The Walking Detective™ Teaches Kids to Investigate Walkability in Their Neighborhoods and Much More, Right Before the End of the School Year
Kansas City, Mo (PRWEB) April 26, 2017 -- KC Healthy Kids has introduced a new character and workbook to help kids speak out for healthy communities.
The Walking Detective™ is a toolkit featuring Ghedi (GEH-dee), a fictional ten-year-old Somali refugee who makes his home in Kansas City. His name means “a traveller” or “born during travel” in Somali and that’s what he does best. He walks and rides his bike to school everyday.
He is on a mission to teach kids about walking, biking safely and to speak out for changes to improve active transportation.
Right before summer, Ghedi can help kids understand the importance of walking and to find out how walkable their communities are. With the help of Ghedi’s workbook, teachers can assist kids to conduct walking audits to find clues and collect evidence to show how walkable or bikeable their communities are. This can continue with them through summer, where they can, with the help of their parents or guardians, continue their investigation and learn to speak up for healthy communities with the tools provided in the toolkit.
The kids’ workbook includes a clue checklist so they know what to look for, space to take notes and draw pictures of they see around their built environment, a scoring guide, instructions for creating a case file and a customizable letter to lawmakers.
A scoring guide helps them evaluate sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic, safety and amenities like parks and benches. They take photos, draw pictures and make notes as evidence.
With these materials kids can build a case report to show city officials what things are working well and what things need to be improved.
The Leader’s Guide is full of facts and stats, tips and additional resources to help teachers and community leaders create a safe, effective and authentic learning experience for kids in grades 3-8.
Ghedi’s character was created by Andrea Clark. It is based on Somali refugee children she met through her work in Refugee and Immigration Services at Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. She brought the idea to KC Healthy Kids last summer.
“When I volunteered with refugee families, I saw the difficulties they faced with transportation on a daily basis. First they have to learn English to get a driver’s license.
Then they have to make enough money to afford a car. And their neighborhood is probably not very walkable, which is especially important for kids trying to get to school. The purpose of the Walking Detective™ is to empower kids like Ghedi to speak out for safe places to walk, bike and play.”
Ghedi and the Walking Detective™ materials debuted at Champions for Health Youth Summit on March 2.
Contact us for details on the Walking Detective™.
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About KC Healthy Kids
KC Healthy Kids rallies the people in our communities to improve access to affordable fresh food and safe places to walk and play. When our neighborhoods support healthy habits, we are less likely to suffer from obesity, which is linked to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and poor mental health. To make a lasting impact, we shape policies that improve our food system and physical surroundings and ultimately, the places where we live, work, learn, and play.
Visit us at http://www.kchealthykids.org.
Sarah Shipley, Shipley Communications, http://www.investamericafund.com/, +1 202-577-7141, [email protected]
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