Week 4: Manage Change

It's taken me a while to get my thoughts together on this, but a lot of that time was dreaming up worst-case scenarios for changes that might arise during a grant period. Unfortunately, the coworkers I might have asked are either crazy-busy and not answering questions right now, or are out of town on vacations or projects. It's a bit of a week at BikeTexas.

I'm not sure that I still have my thoughts together, but here's what I've thought of so far. (These ideas are mainly for the Aetna grant that will fund school-based or afterschool fitness programs in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.)

BikeTexas has the experience, resources, and professional contacts to meet the requirements of the grant over the course of a year, even if changes arise in our personnel, the schools' commitments, or policies that may affect biking and walking programs.

Personnel: At least five staff members have served as Program Managers, or have worked closely with the Program Managers, on educational grants in the past. Therefore, in the event of staff changes, personal emergency, or other staffing problems that arise, someone else can be ready to step into the Program Manager's role, either temporarily or for the duration of the grant. Additionally, our program managers write detailed reports both for the grantor and for office records, plus no one ever works entirely alone. At every step of the grant process, the Program Manager will be communicating with his or her colleagues about the grant and its process, so that if an issue does arise with the Program Manager, he or she is not the only one holding the keys and multiple staff members will be familiar with where the grant is and what is going on at any given time.

Schools: We will do extensive research, in cooperation with teachers and school administrators who we already have connections with, to identify multiple low-income and underserved schools in the four cities. We'll target those schools, plus any local afterschool or other youth-oriented programs (i.e., Boys and Girls Clubs) with our outreach to suggest a bicycle and walking safety program for their schools. We'll have multiple options available for interested schools so a potential biking or walking program will be built around their needs, such as:

Walking School Buses (need to get parents to agree & find volunteers to lead)
Bike Trains (need parental agreement, and need to train parent or teacher volunteers to lead the train)
Bike Clubs
Biking and Walking Safety Curriculum, to be taught in PE classes (need to schedule training sessions for the teachers at a time and place that is convenient for them)
Bike or Helmet giveaways
Biking/Walking Incentive programs for students

Schools or afterschool clubs may want some combination of the above. We'll have a draft plan for each type of program to present to school administrators, with flexibility built in to review the plan and assist a school in making changes during the school year, if necessary. For example, if a school plans a bike train but discovers that it's easier on students and parents for them to ride to school on their own instead of having to meet the group, BikeTexas may help them transition from a bike train program to an incentive program for students to walk or ride to school. Or, if a school is successful in getting children to ride to school but discovers their bike parking is inadequate, BikeTexas might assist in finding low-cost or free bike racks for the school to install.

Part of the initial outreach will be identifying and communicating with multiple schools in each city, so that if one school decides that the bike program isn't working for them and no appropriate solution can be found, the program can still continue in the city with other target schools. BikeTexas will plan exit strategies ahead of time that will allow schools to drop out of the grant program with a good relationship preserved between them, the other schools in the program (if applicable), and BikeTexas.

Policies: Many parents are uncomfortable with strangers, however well-intentioned, visiting their child's school. BikeTexas strives to alleviate these concerns by training the educators, parents, and other youth workers in bike safety , rather than teaching students directly, which not only multiplies our efforts but also minimizes the concerns that may arise about non-school personnel having direct student contact. On occasions when BikeTexas is present, such as a special event that we've been invited to, we do our best to make sure the parents are notified ahead of time that we'll be there, and at the event we identify ourselves as being with BikeTexas and having the school's permission to be present.

Occasionally a school district or city will make it more difficult for children to walk or bike to school by enacting policies forbidding it or by banning bicycles from particular roads. BikeTexas does oppose bike bans in Texas as part of our advocacy work, but unfortunately the "it's for the children's own safety" argument, unfounded or not, tends to sway majority opinion, at least temporarily. BikeTexas will be prepared to suggest alternative programs to schools if these sort of controversies pop up within a community, likely pulling from the list presented earlier, while using our advocacy (i.e., non-grant) funds to possibly fight against any bike bans. Schools' own successes in a city of getting more children to be active through these bike and walk programs, especially when children regularly bike or walk without incident.

Week 3: Adjusting Expectations

Since for the purposes of this class I'll be writing for the organization I work for, I thought I'd use this space to work through some ideas and expectations.

My initial intention for this class was to find funding for our KidsKup program (the picture here is from last week's race; we have one more before the funding runs out), which BikeTexas is actively seeking now. I plan to keep looking for grants that can fund KidsKup.

In the meantime, the grant that I mentioned briefly in class last week from the Aetna foundation sounds like a great fit for the kind of work BikeTexas does. Our education side has a five-hour curriculum for elementary students that has been presented to about 2 million Texas children over the last 10 years.

