Stay healthy program

We're conducting separate outreach processes for each Keep Moving Street and pilot project. Stay Healthy Streets are open for people walking, rolling, biking, and playing and closed to pass through traffic. The goal is to open up more space for people rather than cars as a way to improve community and individual health. In response to the Covid pandemic, in spring and summer of we upgraded over 25 miles of Neighborhood Greenways to Stay Healthy Streets by closing them to pass through traffic and opening them to people walking, rolling, and biking.

Neighborhood Greenways are residential streets identified through past public engagement with enhanced safety features like speed humps, stop signs, and crossing improvements at major streets. Like any residential street, cut-thru traffic is discouraged, but local access, deliveries, waste pickup, and emergency vehicles are allowed.

Street selection included working from our mile Neighborhood Greenway network and avoiding impacts to businesses, fire response routes, transit operations and layover, and COVID response efforts like healthcare provider parking. Neighborhood selection considered the Race and Social Equity Index, where existing neighborhood greenways served areas of dense housing or limited public open space, geographic coverage, and access to essential services and open businesses.

Starting in summer , we partnered with Seattle Parks and Recreation to create more space for people to exercise and keep 6 feet apart. While parking lots were closed, and people were discouraged from congregating, we opened streets adjacent to 4 destination parks to create more space for people to get outside. See below on the plans for continuing Keep Moving Streets streets adjacent to major parks that are closed to vehicles and open to walking and biking to help people travel and play in a healthy way.

The new 2-way path for people walking and biking on W Green Lake Way N is complete and the street has reopened to people driving. All parking lots are accessible. If you're driving please be aware the speed limit is now 20 MPH to make it easier for people to walk between the two parks. We're working to secure funding for designing and building permanent changes on the street based on community input.

In the meantime, Alki Point will remain a Keep Moving Street in its current form until spring or until we secure funding for permanent changes on the street. Go to the Alki Point webpage to get involved. There are currently no plans to close either the parking lots at Golden Gardens or Golden Gardens Drive. Both SPR and SDOT are actively considering alternative steps to avoid parking lot and road closures at this location including taking measures to reduce illegal parking and improving pedestrian safety.

This may include new signs along the street and in parking lots or additional staffing on site. Stay Healthy Streets can only be an asset with input and support from the people who live along and use them. In summer , we collected feedback from over 9, people using an online survey.

Question 5 and question 19 do not show up well, so we've included PDFs. The majority of participants identified as white, so while we compile the comments, we're working with the Department of Neighborhoods and Vida Agency to include more Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the conversation. We're discussing how to center race and equity, respect the cultural significance of neighborhoods, understand how to make streets feel safe for all, and aiming to determine where up to 20 miles of Stay Healthy Streets should be made permanent by the end of To share your thoughts, click the survey link at the top of this webpage and sign up for a project listserv.

There were never enough good foster parents to meet the needs. It then became apparent that to reach my goal of a more healthy, secure future for this group of children, we would also have to meet some needs of their caregiver — the grandparents. In the beginning, students made home visits to assess the environment and physical health needs of the children and the grandparents and made referrals as needed. They were also involved in educational and social activities with groups of grandparents and different age groups of kids.

The program grew too large to be able to assign faculty supervision and provide consistent numbers of students. So, that portion of the program evolved in a different direction. Associate Professor Mary Lou L. Davis , PhD, has been the program director and principal investigator since August , when she came to Augusta University. He said when you meet any grandparent who is raising a grandchild, it does not take very long to get emotionally invested.

The structure, discipline, support and unconditional love the grandparents provide gives their grandchildren the opportunity to overcome some very difficult circumstances and achieve anything they set their mind to.

Natasha and Steven Lewis are raising their soon-to-be 8-year-old granddaughter, Madison, who is in second grade. Her plan was to enlist in the Air Force, but first she had to prove her daughter had someone to take care of her. She is paying child support but has limited visitation. Natasha and Steven Lewis, who is a security guard at Fort Gordon after a year military career, said they were receiving financial help from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Natasha said she first discovered the Healthy Grandparents Program when she saw a flyer on a church bulletin board. The Lewises have been part of the program, which serves Richmond and Columbia counties, for six years now. They have experienced a lot of benefits, including meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas to back-to-school backpacks. Steven Lewis said Madison sometimes helps him in the mornings when he has to go to work, making coffee and putting bread in the toaster.

So when he can get us all together with the kids, she just loves it. Tina Disher is a pre-certification specialist at Augusta Oncology Associates and has been taking care of Oakley and Hudson, her 4- and 3-year-old grandsons, since August She received temporary custody in October and was awarded full custody in June of this year.

Their mother was addicted to heroin and was unable to take care of them. Also, I felt like I needed guidance and support with the new changes the boys and I were facing. Disher heard about the HGP from juvenile court and has been part of the program since November She said the assistance with daycare, new book bags for school and the level of care and concern the program has shown, which has included monthly health check-ups, has been a lifesaver.

We have been treated like family in the most important ways. Patton said most of the grandparents he works with feel underappreciated for a variety of reasons, especially those who have been raising their grandchildren without legal custody. He mentioned that most of the grandparents struggle to get the necessary information to ensure proper care for their grandchildren.

The program has been able to fill in a lot of these informational or accessibility gaps. But one of the most important resources the grandparents have access to through the program is that support they receive from one another through the monthly support group meetings.

Davis said the number of grandparents raising grandchildren across the country continues to increase. Currently, 2. However, Davis noted that grandparent families are being used as a welfare placement without the necessary financial support from Child and Family Services.

According to data reported by Generations United , for every one child in the formal foster care system, there are 19 children being raised by their grandparents and other relatives outside of the formal foster care system. To acknowledge this trend, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed bill HB into law in June With the help of Rep. It is a competitive renewal grant that they have to apply for each year.

Patton said they also look at local grant opportunities, primarily to supplement the number of grandchildren they can send to summer camp, provide with back-to-school supplies, and send to after-school enrichment activities like arts lessons and sports programs.