Our Grants

Grant Programs

General Criteria & Performance Measures 

2021 Trustee Grants

2021-2022 Outdoor Grants

2026 Special Grants

2022 Trustee Grants

2023 Special Grants

2023 Trustee Grants

2022-2023 Outdoor Grants

2026 Field-Building Grants

2023-2024 Outdoor Grants

2026 Outdoor Grants

2021 Special Grants

2022 Special Grants

2024 Special Grants

2024 Trustee Grants

2024-2025 Outdoor Grants

Kid playing basketball
Image courtesy of Coaching Corps

General Criteria

The National Recreation Foundation uses the following general criteria for evaluating proposals for projects:

  1. Grants must be consistent with the National Recreation Foundation mission statement.
  2. Grants are made only to organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or to governmental agencies. Grants are not made to individuals.
  3. Programs that are supported should be innovative within the context in which the recipient organization operates, and should have the potential to contribute to life transformation for youth from disadvantaged circumstances.
  4. Programs must have leverage potential, such as matching funds, or the development of partnerships or collaborations, that will enhance a grant's effectiveness.
  5. Programs should be capable of being replicated in other communities or agencies. Grants can be made to facilitate such replication.
  6. Grant proposals should show how a program will be sustained at the end of the grant period when it becomes the exclusive responsibility of the grantee.
  7. Evaluation measures are required. Outcome rather than output measures are preferred and are expected for larger, Special Grants. However, the National Recreation Foundation recognizes that the costs associated with measuring outcomes (i.e. what happens to participants as a result of a program) can be constraining and not as feasible for smaller grants.

Current Year Grant Summary

In 2026, the National Recreation Foundation contributed $2,419,500 in support of charitable organizations that share its vision of fostering positive youth development and expanding access for young people to play, explore, learn, and grow in the outdoors.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2021, The National Recreation Foundation awarded 36 Trustee Grants totaling $714,237.

Audubon Texas

Audubon Texas

Racial minorities face many barriers to accessing outdoor learning and recreation, including affordability and access, safety concerns, and lack of childhood experiences in nature. This data stands in stark contrast to the growing body of evidence connecting time in nature to significant markers of well-being. 

The Audubon Conservation Leaders (ACL) Program for Young Women stewards high school students from racially and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds for a year or more of conservation leadership experiences. Audubon Texas' camps connect participants with nature and each other, and provide opportunities for them to relax, explore, and reflect after their yearlong experience in the ACL program. The young women participate in hiking, team building, community service, astronomy, night hikes, and other after-dark activities. Summer camps are offered in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2022, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 40 Trustee Grants totaling $745,365.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2023, the National Recreation Foundation awarded four Special Grants for a total of $302,553.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2023, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 37 Trustee Grants totaling $650,000.

Atabey Outdoors

Atabey Outdoors

For years, there has been a disconnect between the BIPOC community and nature. Atabey Outdoors works to bridge the gap through fun and healing activities outdoors in the Metro Phoenix area. It engages BIPOC girls and non-binary youth by creating a safe space for them to explore the great outdoors. Atabey Outdoors combines outdoor adventure with enrichment activities that encourage social, emotional, physical, and mental growth to empower the next generation of mindful leaders.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2023, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 42 Outdoor Grants totaling $982,000.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2024, the National Recreation Foundation awarded eight Special Grants for a total of $704,145.

In 2026, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 13 Special Grants for a total of $808,000.

In 2026, the National Recreation Foundation awarded three Field-Building Grants for a total of $225,000.

In 2025-2026, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 37 Outdoor Grants totaling $700,000.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2021, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 8 Special Grants for a total of $727,500.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2022, the National Recreation Foundation awarded five Special Grants for a total of $472,000.

Aspen Institute Forum For Community Solutions

Aspen Institute Forum For Community Solutions

Youth of color in communities across the country are severely and disproportionately impacted by systems like foster care and the justice system. They also face serious disparities in climate change, equitable access to the outdoors and suffer from extreme rates of violent victimization. These systems are some of the biggest drivers of the persistent inequities, drastically increasing youth’s barriers to opportunity, and physical and emotional wellbeing. They are also root causes that reduce community cohesion. Through its Fresh Tracks program, the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions works to addresses these disparities, advance social and environmental justice, and overcome hate and racism.

Fresh Tracks provides young Indigenous, rural, and urban leaders with cross-cultural community building skills, leadership development training, civic engagement opportunities, and resources for innovative youth and community-led action. The movement is grounded in the healing power of nature and culture, and is a lifelong journey of leadership, growth, and community action. Elevating youth narratives, power, and vision is at the core of Fresh Track’s work.

Current Year Grant Summary
In 2024, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 33 Trustee Grants totaling $680,000.

In 2024, the National Recreation Foundation awarded 35 Outdoor Grants totaling $771,000.

Girls on beach
Image courtesy of New England Science and Sailing

Performance Measures

As has been noted, the National Recreation Foundation places significant emphasis on performance measures to evaluate the performance of its grantees. 

Typical output measures might include:

  • Number of participants
  • Cost per participant served
  • User perceptions of service quality
  • User satisfaction levels
  • Exportability of the innovative program to other contexts

Typical outcome measures might include changes in:

  • Physical well-being, mental health, or stress levels
  • Emotional and social well-being such as self-esteem, social interaction, empathy for others, or self-confidence
  • Deviant behaviors
  • Life or leisure skills such as educational attainment, acquisition of knowledge, problem solving ability, or cognitive processing.
TNC
The Nature Conservancy of Illinois

Types of Grants

Since its inception in 1965, NRF has recognized the critical role of recreation in fostering healthy lifestyles and its grantmaking has supported recreation programs for those who need it most. To accomplish this, NRF supports 501(c)(3) public charities and federally recognized tribal entities that foster positive youth development through outdoor recreation and a connection to nature.

NRF awards grants through three grant programs:

  • Trustee Grants primarily support small local and regional organizations serving youth (ages 6-24) that lack access to outdoor recreation opportunities. NRF Outdoor Grants may be up to $20,000 for one to three years.
  • Special Grants provide increased funding to effective organizations that are ready to grow, innovate, replicate and/or scale. (Special Grants are restricted to organizations that have already received two to three years of Outdoor Grant support.)
  • Field-Building Grants focuses on strengthening and growing the network of organizations providing meaningful experiences outdoors for young people who would otherwise lack access. NRF seeks to develop strong field leaders and champions for youth outdoor recreation.

Aspen Institute Forum For Community Solutions

American YouthWorks

American YouthWorks

For 45 years, American YouthWorks has been a leader in education, workforce development and service opportunities for diverse and underserved populations. AYW provides youth and young adults opportunities to build careers, strengthen communities and improve the environment through education, on-the-job training, and service. Its programs teach new skills that address critical issues (such as homelessness, disaster response, environmental stewardship, and access to affordable housing and healthcare) with specific focus on young people who do not align with traditional educational and vocational training programs. In the “earn, learn, and serve" model, young people gain job skills while earning a paycheck, connect with community through service, and begin careers with on-site experience and certifications. Participants in AYW’s Texas Conservation Corps realize their full potential and effect positive change through service projects in Texas and South Central United States.

Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute / Forum For Community Solutions

In communities across the United States, youth of color are some of the most severely and disproportionately impacted by systems like foster care and the justice system. They also face serious disparities in school discipline and suffer from extreme rates of violent victimization. These systems are some of the biggest drivers of the persistent inequities experienced by these youth, drastically increasing their barriers to opportunity, and are root causes that reduce community cohesion. The Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solution’s goal is to improve these systems and build community cohesion with leaders who can reach across these silos and draw on the strength of their diversity.

One way the Forum for Community Solution supports leadership development, builds community trust and incorporates the healing power of culture and the outdoors is through the outdoor recreation activity at the 2022 Native Youth Community Adaptation and Leadership Congress. This Congress (in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Forest Service) convenes youth from federally recognized Tribes at the National Conservation Training Center. During the Congress, youth participate in an outdoor recreation outing, choosing from a white water rafting on the Shenandoah River, a challenging hike, or a fishing expedition on the river.

 

Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute

  • Website: cnay.org
  • Grant Amount: $30,000

We are experiencing a pivotal time in the national fight to combat climate change and enhance climate education. Our nation is witnessing loss of access to traditional hunting and fishing grounds, an inability to grow traditional crops, and lack of green spaces. The Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute is a national education and advocacy organization that works alongside Native youth—ages 24 and under—on reservations, in rural villages and urban spaces across the country to improve their health, safety, and overall well-being.

It is imperative to recognize the intersection of outdoor recreation, ceremony, culture, elders, youth, and education in building effective Native-led solutions for our world. CNAY's new program, the Cante Tinza Fellowship, brings Native youth to the center of solutions to our climate crisis through culturally-driven programming, coalition building, and liberation from oppressive systems. The work of Cante Tinza ensures that climate education and action does not leave behind or neglect the first stewards of this land. This cross-cultural initiative focuses on developing a youth-driven community of practice and on increasing understanding of Indigenous connection to nature.

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown

As Harlem Grown encourages its youth to engage in healthy food choices, it actively confronts the food insecurity faced by more than 25% of Central Harlem residents. Central Harlem has one supermarket for every 11 bodegas throughout the neighborhood, which creates a barrier for residents accessing more healthy food options. Harlem Grown confronts these disparities through its provision of free healthy food access, food sourcing, nutrition education, urban farming, environmental justice, and youth workforce development.

At its urban farms, Harlem Grown has created intentional spaces where youth feel empowered to fulfill their dreams and are provided the tools to be successful advocates within their community. Its Youth Education Programming engages youth, year-round, through in-school programming and Summer Camp. Its programming is designed to use urban farms as living classrooms to facilitate hands-on, experiential lessons. By consistently engaging Black and brown youth ages 6-18 from urban settings in farm-based education, Harlem Grown cultivates an experience where youth feel connected to their local outdoor spaces.

Adaptive Climbing Group

Adaptive Climbing Group

Access to both indoor/outdoor climbing is limited to people in the disabled community due to physical barriers, cost (higher than the typical climbing cost to ensure ability-appropriate equipment), and training required to ensure a safe environment. Adaptive Climbing Group (ACG) creates affordable and accessible climbing experiences and development opportunities for people with disabilities. It also provides the necessary resources to promote engagement and to empower persons of all ages and abilities to explore the sport of climbing. ACG is increasing youth climber participation in outdoor climbing by reducing financial barriers to entry and expanding access and trip frequency. ACG will organize several outdoor climbing trips on rock and ice for climbers, which will take place at local areas accessible to people of all abilities.

Backyard Basecamp

Backyard Basecamp

Generational trauma, lack of access to green spaces in Black and low-income neighborhoods, and cost-prohibitive programs have led to the lack of diversity in nature-based programming. Many organizations focusing on environmental equity rely on getting youth to rural settings for ecological experiences. This haphazard removal from neighborhoods often lacks culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices that ensure a positive experience. Backyard Basecamp believes it is vital to counter the "escapism" narrative that somewhere else is better by creating opportunities in Baltimore City. The organization works to instill in its community a sense of confidence and curiosity to explore nature in backyards.

Black Kids Adventures

Black Kids Adventures

Black Kids Adventure’s (BKA) works to expose, educate, and empower Black and Brown families through nature-based outdoor recreation. BKA serves families in Alabama and beyond and seeks to redefine and challenge the idea of who enjoys outdoor activities.

NRF funding supports BKA’s Family Camp program, which introduces families to camping basics. Onsite staff and volunteers provide programming throughout camp while families build community and togetherness. Families learn how to choose a tent site, set up and break down a tent, and what to keep inside and outside the tent. They participate in activities such as fire-building, hiking, paddling, Leave No Trace workshops, and land tours. There is also time to play in the creek, create nature art, and spend time with each other. Camp ends with families sharing how the weekend impacted them.

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives

Detroit’s vacant land (24 square miles) is contaminated by illegal dumping, and the predominantly Black and low-income areas where Detroit Hives operates its programming is full of vacant property. The residents lack access to fresh food and clean parks, as well as the opportunity to experience the joy of being outside and in nature. Detroit Hives addresses these needs by using pollinator habitats to reactivate vacant properties and facilitate food security, positive health outcomes, and environmental justice.

Detroit Hives hosts events at its Pollinator Sites (including Urban Hive Tours), community events, and outdoor recreation areas. Many of the sites are near vacant or abandoned buildings. Its Brightmoor site is located next to a burnt-out building that poses a safety threat when hosting community events. Detroit Hives is now demolishing the burnt-out house, cleaning up the site, and building a permanent facility for year-round programming. This will improve the health, safety, and civic engagement of the community, transform blighted neighborhoods, and preserve the bee population. An indoor facility will also enable Detroit Hives to expand to year-round programming, serve more students, house beekeeping equipment, and provide access to a restroom and first aid supplies.

Detroit Hives is also installing a pollinator garden at Michigan Science Center, establishing the first-of-its-kind outdoor science education at the center and expanding the number of Detroit Hives sites (27+) across the community.

Center of Southwest Culture

A Warm Current 

The National Recreation Foundation accepts no unsolicited proposals.

Grant applications are by invitation only. 

The National Recreation Foundation accepts no unsolicited proposals.

Grant applications are by invitation only. 

Camping & Education Foundation

Camping & Education Foundation

Over the past two decades, Cincinnati’s poverty rate has climbed to 37 percent, which is more than double the national average. The lack of financial resources, along with family and/or health issues, is keeping many of the city’s youth from experiencing the 5,000 acres of parks and preserves in the region. The Camping & Education Foundation has been working to help fill this gap. Since 2012, CEF’s Urban Wilderness Program has served nearly 4,500 school-aged children and 20 schools and organizations in Cincinnati by providing outdoor experiences that teach self-reliance, teamwork, environmental awareness, and a strong sense of community. For the past two years, CEF has been building upon the program’s successes by engaging a broader segment of Cincinnati’s youth.

NRF support halps CEF grow its current school and field-based programs; acquire new tools and equipment; explore and expand research-based curriculum development; and continue to take active steps toward the design and establishment of a permanent Urban Wilderness Center in the urban setting of Burnet Woods Park.

Camping & Education Foundation

Camping & Education Foundation

Cincinnati is situated in an area of immense natural beauty, surrounded by the Ohio River and its tributaries, and blanketed by 5,000 acres of parks and preserves. Youth don’t need to leave to experience nature, but they need help. Communities must meet them where they are and harness the potential of the outdoors to provide a deeper connection to the natural world—shaping strong, empathetic, and environmentally conscious leaders in the process.

