The Regional Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program was started in October of 2009. The program encompasses a seven-county region in northeast Wisconsin including Calumet, Fond du Lac, Menominee, Outagamie, Shawano, Waupaca, and Winnebago counties. Programming is designed around key components put forth by the Safe Routes Partnership, a national organization working to advance safe walking and rolling to and from schools. These components provide an organizing framework and are known as the six E’s. They include Education, Encouragement, Engagement, Equity, Engineering, and Evaluation.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation – East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has been awarded Safe Routes to School Grant funding since 2010. This funding provides local communities and schools the resources and the knowledge to increase the number of students walking and/or biking to school. East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission’s staff of planning and technical specialists includes environmental, economic development, open space, land use, housing, community, and transportation planners, as well as Geographic Information Systems staff. East Central promotes intergovernmental cooperation in planning for the future of our region, services include regional comprehensive planning, local contract planning, and technical services, as well as data collection and analysis.
The Regional Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan is a five year plan displaying programming goals and activities used to reach our mission of engaging and empowering schools and communities to foster healthy lifestyles through environmental changes and safe walking and bicycling. This plan was developed by the Regional Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Advisory Committee and was built upon working with SRTS partners to accomplish goals in the following four categories: partnerships and planning, education and encouragement, workshops and technology, and communications.