Intersectoral Collaborations to Engage Communities to Improve Walkability in Alberta (symposia)

Background WalkABle Alberta started in 2011 in advance of the Walk21 annual conference in Vancouver. As an interactive community workshop engaging community stakeholders to develop actions improving community walkability. The process, based on Walk21’s the International Charter for Walking, resulted in a community report (ahs.ca/walk). There are many benefits in working together to leverage resources and support each other to accomplish unique organizational goals. Multiple presenters will explain how their organization worked with AHS through WalkABle Alberta to help communities accomplish their walkability improvement goals. Description Four presentations from different sectors: Health: Alberta Health Services (WalkABle Alberta) engaged other sectors/programs; Recreation: Alberta Recreation and Park’s Association’s Communities ChooseWell program supports communities to promote wellness by developing programs, policies, places, and partnerships that enable active living and healthy eating. Several communities have benefited from WalkABle Alberta workshops and seed grants from Communities ChooseWell through increased capacity and resources for improving walkability to create healthier, more active communities; Not-for profit: Active Neighbourhoods Canada (Sustainable Calgary) worked within Calgary and more recently a regional community. Together they leveraged resources and supported each other in accomplishing organizational goals supporting community walkability change; Private Industry: Stantec provided support to the WalkABle Alberta process, assisted in technical aspects of engineering community change recommendations, and supported communities in implementing recommendations/physical change that resulted from the community visit. Outcomes Broaden reach by sharing organizational community networks; Share strengths and resources of each organization reducing duplication and building on existing initiatives; Preparation with communities identified needs and readiness providing a unique process that best suited the community; The key role and influence of municipal governments to accomplish many of the actions. Implications Additional presenters and/or sharing of examples of how local organizations leveraged their own resources to take action in improving community walkability will be included in this session. The summary presentation that will complete the panel discussion will highlight the models or frameworks that have proven successful, and those that need more refined effort, in hopes that other communities and agencies can partner on similar initiatives to engage communities in creating more capacity and impact towards walkability.