Since 2011, the Camping & Education Foundation (CEF) Urban Wilderness Program has served nearly 5,000 youth through immersive outdoor experiences that create self-esteem, independence, grit, and an affinity for nature in a team-building environment. CEF continues to evolve its experiential in-school and field-based activities, incorporating into the programming a mobile makerspace, which will enable CEF to reach more children living in underserved communities; developing week-long immersive wilderness canoe trips through CEF’s Canadian outpost; and developing a High School Outdoor Leadership Certificate that provides an educational pathway to careers that care for the environment.

Detroit Horse Power

Detroit Horse Power

Systemic racism and disinvestment have contributed to an alarming reality in Detroit. Detroit youth need more resources to learn and proactive interventions that address the needs of the communities in which young people grow up, where blight and vacant land continue to weigh on progress. Detroit Horse Power (DHP) uniquely address these persistent problems by combining high-impact youth development programming with a large space requirement. DHP's horseback riding programs for youth are informed by research on equine-assisted learning and precedents from urban riding programs that already serve similar populations in other U.S. cities. Detroit Horse Power has built an impactful track record through bringing youth from the city to partnering horse barns outside Detroit where students learn to ride and care for horses while building vital character skills (confidence, perseverance, empathy and more) that set them up for future success.

DHP is now scaling its model by constructing a new urban equestrian center on a large vacant land site in the city. This will result in a unique opportunity that will be accessible to the areas’ educational communities (reaching thousands of students per year) and will strengthen the fabric of the neighborhoods in which the youth DHP serves grow up.

Bay Area Wilderness Training

A fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute

  • Website: bawt.org
  • Grant amount: $10,000

Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT) recognizes that BIPOC youth and adults have been historically marginalized from outdoor spaces and that barriers to the outdoors (including lack of wilderness skills and knowledge of the outdoors and disadvantaged access to high-quality outdoor camping and hiking gear) continue to impact its local communities. The goal of its Outdoor Leadership Trainings is to widen outdoor skills and knowledge for youth educators and leaders and to provide free gear loans to alleviate expensive gear costs. 

BAWT's Outdoor Leadership Trainings run on a “Train-the-Trainer” model, equipping youth educators with skills needed to promote culturally relevant outdoor education in their own classrooms. Its Frontcountry Leadership Training (FLT) provides training in skills needed to lead a two-day overnight camping trip including equipment use, basic navigation, risk management, and Leave No Trace practices. BAWT’s Wilderness First Aid (WFA) provides basic training in first aid skills that reduce risk and injury outdoors.

Cheyenne River Youth Project

Brushwood Center

BKA

Black Kids Adventures

Black families face various barriers to outdoor recreation, including safety concerns, cultural disconnect, and lack of representation. These challenges contribute to lower participation in outdoor activities, as many families are unaware of or lack access to these opportunities. According to the latest Outdoor Industry Association’s annual report, Black people account for only 10.3% of all outdoor activity participants. While that number is on the rise, more work is needed to ensure that Black people feel welcomed and supported in outdoor spaces. Black Kids Adventures (BKA) works to address this need through its Family Camp program. The program provides families with immersive experiences that build confidence in outdoor activities, develop essential skills, and build connections with nature and each other. By offering early exposure to outdoor recreation, children and their families engage in activities that promote trust, teamwork, and growth. Through a mix of tent and cabin camping, the Family Camp program ensures accessibility for families with varying experience levels. Activities include guided hikes, Leave No Trace education, campfire building, wildlife education, and paddling safety.

Aspen

The Aspen Institute

Fresh Tracks is a multi-stakeholder initiative anchored by the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions with partners Native Americans in Philanthropy, Children & Nature Network, Center for Native American Youth, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, and the Opportunity Youth Forum. It aims to create a national network of Fresh Tracks youth movement leaders working to create systems shifts to improve youth civic engagement, wellbeing, and life outcomes through cross-sector collaboration. NRF funding supports Fresh Track’s ongoing Community Action Fund for youth and community driven solutions. The funding is dedicated to catalyzing and supporting events that are coordinated and planned by Fresh Tracks leaders to connect their communities to the healing powers of nature and time spent in outdoor recreation. Fresh Tracks provides young indigenous, rural, and urban diverse leaders with cross-cultural community power building, leadership development, civic engagement and action training.

ELPC

Environmental Law & Policy Center

  • Website: elpc.org
  • Grant amount: $100,000

Chicago and Milwaukee have large industrial plants and heavy truck traffic which emit fine particulate pollution that aggravates respiratory and other illnesses. Children are especially vulnerable because their lungs are still developing. Minorities face the worst health outcomes. Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) has established a track record of success in providing Chicago youth opportunities to go outside, be active and learn how air quality impacts their daily lives through its Citizen Science project. ELPC is continuing the project in Chicago and is expanding programming into Milwaukee, in partnership with the Urban Ecology Center (UEC). UEC is Milwaukee’s premier organization for summer and school environmental youth programs and active neighborhood community science research. The partnership engages summer camp youth and interns to collect air quality data as they bike through local neighborhoods as part of their research.

In addition to getting outside, being active and learning how air quality impacts their daily lives, participating youth enhance their public speaking and navigation skills, and strengthen their connection to their natural surroundings and community.

Atabey Outdoors

Atabey Outdoors

Atabey Outdoors specifically engages and serves Black and Brown girls (including Indigenous and Latinx), ages 8-12 years old, in the Metro Phoenix area to address the lack of access and representation outdoors; mental, physical, and behavioral health; life skills; outdoor education, sustainability and climate change; and community. While it is geared towards creating a safe space for girls to explore the great outdoors, Atabey Outdoors also serves as an enrichment program, gives girls a safe space to speak on topics relevant to their lives, and promotes fellowship between Black and Brown girls.

The girls are exposed to fun and engaging outdoor activities such as urban farming, plant/flower identification, astronomy, water sports, hiking, camping, rock climbing, and more. Atabey Outdoors helps with accessibility by providing gear, snacks, and transportation, which makes the girls feel supported and encouraged to try new outdoor activities. Each activity connects to a valuable skill, such as balance, organization, communication, mindfulness, and critical thinking.

Black Outside

Black Outside

The Prison Industrial Complex and climate change are two of the most pressing issues of our time. Climate change disproportionately affects poor communities of color, which is especially pertinent in Texas. Additionally, more than 5 million children in the U.S. have had a parent in prison at some point in their lives, including 477,000 youth in Texas. Yet, there are hardly any support structures for youth impacted by incarceration. The systemic consequences of having an incarcerated parent include social and emotional challenges, critical health outcomes, housing and caregiver instability, financial hardship, and lower educational opportunities and outcomes. To address aspects of both of these issues (climate change and incarceration), Black Outside’s Bloom Project serves youth of color impacted by the incarceration system by creating spaces of communal healing through healing-centered outdoor experiences and culturally-relevant education.

The Bloom Project supports youth in envisioning new possibilities for their lives, for their communities, and for our planet. It is a year-round program that expands access to the outdoors and communal healing through activities like community gardening, kayaking, hiking, camping, and backpacking while creating space for youth to learn and talk about issues relevant to their lives. Participation in the Bloom Project improves youths' well-being, increases youths’ sense of agency, and grows their affinity for the environment. 