I started talking to a coworker last week about writing a potential proposal for the Aetna grant and making it as real-world as possible for something that BikeTexas could realistically do. We both started talking about afterschool clubs and bike rodeos, but that's not really the way that BikeTexas has conducted our education program.

To reach so many students, BikeTexas has trained 7000 Texas teachers over the last 10 years. We focus our efforts on training the trainers, so that we can multiply our efforts. A staff that has varied from 10-20 people at any one time couldn't have reached as many students if we tried to do all this ourselves. (We used the same approach in the pilot year of our university education program-- we held 5 webinars to train orientation organizers at 8 colleges, and reached about 3000 students in one year, with only 1 1/2 FTE staff working on the program.)

So, all the stuff that I talked about with my coworker the other day needs to be scrapped. It was fun and easy to get carried away with our ideas in a brainstorming session, but we have to frame those ideas inside what we can realistically do. We would have had to partner with schools and programs in the cities that the Aetna grant is for anyway (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio), but the kind of partnership that BikeTexas specializes in means we may never set foot inside a school.

Working through the process of reading over the RFP and tailoring it to fit both Aetna's mission and BikeTexas's mission will be a great practice in honing on exactly what each organization needs. I'm looking forward to finding other grants to use for this class and seeing how each one is a bit different and will require a different approach. It may be that some potential funding sources won't match up well with the one-step-away tact to bicycle education that BikeTexas uses.

Week 2: Need Statement

Childhood obesity remains high across the U.S., with about 17% of children and adolescents reported as obese¹. While state-level data for childhood obesity is more difficult to obtain, some counties in Texas report obesity levels for low-income preschoolers at 20% or greater¹. Additionally, obese children are five times more likely to become obese adults³, putting them at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, and the high health care costs associated with these chronic conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend at least 60 minutes a day of physical activity for children and adolescents², which can be difficult for families who have busy schedules. This difficulty can also be compounded by children who think of exercise as boring or a chore.

The BikeTexas KidsKup race series has provided a free, non-competitive, safe space for families to learn about bike safety and how fun bicycling can be to about 200 children per year since 1999. Even reluctant riders have left KidsKup events with big smiles and a feeling of accomplishment, and many of these children return for other races, bring friends along, and are more likely to ride at home after finding out how fun it is to ride with their peers at a race. BikeTexas would like to continue this important program to fight childhood obesity, and expand it to even more children across the state, particularly in low-income areas.

BikeTexas has sponsors that provide bike safety information, healthy snacks, race numbers, and medals for children who participate in KidsKup. However, to continue the program, BikeTexas needs a partner who is committed to fighting childhood obesity to provide for the staffing hours needed to plan and present 20 races per year. BikeTexas is requesting $10,000 per year ($5,000 per school semester) from your organization to reach more children across Texas with the joy of bike riding and messages about bike safety.


¹ CDC: Overweight and Obesity: Data and Statistics: Childhood Obesity Facts. (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html)
² CDC: Physical activity: How much physical activity do children need? (http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/children.html)
³ CDC News Room: New CDC Vital Signs: Obesity Declines Among Low-Income Preschoolers (http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2013/dpk-vs-child-obesity.html#graphics)

Week 1: What's the Problem?

I work for BikeTexas, the statewide advocacy and education organization for biking and walking in Texas. (Our mission statement is to advance bicycle access, safety, and education in Texas.) Much of our education arm was funded for the last 10 years by Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grants from TxDOT, but due to changes in the federal laws that govern transportation funding, TxDOT decided not to renew any SRTS grants for 2013.

In some ways, this is a good thing. Being dependent on TxDOT for funding does put some limitations on BikeTexas' work and how we can use the funds, plus any groups that do not agree with federal funds supporting bicycle work are quick to complain about BikeTexas wasting taxpayer dollars, often opening us up to even greater scrutiny than that already required by law. So, there is something to be said for being released from those conditions.

However, the loss of the former grants has left the BikeTexas education programs unfunded. These programs teach bicycle and walking safety to elementary students across Texas (about 200,000 students per year) as well as giving support and encouragement to teachers, parents, and community leaders to host Bike to School days, Bike Rodeos, and other programs to encourage families to seek active transportation. BikeTexas considers these programs vital to fighting the obesity and diabetes epidemics among Texas children, especially low-income Texas children, and an economic alternative for families who may struggle to pay for a car to take children to school or other activities. By making cycling and walking attractive to young Texans, BikeTexas is investing in the next generation of healthy, active, fiscally smart Texans.

I would like to take a step toward finding funding for the BikeTexas Education programs. While I don't expect to find a source to fully fund the program in the scope of this class, I'd love to at least make a start towards a large source, and perhaps find a smaller source to fund at least aspect of the program. KidsKup, a mountain bike race for under-12 riders that serves about 300 children per year, is funded for the fall races right now but needs a new sponsor or grant for the spring 2014 series. For this class, I'd like to focus on finding a smaller grant that will keep the bike race running.