Week 11 of our interviews featuring each of our Board Members. This week you can find out more about Sarah Grattage, Modeshift’s Education Representative.
How long have you been involved in sustainable travel?
Prior to 2009 I worked in a variety of Countryside Management roles following my degree in Countryside Recreation Management. At the end of a fixed term contract I applied for the role of School Travel Adviser at Stoke-on-Trent City Council for a fixed term contract covering the last year of the Travelling to School Initiative funded by the DfT and I have been there ever since! I saw the school travel project as another environmental role but have come to appreciate that it is multi-faceted and covers so many important topics. I have predominantly worked in school travel but have done some workplace and residential travel planning as well.
What have you most enjoyed about your job?
I love the variety of my job, I can be delivering an assembly to 400 children one minute and talking to the planning team the next. I love going into schools and seeing how excited children are about active travel, their enthusiasm is amazing and it makes me feel lucky to have such a great job.
What are you working on now and what’s next?
We are currently working on our Ten Minute Walking Zone campaign – providing individualised banners and packs to schools, based on their Modes of Travel survey to promote modal shift. It is a massive piece of work but is being received positively by schools. Next will be revamping our delivery to school and developing our new TravelSmart website which we are very excited about.
What do you like about being on the Modeshift Board?
I love working with like-minded people who just ‘get it’! Our meetings are always positive and I leave with renewed enthusiasm every time. In my new role of STARS Education Representative I am looking forward to developing the STARS Education Focus Groups and helping to shape the delivery of STARS.