GSGLA

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

Many young people in California are growing up without access to outdoor recreation activities. Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angles (GSGLA) is addressing this through its Community Partners Program (CPP) and day and overnight adventure camps. CPP serves girls from low-income neighborhoods who experience daily barriers that limit access to outdoor spaces and learning experiences simply due to their geographic location and lack of resources. In partnership with Los Angeles County Title I schools, CPP provides these girls Girl Scouting activities in familiar and easily accessible after-school settings, such as classrooms and community service centers. GSGLA provides these girls with consistent, year-round access to outdoor activities including trips to local parks, undiscovered natural areas, and hiking during regular CPP site meetings through the school year. GSGLA’s hope is that by the summertime, the girls will feel motivated and eager to participate in its Day Camp and/or Overnight Adventure Camp, where they would enjoy activities such as zip lining and ropes courses, swimming, paddleboarding, canoeing, kayaking, arts and crafts, and team building challenges through which the girls can discover the joy of making new friends and the wonder of outdoors while launching their own independence.

Aspen Institute

Aspen Institute Forum For Community Solutions

The Aspen Institute’s Fresh Tracks program is a leadership training program that connects young people to the outdoors. It strives to ensure that diverse youth from across the country can come together for intercultural exchange, to acknowledge and heal from trauma, and to have dialogue about these persistent inequities while building power together.

In 2023, Fresh Tracks will host its Cultura Exchange, a cross cultural exchange for young leaders from Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and the Atlanta, Georgia area. The Cultura Exchange will create shared experiences and community to focus on leadership development, civic engagement, well-being and healing through outdoor movement, and cultural competency for social change.

Bridge Chattanooga

Bridge Outdoors at The Beth

Chattanooga, Tennessee, has been named one of the best outdoor towns in the United States by several outdoor magazines. The nature gap, however, is wide, especially among BIPOC and high-poverty communities. This recognition was the reason behind the formation of Bridge Chattanooga (Bridge), whose mission is to connect students to nature, create opportunities for adventure, and build relationships that strengthen resilience and help students live healthy, productive, and joyful lives. Bridge’s free, trauma-informed afterschool adventure experience serves 11-18 year old youth who reside in Brainerd and East Chattanooga communities. Bridge has evolved its programming as students have gotten older in order to create outdoor leadership and job readiness opportunities. The organization is working to grow this program to serve more students in more zip codes through strategic partnerships in Chattanooga. Each outing includes transportation to and from the program, snacks after school, and dinner before the return trip home.

Brothers on the Rise

Brothers on the Rise (BOTR) equips agents of change with tools and resources to transform communities through responsible manhood development and strategic initiatives. Its Trail Brothers programming enables boys and young men of color to participate in hands-on environmental learning while providing them with much-needed access to the local areas. The youth participate in nature-rich activities and get exposure to nature-based careers, which empowers them to become stewards of local and regional green areas and contribute to their confidence-building, conflict resolution and coping skills, and career awareness. Through culturally grounded rites of passage and manhood training, tree care and habitat restoration, community service and social action, the youth learn about their responsibility to protect green areas. The trips provide equitable access, and a peaceful and grounding respite, from stressors the youth face in their urban environment.

Excite All Stars

BSF

Bridger Ski Foundation

Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) inspires a lifelong love of skiing by fostering personal growth, athletic development, and community wellness through accessible skiing and winter trail stewardship. It offers winter recreation opportunities to students each year, through free and open access to 80 kilometers of in-town groomed trails (including Nordic tracks at both local middle schools) and transportation to after-school and weekend practices, training camps, and competition venues.

Adventure Crew

Chicago Youth Centers

Chicago Youth Centers

Chicago Youth Centers is a network of neighborhood and school-based centers that help ensure that kids have a safe place to go to explore, to process, and ultimately to envision a bright future that they can create for themselves. North Lawndale is among the most divested, high-poverty and high-trauma neighborhoods in Chicago. Neighborhood violence means that there are very few safe outdoor recreational options for children of any age. The CYC-Epstein Center is a tremendous asset for neighborhood youth who deserve the chance to experience robust recreational programming in a safe space.

CYC-Epstein Center is introducing a suite of new sports programming, to include basketball, volleyball, tennis, floor hockey, and boxing. In addition, the Center aims to strengthen its gardening program by introducing a greenhouse, creating more grow spaces for healthy food, and further linking the garden program to its cooking clubs. NRF funding of supports the CYC-Epstein Center's efforts to launch new recreational clubs and to serve hundreds of kids and families in the next decade and beyond.

Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers provides outdoor environmental education to fifth graders in North Carolina. It operates at the crossroads of outdoor science instruction, public education, and conservation to awaken in children a deeply felt connection to the natural world. Its partnership with schools provides students with formative connections to nature by introducing them to their ecological backyard and by improving their inquiry-based, active outdoor learning skills.

As the organization evolves and serves more diverse students, Muddy Sneakers recognizes the need for students to see themselves in their instructors and to build equitable outdoor education industry career pathways. Solving the complexities of instructor recruitment, training, and sustainable employment is crucial to creating an inclusive model that brings diversity to Muddy Sneakers’ work, students, and industry. 

Camping & Education Foundation

Camping & Education Foundation

Cincinnati is situated in an area of immense natural beauty, surrounded by the Ohio River and its tributaries, and blanketed by 5,000 acres of parks and preserves. Young people do not need to leave Cincinnati to experience nature, but they need help accessing it. Communities must meet young people where they are and harness the potential of the outdoors to provide them with a deeper connection to the natural world—shaping strong, empathetic, and environmentally conscious leaders in the process. Camping & Education Foundation’s (CEF) Urban Wilderness Program (UWP) is positioned to help make these connections. The program serves youth through immersive outdoor experiences that create self-esteem, independence, grit, and an affinity for nature in a team building environment.

UWP revolves around two main components: a STEM-based boat-building program (which empowers students to help construct beautiful skin-on-frame canoes from start to finish) and local wilderness field trips with school partners. The field trips involve a range of empowering hands-on activities, distilled from the curriculum developed by CEF’s summer camp programs, such as campfire cooking, fire by friction, knot-tying, shelter-making, wildlife identification, knife and ax techniques, and paddling and portaging their very own hand-crafted canoe. Students are pushed to achieve a strong work ethic and embrace challenging tasks from start to finish. With this newfound sense of accomplishment and self-worth, the students’ communities will flourish with young leaders, pushing for a brighter future.

BOTR

Brothers on the Rise

Brothers on the Rise (BOTR) works to empower Oakland boys and young men of color to become stewards of local and regional green areas, while also contributing to their confidence, conflict resolution and coping skills, and career awareness. BOTR’s Trail Brothers programming provides boys and young men of color hands-on environmental learning and access to green spaces. It also serves as a peaceful and grounding respite from stressors faced within the urban environment. Through Trail Brothers, the youth grow to understand a powerful species of tree (redwoods) that, like the young people themselves, stand tall and proud in the face of many obstacles to their survival. Participants also learn about their responsibility to protect green areas through tree care, habitat restoration, community service, social action and culturally grounded rites of passage and manhood training. Exposure to careers in environmental education through BOTR facilitated internships increase chances that the youth would pursue these professions in the future.

