Freiker
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Designing for Better Health competition.
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
About You
Location
Project Street Address
2475 Agate Lane
Project City
Boulder
Project Province/State
CO
Project Postal/Zip Code
80304
Project Country
United States
Your idea
Year organization founded:
2005
Year initiative began:
2005
Service/activity focus:
Nutrition and exercise
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
YouTube Upload
Project URL
Name Your Project
Freiker
Describe Your Idea
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
Freiker promotes walking/biking to school by combining incentives (prizes/recognition) with a measuring system which tracks trips to school & makes the data available on a website (www.freiker.org). Schools operate their program through the efforts of volunteers, with support from Freiker. 12 systems operate in the US and Canada. Each school installs a solar powered Freikometer (a radio frequency ID reader) on a post near the bike racks. Riders/walkers must have a “Freiker sticker” (RFID - radio frequency identification tag) placed on their helmet or backpack. Every morning when they ride/walk to school, they ride/walk under the Freikometer and get scanned; the Freikometer beeps to let the kids know they have been counted. The Freikometer counts the number of days the child has ridden using custom software and uploads wirelessly to our website. Children log on to our website to see the number of rides they have accumulated. Riders are rewarded by cashing in rides for prizes.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
Freiker currently collaborates with the Safe Routes To School program in the Boulder Valley School District and the City of Longmont Safe Routes to School program. Freiker received a grant from the BVSD Safe Routes to School program in the schools years 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.
Schools in Boulder and Longmont are working with bicycle shops and other businesses in the local area to sponsor the program. Local bike have offered prizes, but more importantly they have offered their talent and time in training teachers and students about bicycle safety. Trek partners with Freiker.
We created the partnerships with the schools by meeting with the Safe Routes to School coordinators. Local businesses were approached to provide workshops on bike safety.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Private sector , Public sector (government) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Freiker seeks to fight childhood obesity, reduce traffic congestion around schools, promote a cleaner environment, and combat climate change.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
Schools experience a doubling of the number of kids walking/riding to school when Freiker starts. During year one, the number will increase again by 50% as children learn about Freiker. Participation provides an incentive to walk/ride everyday rather than just on special days such as Walk to School Day. Experience indicates participation in Feiker results in walking/biking becoming the normal mode of transportation rather than the exception.
Freiker began four years ago at Crest View Elementary School as a punch card system. Since then, we have doubled the number of bicycle/walking trips by students at Crest View from 10,000 to 20,000 trips per year.
Freiker has counted over 100,000 trips by kids to school that have covered over 150,000 miles (6 times around the world) and burned over 3.5 million calories. The kids have saved the nation nearly 8,000 gallons of gas and prevented emission of over 150,000 tons of CO2. All of this by kids simply walking/biking to school.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Not yet.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
Any child in elementary school in the US will benefit. Children will benefit from the daily exercise; parents will beneift by walking/bicylcing to school with their child; and the community will benefit from reduced car traffic and CO2 emissions. Children will see biking/walking as transportation options other than just for school.
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
Freiker changes the habits of kids by introducing them to cycling/walking at an early age to benefit the environment and health . We will never solve climate change without changing habits. We need to empower everyday people to take action now. Kids get the problem; they can impact the habits of their family, and not just going to and from school. Not only can kids solve the climate change problem but they can combat childhood obesity at the same time.
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
We have learned that kids and parents love this program. From a mom at an elementary school on a cold day: “This program helped us realize how easy it is to walk to school each day. My daughter loves the program & it makes such a difference at the school. Thank you for bringing this to Eagle Crest.” "I would definitely say that Freiker has motivated our students to walk, ride, or skate to school no matter the weather. It has also made it a habit of mind that that will last past Freiker."
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Currently, Freiker is supported by a core group of donors, some corporate sponsorships, and some funding from Safe Routes to School. We are actively seek funds from foundations,corporations,and individuals to expand the program. We are also in discussion with legislators to receive federal funding from the US Dept. of Transportation to expand this program nationally.
Financing source
Annual budget
Our annual budget is $251,740.00. AS we expand this program nationally, our budget will increase significantly.
Annual revenue generated
Our revenue generated in 2008 was $98,752.75. Our 2009 budgeted revenue is
$242,000.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Currently 200 volunteer parents provide support at the schools. Freiker has three volunteer staff members.
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
The main financial barriers are that we are a volunteer run organization. We are developing plans to hire a part-time executive director who will oversee fundraising. We are starting outreach to foundations to secure grants. We are also starting an individual donor program. And we have been working with legislators to receive funding from the US Dept. of Transportation to expand this program.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
As more families & schools learn about Freiker, we anticipate significant growth. In the next three to five years, Freiker plans to develop into a national program. As part of this build-up, Freiker will work with various groups to ensure that the program meets the cultural needs of various groups. In addition, the program will under go some modifications to support urban schools. Freiker working with curriculum development specialists to develop educational materials to support the program.
