities! To Brasov. Brno. Skawina. Turku. Parma. Zadar. And Rethymno. My mission: talk to people. To meet pupils - other “Anas” - and other “Marias”. To see what challenges they had and how they solved them. Maria gave me “mission briefs” for each city. That’s a main point for each city she wanted me to look at. And possibly my parents. They needed to work a bit as well in the end.
Maria also told me to do a travel diary. So that I do not forget what I saw, what I learned. So that I can bring all this back to my city and tell people about it. And guess what? It was the best trip of my life! So far :)
Here is my travel diary:
My road trip to the SCHOOLHOODs cities ended here. I was a bit sad, but also happy and eager to go home. To report on what I saw. On what I talked about. And on what I learnt for my own city. For going big. For improving take-up.
So, what did I learn on my road trip?
-> I know where to start with: people’s mindsets. Without that, nothing works out.
-> I learned as well not to stick to that only. But to create action sets that complement each other: like running a Brno Dragon Game in school, providing colourful guidance for the school walk and fencing off traffic around school start.
-> I know how to design my set of actions in such a logical and interconnected way. I know how to track them. If they work out or not. Or something in between.
-> I learned how to upscale these actions to all schools on my town. How to add an upscale chapter to each measure. Or an own upscale task team.
-> I know how to get decision makers and people on board. Best to go super-local and work with the ones who are affected by what they plan and do. And to agree on a setting that sees things happen instead of insisting on ideal-case-actions that people will hardly agree to right from the start.
-> I know that we need to survey and measure how we go to school. And also, how we move in the city outside of school time.
-> I know that we need to set up this network of school mobility manager to make things work out easy and in the long run.
And I learned that we need to work together. That it is not the schools or the city that can solve all challenges alone. Like in Turku, where schools, the city and parents work together to bring back cycling skills and the fun of it to children.
And I learnt that there are Maria’s everywhere. Grown-ups that care for children and how we go to school. They have different names, but they are all like my Maria. Making moving in the city safe and easy for children. And of course there are Anas out there everywhere as well!
And there are a Maria and an Ana in your town as well! You only need to invite them to work with you for something – or someone – dear to them. To work with you in your local group. To improve how children go to school.
HUGS! Ana.
P.S.: I have a good hint for an easy start: take a look at the SCHOOLHOODs videos. They’ll tell you what’s in it to work on safe, green and happy ways to school. For politicians. For schools. For parents, For cities. You can find them here, at the URBACT SCHOOLHOODs website!