Blackpackers

Blackpackers

Black and indigenous people of color are underrepresented in outdoor recreation. Despite Colorado's high level of participation in outdoor activities, outdoor spaces are not often accessible to communities of color. This is particularly true for snow sports. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are quintessential Colorado activities, but they have a very high cost and a particularly low rate of participation among black and indigenous people of color. NRF funding supports Blackpackers’ Snow Sports Excursions pilot program, which helps eliminate barriers and increase access to the outdoors by covering the initial costs and by providing instruction to first time skiers and snowboarders. Participants will benefit by being introduced to a new form of recreation, which will result in increased health, confidence, and a sense of belonging in the Colorado outdoor recreation community. 

GSGLA

Girls Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

As Los Angeles begins to emerge from the grip of the pandemic, girls need to recover from the emotional impact of disruption and social isolation. In at-risk communities especially, girls need a safe space to reconnect and explore their potential without distractions or pressures from their daily environment. The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) believes outdoor experiences will change lives at this critical time and is dedicated to providing concrete interventions that integrate girls into nature and outdoor adventures, regardless of their background or economic situation.

GSGLA’s Great Outdoor Adventure Camp provides girls from low-income neighborhoods across Los Angeles a safe bridge to lifechanging outdoor experiences. These girls escape the urban sprawl of Los Angeles to challenge themselves, try new things, and connect with others and nature through outdoor adventures. This programming inspires them to explore their own outdoor adventures and develop critical leadership skills that prepare them for a lifetime of exploration and success.

Backyard Basecamp

Backyard Basecamp

Predominately Black and low-income neighborhoods historically have been denied access to parks and green spaces, high quality food, and education. With a dual focus on cultivating healthy food for the northeast Baltimore City community and developing programs to get neighbors outside, Backyard Basecamp is meeting the needs of its community in their own backyards at BLISS Meadows, a 10-acre land reclamation farm and forest project.

Backyard Basecamp developed the Fox and Heron Summer Camp—a drop-off program (which helps meet the need for summer child-care) at BLISS Meadows. Fox and Heron educates children on how to grow their own healthy food and cultivate an adventurous taste pallet that welcomes curiosity about foraging and food production. Backyard Basecamp participants study food production, build a close connection with, and understanding of, Earth’s natural cycle of growing seasons, and foster empathy by caring for farm animals. They will also connect to the local ecology by learning and playing in the forest exploring freshwater ponds. Children’s innate curiosity about the world around them will be guided and strengthened by Backyard Basecamp’s adult staff who have a strong sense of place attachment and natural history knowledge to share.

Children's Forest of Central Oregon

Children’s Forest of Central Oregon

Latinos are the largest minority population in Central Oregon; however, they utilize the recreational opportunities available in the region at a much lower rate than their white counterparts. A 2020 report from the Latino Community Association highlighted many of the issues facing the local Latino community. A distinct finding is that this population is accessing mental health-based services at much lower levels. The data also identifies that Latino teens are struggling more than their white peers in education, teen pregnancy, bullying, and harassment at school, and experience higher levels of depression and suicide attempts. The Children’s Forest of Central Oregon, a network of 33 public and non-profit organizations, recognizes the mental health and physical health benefits associated with being in nature and engaging in outdoor-based recreational activities. Through its new program, Vámonos Outside, the Children’s Forest of Central Oregon is working to connect Latino teens, who historically have not had opportunities, resources, or cultural representation, to access outdoor activities that can have a positive effect on their self-esteem and sense of belonging.

Vámonos Outside provides 40 days of outdoor recreation programming, over three seasons, for Latinx and BIPOC teens. The culturally-specific outdoor programming focuses on self-esteem, building positive relationships, fostering a sense of belonging, and connecting to nature through adventure sports. Vámonos Outside builds a tight-knit and supportive community through ongoing programming throughout the year. Participants engage in high-quality instruction that builds over time in skiing and snowboarding, mountain biking, paddle sports, and camping. 

Bike Works

Bike Works Seattle

Southeast Seattle is an area historically overlooked for transportation funding, safe streets improvements, healthcare infrastructure, and public-school investment. The 98118 zip code is one of the most racially and culturally diverse in the country. Many neighbors rely on bikes for free or low-cost mobility, yet the main thoroughfare is the site of the highest numbers of traffic-related deaths in the region. These factors make mobility justice and access to affordable outdoor recreation a prescient issue to the community.

Bike Works’ mission is to promote the bicycle as a vehicle for change to empower youth and build resilient communities. Its overarching goals are to diversify the cycling industry and promote the bicycle as a vehicle for population and environmental health, community-building, and equity. NRF funding supports Bike Works’ cycling access, education, and leadership development pipeline programs. The programs spark life-long passion for cycling and the outdoors; provide a supportive environment where young people explore their identities and communities through cycling and group dialogue; offer paid leadership opportunities where participants gain vocational and soft skills; and engage young people in peer-to-peer mentorship in the form of bike mechanics instruction and ride leadership.

Brushwood Center

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods’ Nature Explorer Backpack/Mochilas de Explorador program increases equitable access to the many health benefits of nature, strengthens environmental awareness and action through youth empowerment, and cultivates rich cultural connections to the natural world. Building on three years of success, Brushwood is expanding the program for families in Waukegan, North Chicago, Round Lake, and Highwood through partnerships with more than 20 community organizations. Brushwood Center’s work introduces youth from these communities to Lake County's natural resources, so that they can enjoy the benefits of nature, including improved physical and mental health and positive community experiences.

Catalina Island Conservancy

Catalina Island Conservancy

Most Avalon youth spend their lives in the one-square-mile town of Avalon, Calif., without access to nature recreation or science enrichment, despite having over 48,000 acres of land to explore adjacent to their community. Catalina Island Conservancy (CIC) addresses this through its Island Explorers & Garden Explorers programs, which connect Avalon youth to the natural world during the school year.

CIC’s programs offer students the opportunity to experience distinct parts of Catalina Island through field excursions that include hiking and interacting with nature. Students gain knowledge about the 60 species that are endemic to the Island, the importance of all parts of an ecosystem, and CIC’s conservation efforts to protect and preserve the Island. Students are also exposed to different conservation career paths, scientific vocabulary and concepts, and experience using scientific tools to observe nature. By building these connections, CIC hopes to see the youth develop a sense of ownership in conserving ecosystems and protecting the intrinsic value of nature.

BGC

Brown Girls Climb

A critical need exists to empower and engage young girls and non-binary individuals of color, ages 18-24, in outdoor rock climbing. The lack of representation and access to these experiences hinders personal and outdoor development. The Brown Girls Climb (BGC) Youth Program directly addresses these needs by creating an opportunity for young individuals of color to gain outdoor rock climbing skills. In partnership with Girl Scout troops in the NYC area, BGC launched a program to create a learning environment with current BGC leaders. Outdoor skills and education topics covered include: intro to climbing, knots and essentials, movement and technique, history lessons on climbing from the Black and Indigenous perspective, and outdoor ethics and understanding mindfulness of leaving no trace. The program starts with indoor climbing sessions conducted at a local gym. As the program progresses, the focus shifts to outdoor climbing experiences, transitioning the participants to natural settings. These sessions provide an opportunity to connect with nature while applying the skills learned indoors. The program incorporates Leave No Trace principles and teaches participants the importance of responsible and sustainable outdoor practices. Simultaneously, it weaves in Black and Indigenous history, providing a cultural context for outdoor experiences. This holistic approach builds outdoor competency and fosters a sense of connection to the natural environment and cultural heritage, empowering participants to become leaders in the climbing community.

