This guest blog post was written by Emma Wu, a 15 year-old Houston YMCA Youth and Government student. Emma attends a public school in Houston, the most diverse city in the nation. She assumed all teens had the same access to healthy lifestyles and physical activity. That changed when she began working on the Active Communities mock legislation project.

Every two years, the Safe Routes Partnership releases the Making Strides state report cards, providing an at-a-glance snapshot of how states are doing in their support of walking, rolling, and active kids and communities. As we gear up for the fifth edition of the report cards in 2024, we want to preview the indicators that each state will be evaluated on.