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
Freiker began in Boulder, CO in 2004. The founder, Rob Nagler, could not convince his kids to ride their bikes to school, less than 1 mile away. Once Rob offered them small prizes, he found his kids regularly riding to school. And they were having fun doing it. Rob realized he had stumbled upon a way to motivate other kids to ride; soon Rob was standing at the school bike racks everyday handing out punch cards & prizes to a growing number of kids.
In summer 2006, Rob developed the Freikometer, a solar powered device that reads a RFID tag on the kids bike helmet and records their ride on a website. Two more schools joined for the 2006-07 school year. The 2007-08 school year was our best year yet. Kids at five schools in the Boulder Valley School District logged a total of 54,000 rides. In April 2008, Freiker had its most successful launch at Burlington Elementary in Longmont, CO. Burlington, which is also the first school to include walkers in Freiker, had 1,000 bike/walk round trips in just 2 months.
For the 2008-09 school year, we added schools in Eugene, OR, Madison, WI, and other locations. Our goal is to have 15-20 schools using Freiker by the end of the year.
Freiker supports the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. SRTS uses Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Encouragement, & Evaluation to promote walking/bicycling to school. Freiker supports education, evaluation, & encouragement. All 3 components are critical to developing a sustainable program.
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
Rob Nagler founded Freiker in 2004 after seeing the dramatic effect that incentives had in getting his kids to ride bikes to school. Rob also owns bivio Software, Inc., which has donated more than $100,000 of R&D to Freiker. Rob got his start with computers through a volunteer-run program and enjoys leveraging his computer skills to help society. Rob, a regular bicycling commuter, holds a BS in Computer Engineering from UC San Diego and an MS in Computer Engineering from Stanford University.
At what stage is this initiative?
Innovative idea , Implementation and impact , Implemented with replication and scale-up.
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
Our greatest needs are financial. We want to quantify the environmental & health impacts of the actual number of miles ridden by the children. By tracking the number of miles ridden by each child, we can provide environmental & health data on our website, such as carbon emissions saved & calories burned. We need to build more Freikometers, to expand resources including curriculum, and to update our website so each school can have its own site. And we need to hire staff to manage the program.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
We heard about the program from our grant writer. Our main motivation is to spread the word about Freiker. We hope that schools across the country will contact us about starting Freiker at their schools.
- Login to post new content in this forum.
Comments
Dear Tim,
This is a really exciting endeavour! Regarding implementation of this idea, I'm wondering if it's been tested in urban environments? It seems more apt to function in suburban or rural settings. This may or may not be an equity consideration. Have you thought about this?
Also, practically, beyond the technology, how is progress monitored?
Sincerely yours,
Joseph
Dear Joseph:
Thanks for your comments. We are actively working with Denver Public Schools and Denver Public Works to implement and test the program in an urban Denver, Colorado neighborhood. Our sense is that the system should operate fine in an urban setting though we may need to make it more secure. Our goal is to encourage kids to use active transportation for commuting to school. Not only do we want more kids participating but we want to inform them about how their personal actions relate to their personal health and the environment around them. Using the technology we can connect kids with how their personal actions are helping reduce energy demands and pollution. We can also show them how walking or riding can be a meaningful component to a healthy lifestyle.
Again, thanks for your encouraging comments and concerns.
Tim
The following link is short news story about a recent Freiker install in Los Altos, CA:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6747072
You might enjoy watching. As you will hear during the news segment the kids, parents, and principal talk about how their personal actions are positively changing their own health and that of the environment, as the principal states, "...a better and greener world." This is exactly what our program delivers to communities. We use active transportation as a goal in of itself and as means to an end. We encourage active transportation to school because of the positive benefits. And then we build on that personal experience to help the kids and families understand how they can incorporate those learnings into their daily lives and connect their actions with the broader community.
On May 11, 2009, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators who are seeking solutions that help people make better choices regarding their health and the health of others. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“Detailed entry and well constructed! It seems like a low-risk choice because the entrant has already designed so much of the nudge. This entry could be improved more by hooking up with parents and getting family involved. Getting kids to bike/walk to school looks like a success thus far, and perhaps you can use a system of rewards as a potential to improve structure. Great news that it has already demonstrated excellent impact in its two years since inception”
“This is a fabulous use of incentives and technology. There’s lots of opportunity overlay other technologies and solutions. However, I am concerned about gaming the system. What if your kid gets in the car and then walks under the RFID reader? How to you prevent that? Honor system?”
- Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” Judges: Doutores da Alegria, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Cornell Food and Brand Lab: Cornell University, Innovations in Health @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Pediatrics: University of California San Francisco.
Post new comment