Arizona Trail Association

YMCA of Greater Seattle

BGC

Brown Girls Climb

Young girls and non-binary individuals of color are underrepresented in outdoor activities, particularly within the realm of climbing which perpetuates a lack of diversity in outdoor communities and hinders the growth of a more inclusive and representative outdoor culture. Brown Girls Climb (BGC) strives to facilitate mentorship, provide access, uplift leadership, and celebrate representation in the outdoors and climbing for People of the Global Majority. BGC’s Youth Program creates a unique opportunity for young individuals of color to gain essential outdoor rock-climbing skills. Activities of the program incorporates Leave No Trace principles and teaching participants the importance of responsible and sustainable outdoor practices. Simultaneously, it weaves in education on Black and Indigenous history, providing a cultural context for the youths’ outdoor experiences. This holistic approach not only builds outdoor competency but also fosters a sense of connection to the natural environment and cultural heritage, which empowers participants to become leaders in the climbing community. BGC partners with National Girl Scouts programs and helps them achieve their adventure badges, and is growing its programming with increased instruction geared towards an expanded age range of 6-24 years old.

Christodora

Outdoor learning and empowerment for low-income youth in New York City are Christodora’s roots. Many of its students have been hardest hit by the pandemic, with parents on the front lines and the highest rates of illness, unemployment and food insecurity. Now Christodora is figuring out how an outdoor education organization keeps its promise to its students—to inspire them to be active, engaged, and eager students—during these challenging times.

Christodora is piloting adaptations of its award-winning programs to reach students in special “hybrid” models and mobilizing its resources to serve the emotional and physical needs of students and families, whether virtually, in person, or a combination of the two. Christodora is also developing new hands-on environmental and recreational curricula that creates that spark of interest in natural science education and to adapt afterschool models to keep kids positively engaged.

SailMaine

Underserved communities in Maine, especially BIPOC communities, lack access to recreational activities like sailing. Through its City Sailors program, SailMaine works with schools and community centers/organizations to provide youth with an opportunity to learn to sail, feel safe on and around the water, and provide space for personal growth. Access includes more than the cost of the program. SailMaine also covers the cost of transportation, food during programming, gear, and mentorship. While access to sailing is the primary goal, sailing also becomes a vehicle for personal growth. Nearly all participants in SailMaine’s programs report an increase in confidence, a sense of independence, and feel more responsible after learning to sail. Furthermore, as students transition from its City Sailors program into SailMaine’s summer camps and high school programs, youth from different socio-economic backgrounds gain a space to interact, play, and learn from each other.

Gardeneers

Gardeneers

Gardeneers seeks a world where every human has access to fresh, nourishing food, and all neighborhoods are healthy and sustainable. Gardeneers works with Chicago’s South- and West-side schools and communities to contribute to the larger food system. It does this by supporting youth and community members in school garden and farm programs to cultivate in them the knowledge, skills, and habits to become leaders who care for themselves, their environment, and their communities.

Gardeneers has operated school garden programs since 2014 to give students experiencing food injustice equitable access to fresh produce and food education. Its programming engages students in full-service, customized 10-week spring and fall programs and 6-week summer programs, with curriculum that is based on three pillars of learning: supporting student nutrition, experiencing nature, and connecting with communities. In addition to delivering healthy, locally grown food to communities impacted by food inequity, Gardeneers’ also grows future leaders in the food justice movement.

Chicago Training Center

bradford woods IU 2020

Indiana University Bradford Woods Climbing Club

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are stressful or traumatic events occurring in childhood and are used to assess the long-term impact of abuse and household dysfunction on later-life health. Rural Indiana youth are exposed to a greater number of ACEs compared to their peers nationally.

Utilizing rock climbing as a therapeutic intervention, the Indiana University Bradford Woods Climbing Club is designed to enhance protective factors that promote resiliency against ACEs. Being exposed to positive role models while in a safe environment, adolescents can enhance skills to mitigate the impact of ACEs while fostering a connection to the outdoor environment. This process goes beyond traditional outdoor adventure programming, as a nationally certified therapist conducts individual assessments, plans and implements evidence-based interventions, and continuously evaluates the progress of the participant. All lessons throughout the program contain a debrief component, helping adolescents translate lessons learned to real-life skills.

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown

At Harlem Grown, the large majority of its youth served are eligible for the free or reduced school lunch program; many live under food apartheid where fast-food restaurants are often four-times as prevalent as the overall urban average; and access to affordable, healthy food is limited. At the same time, its youth are faced with higher levels of food insecurity than their affluent counterparts, which is strongly linked to academic success and other positive outcomes.

Harlem Grown is piloting a high-impact, intensive Mobile Teaching Kitchen Program to provide youth and families in Harlem with the knowledge and resources needed to create healthy eating patterns for themselves and their community. The Mobile Teaching Kitchen serves a mixed population of youth and families from various backgrounds, including youth in shelters, youth from its summer camp program, and youth from the community. Continuing and amplifying its work from elementary into junior high school, and eventually into and through high school, allows Harlem Grown to support youth through every step of their developmental process into adulthood. With a culturally historical framework woven throughout the program, the Mobile Teaching Kitchen focuses on food and nutrition educational experiences, utilizing Harlem Grown’s urban farms along with academic support.

Bike Works

Bike Works Seattle

Bike Works is deeply rooted in the Columbia City neighborhood of Southeast Seattle. Despite gentrification, the city is home to the greatest racial and cultural diversity of people in Seattle—69% of residents are people of color and 43% speak a language other than English. Because of a history of redlining, car-oriented road design, and discriminatory practices in healthcare, education and bank loans, the neighborhood faces significant challenges. Despite these difficult circumstances, Bike Works participants show up to workshops, events, volunteer opportunities, and rides, and exemplify leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Bike Work’s overarching goal is to empower young people to live healthy, engaged, and productive lives. It offers youth a suite of progressive hands-on enrichment classes, riding clubs, and camps, which take place after school, on weekends and during the summer. Youth build connections with friends while experiencing mountain biking, touring, cyclocross, BMX, and road riding, many for the first time. Outdoor learning opportunities include having the chance to guide bike routes, visit cultural sites, and engage in facilitated dialogue about cycling and social justice. As youth explore their community by bike, they learn the fundamentals of riding safely and the value and freedom of sustainable, environmentally-friendly transportation. Bike Work’s also offers job access programs that involve teaching both “hard” bicycle mechanics skills and “soft” job skills like resume writing and customer service.

Community Nature Connection

Community Nature Connection

Historically underrepresented communities in Los Angeles have been denied access to the outdoors in overt and covert ways, including: lack of access to federal and state institutions that have legitimized the holding and management of unceded lands of Native and tribal groups; lack of public transportation to beaches and mountains; lack of easily accessible information regarding how to access these sites and culturally relevant points of interest for youth; lack of access to parks and careers found within; and lack of meaningful interpretive programs that connect community to place through identity. Community Nature Connection (CNC) works to increase access to the outdoors for communities impacted by racial, socio-economic, and disability injustices by eliminating existing barriers through advocacy, community centered programming, and workforce development.

Community Nature Connection found that the best way to approach these interconnected issues and barriers was to develop a multifaceted program that takes its participants from the first recreation access trips to gaining experience and skills in outdoor settings that improve connections to the outdoors and strengthen community relationships. CNC’s new Outdoor Access Leadership Program engages youth participants between the ages of 18-24 through parkland visits and social and emotional learning, educational and interpretive programs, and outdoor activities like hiking, team building, and camping. The youth will participate in an extended program that covers themes such as Orientation & Outdoor Skills, Ecology & Interdependence, Nature Journaling & Resilience, Stewardship & Community Care, and Community Building & Organizing.

