HLTH 5493 Module 3 Program Goals, Objectives and Activities Example

Doubling the Walkers: A Goal, Measurable Objectives and Activities for the Linden Park Walking School Bus

Student Name

American College of Education

HLTH5493: Health and Wellness Program Design and Implementation

Module 3 Assignment

Instructor Name

August 17, 2026

Introduction

Module 2 selected a walking school bus for Linden Park Elementary. At this composite school, nearly two thirds of students live within a mile, yet about one in nine walks. The program was adapted with a paid coordinator, screened volunteers, three routes and materials in English and Spanish. This paper designs the program on paper. It states one goal, sets measurable objectives at three levels and describes the activities that will meet them. Each activity is linked to a cause identified in the Module 1 PRECEDE-PROCEED assessment and to a construct from social cognitive theory, so that the design explains why each piece should work, not only what it is.

Program Goal

The program's goal is that Linden Park children who live within a mile of school walk there safely with trusted adults on most school mornings, adding daily physical activity and easing the morning rush. The goal is deliberately broad and long term. It names the population, the behavior, the condition parents set for that behavior and the two benefits families and staff care about, which came from the social assessment. Objectives translate it into measurable steps.

Levels of Objectives

The objectives fall into three levels that mirror the PROCEED evaluation phases (Green & Kreuter, 2005). Process objectives describe what the program will deliver, such as trained volunteers and walks run. Impact objectives describe changes in what the program targets: parents' confidence, their fears and how many children walk. Outcome objectives describe the health result, here children's physical activity. Each objective states a target, a date and the group expected to change, which is the usual SMART test, with a baseline drawn from Module 1 where one exists. Targets are set by reference to the trials reviewed in Module 2, discounted for a first year with volunteers rather than research staff.

Process Objectives

Process objective 1: By September 30, the coordinator will recruit, screen and train at least 18 volunteers, enough to staff three routes four mornings a week with two adults per route and a substitute pool. Process objective 2: By October 15, three routes will be operating four mornings a week, each with published stops and times in English and Spanish. Process objective 3: From October through May, at least 90% of scheduled walks will run, excluding district closure days. Process objective 4: By November 30, at least 120 students will be registered, including at least 30 in kindergarten through second grade. Process objective 5: By December 15, the city will have staffed a morning crossing guard at the arterial crossing, following the program's formal request. These objectives are achievable: the parent group, a senior center and the high school service club have each offered volunteers, and the city has staffed afternoon guards at the same signal for years.

Impact Objectives

Impact objective 1: By May, the share of Linden Park students who walk to school on a typical morning, measured by the same two-day classroom tally used in Module 1, will rise from 11% to 22%. Impact objective 2: By May, among parents of registered children, the share who agree they are confident their child can walk to school safely will rise from a baseline measured at registration by at least 20 percentage points. Impact objective 3: By May, the share of parents who name traffic danger as a reason for driving, 72% in the Module 1 survey, will fall to below 55%. Doubling the walking share in one year is ambitious, but it is modest beside the trial evidence. In the Houston pilot, intervention children's share of active trips more than doubled within five weeks (Mendoza et al., 2011), and the year-long trial in lower-income schools found a significant gain in days children walked, though a smaller one (Johnson et al., 2024). The target sits between the two results to reflect a volunteer-run first year.

Outcome Objective

Outcome objective: By May, registered children who walk at least three mornings a week will record, on average, at least 10 more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on school days than they did at baseline, measured by a week of pedometer or accelerometer wear in October and April among a sample of 40 volunteers from grades three through five. The objective connects the program to the guideline that school-age children need 60 minutes of such activity daily (Piercy et al., 2018). Ten minutes is roughly a brisk half-mile walk each way, which matches the length of most routes. The outcome will be measured only in a sample because devices cost money and consent takes time.

Theory Behind the Activities

The activities draw on social cognitive theory, which explains behavior through the interaction of personal factors, behavior and environment and gives particular weight to self-efficacy, outcome expectations, observational learning and social support (Bandura, 2004). For Linden Park the key person is the parent, and the key construct is the parent's confidence that walking is safe for their child. The theory suggests that confidence grows through direct experience, seeing others succeed, encouragement from trusted people and reduced emotional arousal, and that environmental changes can make a behavior easier to perform. Mendoza et al. (2011) measured parents' self-efficacy and outcome expectations in their trial for similar reasons.

Activities for Parents

Parent activities target predisposing factors. Each route will hold a trial walk on a Saturday in late September, when parents can walk the route with their children and the volunteers, giving them direct experience of the route and the adults. Short route cards will show each stop, the crossing and the expected walking time. The coordinator will send brief text updates when each group arrives at school during the first two weeks, reducing worry. Parents who start walking will be invited to share their experience at a fall family night, providing the model of other parents who have decided to trust the program. These activities address the fear that the Module 1 survey found in 72% of families.

Activities for Volunteers

Volunteer activities address the main enabling barrier, the lack of adults. The coordinator will recruit through the parent group, the senior center's volunteer program and the high school service club, whose students may walk with an adult leader but may not lead a route alone. All adult volunteers will complete the district background check and a two-hour training on pedestrian safety, route procedures, what to do if a child is ill or missing and how to talk with children about safe crossing. Each route will have a lead volunteer and a named substitute. Volunteers will receive recognition at the school's spring assembly and a small thank-you from the parent group. The review of walking school bus studies found that volunteer recruitment and time limits are where such programs most often falter (Smith et al., 2015), so this part of the design receives the most detail.

Activities for Children and the School

Children will learn pedestrian safety in physical education during September, practicing looking, listening and crossing at a marked crosswalk on the school grounds. Walkers will earn a punch on a card for each walk and a small reward at 20 walks, and each route will choose a name, which gives children a group identity and a reason to invite friends. The principal will greet walking groups at the door, and the morning announcements will report the week's walking total. These activities work on reinforcing factors by making walking visible and valued at school. At the school level, the coordinator will submit the crossing guard request, share the route audit findings on missing sidewalks with the city and ask the district to add the program to its wellness policy report.

How Activities Link to Objectives

Each objective has activities behind it. Volunteer recruitment and training serve process objectives 1 and 2, route planning and scheduling serve objective 3, parent outreach serves objective 4 and the formal request to the city serves objective 5. Trial walks, route cards, arrival texts and parent stories serve impact objectives 2 and 3, and together with the school recognition activities they serve impact objective 1. The outcome objective depends on children walking often enough, which is why the program runs four mornings a week and rewards regular walkers. Module 4 will assign each activity to a person, place it on a timeline and budget the resources it needs.

References

Bandura, A. (2004). Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior, 31(2), 143-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198104263660

Green, L. W., & Kreuter, M. W. (2005). Health program planning: An educational and ecological approach (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Johnson, A. M., Zhou, C., Haviland, M., & Mendoza, J. A. (2024). Evaluation of a walking school bus program: A cluster randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 21, Article 55. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-024-01602-w

Mendoza, J. A., Watson, K., Baranowski, T., Nicklas, T. A., Uscanga, D. K., & Hanfling, M. J. (2011). The walking school bus and children's physical activity: A pilot cluster randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics, 128(3), e537-e544. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-3486

Piercy, K. L., Troiano, R. P., Ballard, R. M., Carlson, S. A., Fulton, J. E., Galuska, D. A., George, S. M., & Olson, R. D. (2018). The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. JAMA, 320(19), 2020-2028. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.14854

Smith, L., Norgate, S. H., Cherrett, T., Davies, N., Winstanley, C., & Harding, M. (2015). Walking school buses as a form of active transportation for children: A review of the evidence. Journal of School Health, 85(3), 197-210. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12239