Applications for Smart Growth America’s Champions Institute are now open! With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in support of the Active People, Healthy Nation℠ initiative, the Champions Institute equips local leaders with the tools they need to become effective Champions for plans, policies, and funding that promote safe community environments for physical activity. The deadline to apply is January 30th, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

We’re looking for dedicated mayors, city councilors, tribal chairpeople and councilors, and other local elected officials to apply for this technical assistance program from March to May 2026. Selected participants will get to learn from national experts, Champions alumni, and each other to address known challenges in their own communities. Over the course of six virtual learning sessions, participants will gain skills and tools to become effective Champions for Complete Streets, downtown revitalization, and other local initiatives that increase opportunities for walking, biking, and rolling to everyday destinations.

Since 2020, the Champions Institute has led to great success, with participants adopting policies, implementing street design changes, hosting community workshops, and more. A cornerstone of the program is that each participant creates an action plan, which aims to be a roadmap for how to implement the lessons and strategies they’ve learned in the program in order to bring change to their communities. The 2025 Champions used their action plans to bring Complete Streets elements to ongoing projects, establish working coalitions around engagement and communication, and update or draft new Complete Streets policies.

The impacts of the Champions Institute often reverberates beyond the length of the program. Councilmember Jennifer Duff, ‘22, has used her knowledge and skills of community environment to support a micromobility study, new protected bike lanes, and smart growth elements in the 2025 General Plan of Mesa, AZ. Councilmember Carol Myers, ‘21, used the Champions Institute to create a Complete Streets policy for Athens, GA, which passed in 2022 and was ranked #15 in SGA’s 2023 Best Complete Streets policies report. And in 2024, alumni from across the years of the Champions Institute assembled in Washington, DC for a two-day convening, with presentations, activities, visioning, and walking tours bringing people together across cohorts and envisioning a road map for what’s next.

Want to join us? Any mayor, city councilor, tribal chairperson or chief executive, tribal council member, or other local elected official may apply to become a participant within the Champions Institute. Those from jurisdictions in which others have already participated in the Champions Institute or other Smart Growth America technical assistance programs are more than welcome to apply, though individuals who have already completed a Champions Institute are not eligible to apply again. Applications are due January 30, 2026.

Learn more and apply here!

This training is made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Cooperative Agreement CDC-RFA-PW-24-0080). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC. These efforts are part of the CDC’s Active People, Healthy NationSM Initiative that is working to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027.