A key driver of a healthy, well and economically vibrant community is the built environment - the human-made spaces that people live, work and recreate in on a day-to-day basis. This environment can promote good health, well-being and economic activity or detract from it. Since 2012, Wello has convened the Greater Green Bay Active Communities Alliance to build safer communities, increase walking and biking of people of all ages and abilities, and shift our culture to one where the environment is shared between people and motorized vehicles promoting community liveability. The 5E's guide this work: engineering, education, enforcement, evaluation, and encouragement. 

To address these issues, we have launched the Yield to Your Neighbor Campaign.

Project Goal: Create a community that promotes a culture of active, connected living in diverse ways—where walking, biking, and rolling are safe and accessible options for residents of all ages and abilities.

Project Objectives

• Increase bicycle and pedestrian safety. 

• Improve health and well-being.

• Connect people to their neighborhoods, parks and businesses within the community contributing to economic and community vibrancy.

• Increase community awareness, knowledge, and understanding of everyone’s role in ensuring active modes of transportation can be done safely, especially as bicycle and pedestrian activity has increased during COVID-19. 

• Shift attitudes to one where we share the road with alternative modes of transportation including bicycles and pedestrians. 

Key Activities

• Regional Frogger Events: Innovative collaborations with local law enforcement to hold “Frogger” events on the same day throughout Brown County educating the public on the rules of the road for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. 

• Comprehensive Marketing Campaign: Raise awareness and educate the community around the role each of us have when walking, biking and driving to create a safe and active Greater Green Bay community. A logo will be used throughout the campaign as a unified, common message and was collaboratively designed with the Greater Green Bay Active Communities Alliance. 

Regional Approach

This campaign focuses on multiple areas within Brown County to promote greater spread and impact of the project. People consistently flow between several Greater Green Bay municipalities daily. Wello’s regional approach to this effort expands the reach with benefits including:

• A larger proportion of the public in the metropolitan region is impacted by these efforts through education and awareness.

• Greater interest from local media outlets to receive news coverage, thus significantly increasing the educational effort.

• Reinforcement of crosswalk laws with multiple touch-points to educate drivers and pedestrians on a single day, multiple times during the year through Regional Frogger efforts.

• A coordinated, regional effort to increase bicycle and pedestrian safety of our community’s residents. 

Please reach out to Natalie Bomstad at natalie@wello.org to get involved. 

Wello convences the Greater Green Bay Active Communities Alliance - a cross-sector group of people in our community committed to making it safer and more accessible for all. This includes nonprofits, business, healthcare, community advocates, law enforcement, government, engineering, and more. 

Wello focuses on the 5 E's (engineering, education, enforcement, evaluation and encourage). This research and evidence based strategies for built environment work takes a hollistic approach to improving the community spaces and places we live, learn, work and play in. 

Our strategy for 2023, outlined above, includes some of the following components/projects:

• Yield to your Neighbor Campaign (includes "Frogger" - crosswalk enforcement)
• East River Water Trail - Environmental clean-up and accessible kayak launches
• Wintermission - Connecting people and places for well-being during the witner
• Advocacy work (ex. winter plowing o the Fox River Trail, bike lanes on Hoffman Road, pedestrian accomodations on newly renovated/built areas of our community)