National Walking Day
Today is National Walking Day!
Walking is a simple form of physical activity with substantial health benefits. It can also serve as a starting point for reducing sedentary behaviors and a gateway to other forms of physical activity. Given equal access to walking spaces and the adoption of livable community policies, walking is a viable form of physical activity for Americans of all ages and abilities.
Download the National Walking Day Toolkit
Ways to Engage with the Walking Movement:
Every Body Walk! Collaborative Video Competition
Walking is the most common form of physical activity for everyone and has multiple well-documented benefits. The Every Body Walk! Collaborative wants people from across the country to show what walking means to them. We need individuals and organizations to create short videos (between 30 seconds and a minute) on a variety of topics to be submitted and uploaded between now and October 1st. The videos with the most likes, shares, and views will be highlighted at the 2nd National Walking Summit, featured on Every Body Walk! Website and used by the partners at the Every Body Walk! Collaborative. The walking movement is growing across America and the Every Body Walk! Collaborative wants to highlight this growing strength by putting a face on the movement with a video competition. Have fun, send in your videos and keep walking!
Walking is Going Places- 2015 National Walking Summit
Walking can improve our health, reduce our healthcare costs, provide equal transportation access for everyone, clean our environment, improve the economic viability of our downtowns, and more. However, safe, walkable environments do not just happen they are made by hard work and coordinated commitment. The National Walking Summit is the premier opportunity for national organizations, companies, agencies, and local partners to convene to share best practices and stories, increase the visibility of these key issues, build support among federal agencies, and create momentum for the work ahead.
October 28-30, 2015 Washington, DC
National Walk@Lunch Day – April 29th
National Walk@Lunch Day® is designed to complement—not compete with—your busy lifestyle. Created to improve personal health and decrease the costs of healthcare for employers and employees, National Walk@Lunch Day is the start of your new daily walking routine, helping you to improve your health step by step. On Wednesday, April 29, local Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies, businesses large and small and state legislatures across the nation will encourage employees to wear comfortable shoes and take a walk at lunch. Schools also are encouraged to participate in National Walk@Lunch Day by setting personal goals for students and teachers, and incorporating walking into the school day as a first step toward long-term prevention of health problems for future generations.
How I Walk – (Coming Soon!)
How I Walk is a movement to rebrand the word walking by challenging individual and societal perspectives lead by the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD). The visual campaign aims to promote walking as an inclusive physical activity term that is individualized. We envision a future of community health inclusion, one in which health promotion activities are accessible to all. Join the movement to rebrand the word walking! How I Walk encourages individuals to share their form of walking through picture, video, or other media by using the hashtag #HowIWalk. Additionally, How I Walk encourages health promotion providers and walking advocates to adopt this mentality while utilizing the Action Kit to promote inclusion in walking initiatives. Organizations are invited to Make a Commitment to Inclusion in new or existing health promotion programs at committoinclusion.org.
Inclusive Walking Resources
• Resources to Support Walking Meetings in the Workplace
• Creating Inclusive Walking Clubs
• Inclusive Road Races Brochure