Catalina Island Conservancy

Catalina Island Conservancy

Most Avalon School youth spend their lives in the one square mile town of Avalon, California, without access to nature recreation or science enrichment. Catalina Island Conservancy addresses this through its Island Explorers & Garden Explorers programs, which connect Avalon youth to the natural world during the school year. Catalina Island Conservancy is expanding its Island Explorers K-5 program to a K-8 model, thereby serving additional students and offering a broader program scope. The K-5 curricula provides students the opportunity to venture out of Avalon with a grade-level field excursion each year, special bilingual curriculum and learning materials. Expanding the program to serve middle school students provides a seamless K-8 learning opportunity and address a pivotal developmental age.

Free-to-use Garden Explorer Packs, containing field guides and exploration tools, strengthen local and visiting youths’ connection to the Garden’s rare and endangered plants. Nearly 50,000 people visit the Island’s only Botanic Garden each year.

CatRock Ventures

BIPOC youth face physical, economic, cultural, and social barriers to experiencing the benefits of outdoor environmental education and becoming active participants in the environmental movement. By engaging BIPOC middle and high school students from the Bronx in experiential learning through outdoor adventure, environmental justice, community service, and social entrepreneurship, CatRock Ventures (CatRock) works to reach, inspire, and empower youth to become socially responsible changemakers.

CatRock’s core programs—CatRock Youth Leadership Academy, Young Women Who Crush and CatRock Outdoors—take place over the course of the school year and include access to outdoor recreational experiences; adventure-based learning; and mentoring. CatRock’s adventure-based challenges encourage students to get outside of their comfort zone and develop a sense of their own potential through the mastery of difficult outdoor experiences like hiking, camping, biking, rock climbing, rafting, and snowboarding. 

Brushwood Center

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods’ Nature Explorer Backpack/Mochilas de Explorador program increases equitable access to the many health benefits of nature, strengthens environmental awareness and action through youth empowerment, and cultivates rich cultural connections to the natural world. Building on three years of success, Brushwood is expanding the program for families in Waukegan, North Chicago, Round Lake, and Highwood, IL through partnerships with more than 20 community organizations. Brushwood Center’s work introduces youth from these communities to Lake County's natural resources, so that they can enjoy the benefits of nature, including improved physical and mental health and positive community experiences.

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

Every girl should have the opportunity to experience Girl Scout camp, regardless of financial circumstances. Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) works toward this goal by removing barriers and providing equitable overnight camp experiences. GSGLA offers overnight camperships to girls who would otherwise not be able to attend camp due to the cost. This enables all Girl Scouts who wish to attend camp to benefit from physical activity, while engaging with nature and boosting their mental health.

GSGLA is also supporting youth through its Counselor in Training (CIT) leadership program. GSGLA’s CITs help guide activities and mentor girls through the summer. The CIT program is a year-round, progressive, experiential leadership opportunity where older Girl Scouts (girls in grades 9-12) spend two or three weeks at summer camp building skills. The CITs receive additional training in MESH (mental, emotional, and social health) through American Camp Association curriculum to ensure that they, along with the staff, are prepared with the skills necessary to guide and mentor the Girl Scouts. The CITs’ self-confidence grow through team building and self-discovery, enabling the program to grow a pipeline of future adventure leaders.

Center for Native American Youth at The Aspen Institute

  • Website: cnay.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

The Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at The Aspen Institute is a national education and advocacy organization that works alongside Native youth—ages 24 and under—on reservations, in rural villages and urban spaces across the country to improve their health, safety, and overall well-being. All Native youth deserve to lead full and healthy lives, have equal access to opportunity, draw strength from Native culture, and inspire one another. At CNAY, this is achieved through empowerment and culturally competent methodologies that include leadership, youth-led policy agenda, and youth-led narrative.

CNAY's Brave Heart Fellowship is a six-month fellowship focused on different geographic areas of the United States each year. Through an Indigenous and cultural lens, Brave Heart Fellows grow in advocacy in the protection of traditional lands, waterways, and sacred sites. The program prioritizes intergenerational learning with tribal and community elders and builds coalitions with like-minded experts. Youth leaders implement Community Action Projects, which increase project creation, implementation, and budget management skills. Youth design a project focused on addressing an environmental concern that impacts their communities. These projects will have a specific emphasis on engaging outdoors and fostering intergenerational spaces.

Bridger Ski Foundation

growbalt 2020 image

Grow Home

  • Grant amount: $87,500

Centuries of segregation, blight and neglect in Baltimore continue to profoundly affect the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of its residents, especially the poor and people of color. Baltimore’s mortality rate is nearly twice the state average, with the leading causes of death stemming from chronic but preventable conditions. Many of the city’s parks have lain empty and unused for years, leaving children with little access to quality recreation and sport programming. Since 2012, Grow Home has been working to take charge of local parks, find ways to provide park and field improvements, support locally-managed sports leagues, and provide better recreational opportunities that fuel community growth.

NRF support benefits Grow Home's Baltimore Coaching Corps. Through this program, Grow Home provides youth and teens safe recreational sport and socialization opportunities while also strengthening and sustaining a core group of dedicated, local volunteer coaches and mentors.

Grand Canyon Youth

Grand Canyon Youth

Access to the Colorado River as it runs through Grand Canyon National Park is an unparalleled, immersive, and transformative experience;  however, it is highly restricted. Grand Canyon Youth (GCY) is the only nonprofit organization that runs expeditions exclusively for youth from diverse backgrounds in the park. While GCY has been connecting youth to this unique experience for 25 years, it recently established a new agreement with Grand Canyon National Park to double its current access over the next three years.

In addition to providing youth with an awe-filled, once-in-a-lifetime rafting experience, GCY expeditions connect youth from diverse backgrounds to community science and art projects as a way to incorporate the lessons learned during this experience into everyday life. Three of the seven expeditions that will to be held in Grand Canyon National Park in 2024 will be all-Indigenous.

Chicago Voyagers

Camp Phoenix

Break Through Urban Ministries 2020

Breakthrough Urban Ministries

Breakthrough Urban Ministries is working in East Garfield Park, Ill., to partner with those affected by poverty to build connections, develop skills and open doors of opportunity. East Garfield Park is a neighborhood that is predominantly African American and low-income. The community is also challenged by gun violence.

Breakthrough’s Home Court program is a summer basketball tournament and community block party that seeks to engage youth in physical activity and positive skill-building and provide residents with a safe space to gather and build connections. NRF's support helps the Home Court program hold these programs and events that reclaim public space and use outdoor recreation to spread joy and positivity to more than 4,800 youth.

Latino Outdoors

Latino Outdoors

Throughout the United States, there are deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities of access to nature and its health and wellness benefits. Latinos Outdoors (LO) addresses these inequities by facilitating free, family-friendly outdoor experiences for members of Latinx communities across the country.

LO’s volunteer leaders craft culturally relevant experiences for multigenerational participants through its Vamos Outdoors program. The Vamos Outdoors activities introduce people to open spaces, break barriers to access to nature and develop outdoor leadership skills. LO’s Crecemos Outdoors program focuses on supporting its volunteers with outdoor leadership training, development opportunities and other resources needed to grow a national network of volunteers to design, organize and lead outdoor recreation experiences for families and youth.

