America Walks’ Spring Membership Drive is Could 12-23, 2025! As we welcome new and returning members, and thank present members for upping their month-to-month donations, we’re proud to proceed our work in supporting walkable communities.
America Walks members are essential to powering the advocacy, organizing, and options we have to defend and increase walkability for all. Our members:
Assist grassroots efforts that make actual change
Be a part of a nationwide community working in direction of secure, walkable, and vibrant communities
Assist shield our communities going through funding threats
Right here’s a take a look at a number of the work our members immediately fund with their donations:
Communities Over Highways
America Walks is proud to host Communities Over Highways, a nationwide coalition of over 200 federal, state, and native organizations calling for investments in communities, no more freeway growth. The final two Communities Over Highways Summits introduced collectively grassroots advocates from across the U.S. to study from one another and proceed to construct a nationwide motion.
Study extra about this 12 months’s Communities Over Highways Summit.
Week With out Driving
America Walks nationally launched Week With out Driving, an annual initiative that trains native advocates on constructing momentum round transportation, incapacity justice, well being, housing, local weather change, and different intersecting points to convey consideration to the challenges skilled by those that don’t drive — roughly 30% of the U.S. inhabitants. Week With out Driving additionally trains elected officers to raised perceive their non-driving constituencies.
Hundreds of people, over 700 elected officers, and greater than 500 organizations have joined Week With out Driving, demonstrating its rising collective energy to shift the dialog about how we transfer and constructing extra equitable, sustainable, and secure transportation techniques.
This 12 months’s Week With out Driving will run September 29–October 5, 2025.
Nationwide Strolling Faculty
The Nationwide Strolling Faculty is an academic program geared in direction of group champions working to increase entry to walkable, vibrant, secure, and accessible locations. Chosen yearly, Strolling Faculty fellows hone in to deal with an issue of their group, develop information and abilities to assist result in optimistic change, and interact with mentors and friends to create a plan of motion.
Over 500 advocates working throughout the nation have accomplished this system, studying the fundamentals of advocacy and organizing in addition to impactful methods to make their communities extra walkable.
Neighborhood Change Grants
The Neighborhood Change Grants program helps a rising community of group champions, organizations, and companies working to advance walkability. Grants are awarded to modern and interesting applications and initiatives that create change and alternative for strolling and motion on the group stage.
By way of the generosity of Energetic Folks, Wholesome Nation companions, this annual program awards six grants to communities for initiatives associated to creating wholesome, energetic, and engaged locations to dwell, work, and play. The grant recipients for the most recent spherical of this system have been lately introduced. We have now additionally expanded this system to incorporate 15 grants for related initiatives which can be funded by Normal Motors.
Bettering Security
America Walks believes that security is vital to making sure individuals can transfer freely of their communities. Over the previous couple of years, we led a public push to revise the Guide on Uniform Site visitors Management Units, the federal handbook governing road design. That revision helped to enact adjustments that make it simpler to construct crosswalks, set decrease pace limits, and prioritize pedestrian security on each road within the nation.
We additionally created the Safer Fleets marketing campaign to encourage government-owned car fleets to make use of the most secure attainable autos. New York Metropolis; Ventura County, California; Somerville, Massachusetts; and Washington, D.C. are at the moment retrofitting their autos with clever pace help, with extra jurisdictions researching the chance for safer streets. Moreover, we’ve campaigned and received a federal regulatory change that requires pedestrian detection and computerized braking in all new autos.
And let’s not neglect about our profitable campaigns to decriminalize unfair jaywalking legal guidelines in Virginia, California, Nevada, Kansas Metropolis, New York Metropolis, and Anchorage!
Working With Communities
At America Walks, we prioritize working immediately with the communities that transportation and mobility points immediately have an effect on.
We have now assisted advocates in Minneapolis, Rochester, Albany, Seattle, San Francisco, and Tulsa in making use of for and profitable federal Reconnecting Communities grants. We’ve additionally labored with state-level coalitions in Minnesota, California, and Illinois to develop plans to scale back local weather emissions from transportation.
America Walks has offered technical help to Yuma, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation to assist apply for and win federal Secure Streets for All planning grants, and we’ve offered customized help to cities, cities, and advocacy organizations on how you can apply for related federal grants.
Our work is just getting began! Turn out to be an America Walks member immediately by donating right here.
