Active Communities are places in our cities, towns or counties that enable people to get physical activity as a part of everyday life. Walking to the store, riding a bike, or taking the stairs contributes to health and longevity.

Many of our communities are designed so that it's difficult to make these choices. Feet First's efforts focus on changing our communities, one step at a time, so that it's easy to leave the car at home and take a walk or a bus trip.

The Active Communities Program includes:

Active Living by Design

Promoting Healthy Built Environments

The Cart Project

Our work on the Pedestrian Master Plan

The NEST Project (Northeast Seattle Trails Project)

Through these programs we can help people become more active by helping to change the "built environment". Some examples of what that means: we encourage updates to city and county land-use codes and design policies, ask for engineering changes in specific locations, pursue plans to create a network of walking and bicycling trails, and advocate for increased funding for walkable communities.

At the same time we educate and encourage people to walk, giving them information and incentives. See our "Primers Page" for links to specific information on design, as an example.

These programs act on emerging research from the CDC and Active Living Research that demonstrate the important link between the human environment, physical activity, and health. By encouraging community participation and collaboration among transportation, land use planning, and health professionals, this project stimulates progress toward creating healthier communities.

Feet First has also worked in the past on "Active Community Environments" in the Puget Sound region, and has provided technical expertise to the Washington State Active Community Environments project.