We support sustainable mobility for children and youth:

Green Communities Canada has been a long-standing leader in promoting sustainable school mobility through research, advocacy, and training programs, supplemented with educational resources, collaborative partnerships, and knowledge exchange events. We were founding members of Canada Walks, Active School Travel Canada, and the Canadian Active Transportation Alliance. These coalitions worked closely with the Government of Canada to support the creation of Canada’s first National Active Transportation Strategy and Fund. 

In the mid-1990s, Green Communities Canada employee, Jacky Kennedy, began introducing activities to get more kids walking and wheeling at three Toronto schools. By 2000, the idea was spreading quickly across Ontario, and in 2006, Green Communities Canada adapted the School Travel Planning program for Canada. The program was soon after piloted in four provinces and a comprehensive toolkit was developed. 

In 2009, Green Communities Canada and multiple partners introduced School Travel Planning to more than 120 schools across Canada as part of the Children’s Mobility, Health and Happiness project. In 2017, the Active & Safe Routes to School program was expanded and renamed to Ontario Active School Travel, and over a span of five years the program invested $2.8 million in local active travel initiatives across 62 communities. 

Since then, Green Communities Canada has continued to lead innovative programming across the country, ranging from on-the-ground implementation of School Travel Planning to the coordination of the National Active School Streets Initiative and Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance.