CDC’s Divi­sion of Nutri­tion, Phys­i­cal Activ­i­ty, and Obe­si­ty (DNPAO) has reached out with an oppor­tu­ni­ty they are hop­ing you’ll broad­ly with your staff, part­ners, and net­works who are inter­est­ed in routes to des­ti­na­tions, and walk­a­bil­i­ty in IA, MN, NE, ND, and SD. AARP South Dako­ta and Amer­i­ca Walks are spon­sor­ing The AARP Cen­tral Region Walk­ing Col­lege. This is a 6‑month, dis­tance-learn­ing fel­low­ship pro­gram for walkable/​livable com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates in South Dako­ta, North Dako­ta, Min­neso­ta, Nebras­ka, and Iowa. The over­all goal of the Walk­ing Col­lege cur­ricu­lum is to build the capac­i­ty of local advo­cates to advance pol­i­cy, sys­tems, and envi­ron­ment change to cre­ate healthy, walk­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties through­out the region. The Walk­ing Col­lege is open to res­i­dents of those afore­men­tioned five states who are inter­est­ed in the pro­gram and able to com­mit about 5 hours per week (May – Sep­tem­ber). There is a com­pet­i­tive appli­ca­tion process. Inter­est­ed indi­vid­u­als are invit­ed to com­plete this online appli­ca­tion form by Fri­day, April 15^th. The attached doc­u­ment has more details about the Walk­ing Col­lege and the curriculum.

DNPAO/CDC sup­ports Amer­i­ca Walks to imple­ment a nation­al Walk­ing Col­lege Fel­lows pro­gram and they are excit­ed that AARP is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Amer­i­ca Walks to sup­port Walk­ing Col­lege Fel­low pro­grams in var­i­ous states and regions. It’s a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to help build the net­work and capac­i­ty of local advo­cates work­ing on, and inter­est­ed in, walk­a­bil­i­ty issues in your region.