Walking School Bus Watch video

Organize a Walking School Bus in your local area for a healthier, more fun way for kids to get to and from school.

A Walking School Bus is a group of children walking to school with adult supervision. It’s very simple and that’s part of its beauty. It's all about families taking turns walking their children to school, with a structured route and meeting points, a timetable and a regularly rotated schedule of volunteers.

Typically, a Walking School Bus is comprised of two volunteer parents, one to “drive”...

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A Walking School Bus is a group of children walking to school with adult supervision. It’s very simple and that’s part of its beauty. It'...

Read more

Join the communities already benefitting from starting a Walking School Bus

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

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“The top concern of parents is how kids would travel safely to and from school. We learned about walking school buses and identified that as one of the solutions.”

Walking School Bus
Larry Schugam
former Executive Vice President of the Curriculum Project

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • A parent or teacher
  • Wants to give kids a healthier and more fun way to get to school
  • A good organizer

Walking School Bus project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Form a team
  • Recruit Volunteers and Supporters
  • Choose the route or routes
  • Confirm Leaders, Volunteers, Schedule
  • Recruit Passengers and Take Off!

Time

Suggested: It will take 4/5 hours to initially set this up and then parents can take turns accompanying children to school each day.

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the Walking School Bus

18 Walking School Bus projects have already been started

See where

Meet the Social Innovator

Welcome to Walking School Bus! Fewer children are walking and bicycling to school, and more children are at risk of becoming overweight. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle requires creative solutions that are safe and fun. At the National Center for Safe Routes to School in the US, they believe in the importance and joy of safe walking and biking. In the search for ways to make walking to school safe, more fun and more convenient, communities find that walking school buses can make a real difference.

National Center for Safe Routes to School

18 Walking School Bus projects have already been started

See where

Members

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, having a call with a ChangeX team member, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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