El guía de San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI) has long prioritized active living as a key strategy for addressing childhood obesity. As Kristin Haukom, co-chair of the COI Government Domain stated, “Promoting active living strategies, like Safe Routes to School, helps our communities achieve and maintain healthy outcomes.”
In March 2024, these efforts took a major step forward when the COI hosted its All-Partner Convening at the Southeastern Live Well Center in collaboration with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). Reflecting on the joint meeting, Haukom commented, “This joint meeting was an incredible showing of our collective commitment to childhood wellness.”
The focus of this partnership was to provide critical community input to help inform SANDAG’s Vision Zero Action Plan. As the regional planning agency, SANDAG is spearheading the Vision Zero initiative aimed at eliminating all traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries across San Diego County, while simultaneously increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility options for residents of all ages and abilities.
At the heart of this work with SANDAG is the COI’s Government Domain workgroup, which called upon COI partners to conduct community walk audits to gather feedback for SANDAG. Walk audits involve a comprehensive assessment of walkability conditions and pedestrian safety in local neighborhoods. In preparing COI partners to conduct walk audits, the Government Domain co-chair, Kristin Haukom, provided comprehensive walk audit training to four other domain working groups, and the Community Council. Furthermore, the COI drafted detailed walk audit instructions and provided a list of schools located within SANDAG’s Safety Focus Network (SFN) – areas that currently experience high rates of traffic-related deaths and severe injuries.
Equipped with the walk audit training and instructions, COI partners fanned out across San Diego County to conduct assessments in the communities surrounding these high-priority SFN sites. In total, eight walk audits were performed by Community Council members and COI partners before the All-Partner Convening. After the convening, members of the Business and Community Domain did four more walk audits. The findings from all 12 of these audits were meticulously compiled into a standardized template.
At the Convening, COI partners presented their community walk audit findings directly to SANDAG’s Vision Zero team. The opportunity to incorporate this critical community input will play a vital role in shaping the specific projects, initiatives, and infrastructure improvements that SANDAG will greenlight for investment through their Vision Zero Action Plan over the next five years. Ultimately, the COI’s collaboration with SANDAG exemplifies the strength of community-driven initiatives in creating environments that enable children and families to develop lifelong healthy habits. By taking the lead on this partnership, the Government Domain is furthering longstanding COI efforts around active living, Vision Zero, and Safe Routes to School. This work holds great potential for reducing childhood obesity rates in San Diego communities by improving walking and biking safety while enabling more active lifestyles.