What can families
and students do?
You can support the Manifesto to promote a non-legislative proposal and evaluate your municipality. Detailed information is available in the respective sections of this website.
In addition, you can ask your school to address this issue in class, organise related activities through the family associations or other interested organisations, and help to spread the proposal through social networks, WhatsApp and other communication channels.
CONNECT AND PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES OF INTEREST
These are some of the organisations and bodies involved in safe and healthy school environments, active mobility, sustainability and children’s health. Visit their websites for more information, sign up for activities and subscribe to their newsletters to keep up to date with relevant news.
Steps to implement changes or improvements
in the school environment at institutional level
- Download the model motion found in this web section (“What can you do?”).
- Adapt the text of the request to the context of the community and/or school. To do this, it is advisable to first analyse the context, the human and economic resources and the institutional support needed to carry out the requested changes and the revision of the municipal bylaws in order to improve road safety and the environmental quality of the school environment. It is recommended to contact the different political groups with representation (at municipal, regional or provincial level, as appropriate) to make an initial assessment of how they view the request.
- WARNING! A motion is a political will, but it is not binding. In other words, there is no obligation to abide by the agreements or mechanisms to enforce them.
- Send the motion to the municipal groups (or politicians of the relevant administration) to formalise the request.
- If the motion is approved by the plenary session of the city council, provincial council, county council, etc., follow up on the fulfilment of the agreements made in the motion (by contacting the government, community groups, or by making requests or asking questions in the plenary session).
- WARNING! It is important that all this work is accompanied by dissemination campaigns aimed at citizens or interested parties (e.g. schools, family associations, etc.), street activities, communications with the media, etc. On this website you can consult a list of organisations and groups of activists who are organising street actions that you can join and/or get information on how to organise them in your municipality or community.
Additional actions
In addition to the indicators, the “Safe and Healthy School Environments” initiative proposes other actions:
- Review municipal by-laws to improve road safety around schools.
- The development of these school routes projects should include the participation of children, in accordance with their rights as recognised by the United Nations. The educational administrations should guarantee the school routes and promote sustainable travel. As a progressive objective, from primary school onwards, pupils will develop daily habits of active and autonomous mobility. The necessary collaboration with local institutions and organisations, means that the school soutes projects must be understood as an educational resource that allows for collective reflection on the loss of the street by children, making the educational administrations responsible for leadership and coordination in order to reverse this situation.
- Include measures to promote a safe and healthy school environment in the municipal urban development plans. For example, the reservation of green spaces around schools, the intention to include pedestrian or cycle lanes around schools and throughout the municipality.
- Include specific traffic reduction and traffic calming measures around schools in the sustainable urban mobility plans. For example, include pedestrian and cycle lanes, improved signage and a change in the mobility hierarchy to give priority to pedestrians.
- Prioritise proximity to school as a basic criterion for the school area, for the benefit of children and the whole community. It is proposed to reverse the implementation of the ‘single school zone’, which has had such a negative impact on the increase in daily motorised journeys. It should be borne in mind that the most common walking distance between home and school is 1.5 km and the distance that can be cycled is about 4 km.
- Promote public transport. Ensure that public transport stops are safe, accessible and child-friendly, and that there are enough stops in the urban area. Reduced fares should also be considered if the school or secondary school is far from the city centre.