| The Golden Flip Flop – walking initiative | |
| Brief Description | The Golden Flip Flop Walking Initiative was a practice developed within the overarching CIVITAS ARCIMEDES project. ARCHIMEDES (2008-2012) was an EU funded project aimed to introduce innovative, integrated and ambitious strategies for clean, energy-efficient, sustainable urban transport and thereby have a significant impact on policies concerning energy, transport, and environmental sustainability. It was implemented in six cities of the EU, namely Aalborg (DK), Donostia-San Sebastián (ES), Brighton & Hove (UK), Iasi (RO), Monza (IT) and Ústí nad Labem (CZ).The Golden Flip Flop was one of the measures undertaken in Brighton and Hove in the UK. It was a walking promotion initiative targeted to young children attending schools in the area. Children were prompted to walk to their schools instead of being driven by their parents. They took part in a reward system based on stickers; the children would award themselves with a sticker every time they walked to school. Every week, their teachers would collect all stickers and send them to the project team. Every half term, the schools with the most stickers would be awarded with “The Golden Flip Flop”, a 2 meter statue of a flip flop to indicate that this school was successful in promoting walking. The practice was successful in increasing students’ engagement with walking, towards a more sustainable method of travelling. |
| Image | – |
| European Country/Countries | United Kingdom |
| Field | Moving: Walking |
| Type | Intervention |
| Impact | Health, Environmental sustainability |
| Status | Completed |
| Target Group | Children & adolescents |
| Evaluation | Yes |
| Level | Local |
| INHERIT Perspective | This program was chosen for inclusion for its capacity to address all three targets of the INHERIT program by promoting active mobility in young children, reducing automobile presence and traffic thus reducing carbon emissions, as well as providing an educational component to foster awareness on sustainable and safer forms of travel. This promotes inclusivity and allows citizens across different socio-economic strata to participate in healthier, safer, and more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation. The competitive aspect of the program proved to yield greater participation and incentive for school-age children to participate in sustainable travel initiatives. |
| Detailed description PDF filename | Download file |
| Relevant links | http://civitas.eu/content/‘golden’-reason-walk-school |
| Contact | Eleanor Togut (Project Manager): Eleanor.Togut@brighton-hove.gov.uk Steve Kelly (Project Manager): Stephen.Kelly@brighton-hove.gov.uk |
