This past Saturday the Bike Fort Collins Active Living program hosted an Experiential Walking Event for the residents of Poudre Valley Mobile Home Park. We met the community members at the front entrance to Poudre Valley and then walked from Poudre Valley to Red Wing Marsh Natural Area and then to Greenbriar Park. This route used the new infrastructure installed on Highway 287 (sidewalks and pedestrian bridges) and then followed along the footpath in the natural area. Once we arrived at Greenbriar Park we had a potluck and we held our resident coalition meeting, facilitated by Edna Chavez (our community champion).
At Greenbriar Park, Residents took part in a Community Based Participatory Mapping event guided by Brooke Bettolo (from Larimer County Health Department Built Environment Team) and Andrea Swan (from Colorado State University Institute for Built Environment). Residents noted spots along the walk where they felt comfortable and uncomfortable, shared what they valued in their community, and mapped locations of assets that they used in the community, such as schools, workplaces, and shopping areas.
The Experiential Walking Event had three goals: 1) to educate community members about the safe routes to parks already existing in our community, 2) to facilitate stakeholder discussion of values regarding active living practices and access to parks/natural areas in our community, and 3) to gather hard data for the creation of a community kiosk and route map. Larimer County Built Environment Team will use the data from the Community Based Participatory Mapping to build out a GIS map of safe routes to each destination using active living practices (biking, walking, and public transportation). The map assets and routes identified by the residents of Poudre Valley Mobile Home Park will be displayed in a permanent kiosk that will be installed in Poudre Valley Mobile Home Park. Students in the Colorado State University Key Construction Management program will be building and installing the map and kiosk at the end of this November.
