America Walks organizes the annual Community Change Grants program to support organizations working to make walking safer and more inviting. These are small mini grants of $2,000 each for community-led projects that help foster walking. Nonprofits (501c3), schools, libraries, public offices, and other organizations working with nonprofits are eligible to apply.
This year's program - applications are due January 17 - will award six small grants for projects related to creating healthy, active, and engaged places to live, work, and play. An additional fifteen grants, funded by General Motors, will be available for projects that either engage General Motors employees or are located in a community with a primary GM facility.
In California, that includes Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga.
Past grant recipients have added crosswalks, created community walking paths, built signed walking "networks," added benches along walking routes, supported youth cycling and running clubs, and installed bike racks. Examples include a story walk created near a children's library in Central Arkansas, which led to a larger effort to improve walking safety in the nearby community. Another was the creation of an "equity walk" around Takoma Park, Maryland, with community stations designed to get participants thinking and talking about equity while they walk around town.
In California in 2023, the Seacliff Improvement Association received a grant to assess pedestrian and bicycle safety concerns in Aptos, using surveys and social media to reach out to local residents.
The grants are supported by America Walks, the Centers for Disease Control, and General Motors. The CDC also invites people to join their Active People, Healthy Nation initiative, a national movement to support the goal of increasing physical activity in the United States.
Grant applications are available here. The deadline is January 17.