Brown Girl Surg

Brown Girl Surf

People of color—particularly women of color—face inequitable access to California’s beaches, the ocean, and surfing. Persistent inequities across race, including housing discrimination, create barriers for people of color to reside near coastal areas and/or have ample resources to access these areas. Geographically-based, shelter-in-place beach restrictions (due to COVID-19) have further affected people of color and continue to impact equitable access. Brown Girl Surf (BGS) works to address barriers to ocean and surf access by creating opportunities for girls, women, and gender nonconforming individuals to develop a close relationship with themselves, each other, the ocean, and surfing. BGS believes that surfing and connecting to the ocean should be accessible to all girls and women of color, particularly those in the East Bay who experience varying barriers to accessible outdoor spaces.

BGS’ flagship outdoor education program, Surf Sister Program, connects participants to ocean-based recreation through progressive female-centered surf programs, opportunities for leadership development and community building. A unique intergenerational model fosters connections among younger and older surfers and creates space for mother/daughter participants. Being outdoors is not only linked to improved health and well-being, but also allows individuals to gain confidence and connection with their natural world. In addition to breaking down societal barriers, BGS also removes economic, physical, and operational barriers to accessing the ocean and surfing. No experience is necessary to participate, registration is on a sliding scale, and all surf equipment is provided for free and transportation needs are supported by BGS.

Cool Learning Experience

Cool Learning Experience

Illinois’ Waukegan School District serves a racial and ethnic diverse student population that is at-risk and in need of supplemental services that address the whole child. Cool Learning Experience (CLE) is meeting is meeting this need. CLE nurtures children’s well-being with robust and innovative learning programs that foster healthy relationships between families, community, and the natural world. CLE students develop a love for the outdoors by participating in eco-excursions and outdoor experiences (in local forest preserves, state parks, community gardens, and lakes, rivers, and ravines) and environmental stewardship.

During CLC's summer program, its Young Explorers (2-3 graders) focus on social and emotional learning skills as well as awareness and appreciation for nature and sustainability best practices. The Green Team (4-5 graders) expands on social awareness by including weekly service learning in a community garden and using the CLE raised bed gardens as learning laboratories. The freshly harvested vegetables are donated to local food pantries and faith communities for distribution to the families, especially those experiencing food insecurity. Planet Protectors (6-7 graders) continue with green learning by using the Lake Michigan watershed as a springboard for environmental awareness, advocacy, and community action, including examining current water issues through a justice-centered lens. CLE’s eldest students, Career Pathways My Pathways (8-9 graders), boost their awareness by interviewing local and regional civic leaders and heighten their sense of self-efficacy through an oral history project, Talking the Wauk (which focuses on the Waukegan lakefront and its surrounding communities).

CRYP

Cheyenne River Youth Project

The Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) is a Native, woman-led, nonprofit serving Lakota youth ages 4-18 on the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota. The goals of CRYP’s youth-centered programming are to build leadership skills; build strong life skills; strengthen the connection between Lakota youth and their culture, art, and traditions; increase the number of kids committed to wellness, exercise, and healthy eating more traditional foods; teach youth to garden to improve food security; and cultivate and train the next generation of culture bearers and community leaders.

NRF funding supports the expansion of CRYP's recreational programming to more youth. CRYP offers a 50-hour Native Wellness internship for teens, basketball, volleyball, walking and biking clubs, color runs, and daily exercise opportunities that are fun and encourage regular participation. CRYP also introduces youth to traditional sports including háŋpapȟečuŋpi, or hand games, which is played with 16 sticks representing one of the spirits in the Lakota creation story and traditionally crafted from elk, buffalo, or deer bones.

The Center Of Southwest Culture

The Center Of Southwest Culture

Youth with limited contact with nature often experience detrimental behavioral and physical attributes, such as increased anxiety and depression, higher rates of obesity, and lower grades. New Mexico's communities have always relied on the land to sustain them and to facilitate learning. Many of the communities, however, have lost their daily connection to their natural traditional environments due to environmental impact, increased reliance on technology, or economic barriers. The Center of Southwest Culture is addressing this through its Story Riders program, which was developed to safely reintroduce youth of color to the natural beauty and knowledge of New Mexico's lands.

Story Riders empowers children and youth of color to reconnect with their natural and cultural heritage (as participants explore local stories and spaces) and provides practical training in bicycle safety, maintenance, and guided cycling experiences. Through a place-based education approach, students develop critical thinking and self-awareness by learning about current issues affecting their natural environment and local history through interviews and activities with elders. Led by native New Mexicans who are also people of color, participants learn first-hand the inner workings of their bicycles and the rules of cycling on roads. In addition to the knowledge and skills gained, all participants receive a free bicycle and safety equipment at the end of the program.

Bus for Outdoor Access & Training

Bus for Outdoor Access & Teaching

Being outside is awesome—but getting outside can be tough. By turning a school bus into a fully equipped outdoor program, Bus for Outdoor Access & Training (BOAT) makes it easy to get groups outside. BOAT has established a turnkey outdoor program that provides organizations affordable outdoor wilderness access through 5-7 day "Choose Your Own Adventure" trips, which include backpacking expeditions, basecamp programs, and adventure road trips.

The focus of these trips is the integration of social-emotional learning, leadership, justice education, and outdoor spaces. The trips are an intentional group process that allows mentors, educators, or youth leaders to partner with the youth in their organizations to plan a custom trip that is a "best fit" for them. BOAT helps the organizations clear barriers to outdoor access by providing knowledge of activities, access to gear, and ability to transport groups to recreational areas. BOAT staff also partner with chaperones to discuss risk management, and key cultural and philosophical barriers and preferences to ensure that BOAT can support the organizations in leading a trip that feels like an extension of their existing work.

Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers (MS) operates at the crossroads of outdoor science instruction, public education, and conservation to awaken in children a deeply felt connection to the natural world. Solving the complexities of instructor recruitment, training, and sustainable employment is crucial to creating an inclusive model that brings diversity to its work, students, and industry.

MS strives to create more equitable pathways for all individuals seeking a career in environmental education, shaping career opportunities that keep talent local and introduce students to instructors who share their experiences. MS' two-year apprenticeship pathway pilot program enables the organization to hire and train less experienced field staff instead of only veteran outdoor educators. The goal over the two years is to craft an apprenticeship that reduces common barriers to entry, while also providing opportunities for individuals interested in working in this field that don’t have previous experience. Four apprentices from year one are transitioning to Apprentice Instructors. Coaching builds upon the year-one foundation while expanding the apprentice instructors' knowledge and expertise in outdoor education pedagogies, instruction methodologies, and differentiated teaching. At the completion of year two, Apprentice Instructors will have gained a deeper understanding of outdoor education, including partnership relations and development, program management, and general non-profit operations.

Cheyenne River Youth Project

Cheyenne River Youth Project

Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) was founded in response to the Cheyenne River community’s need for more services to address the ongoing effects of cultural assimilation, colonialism, systemic inequity, and generational poverty that continue to impact Lakota youth today. To help youth heal from this trauma and overcome these seemingly intractable challenges and live a brighter future, CRYP creates access to opportunities where youth can experience nature as their ancestors did and learn about and deepen their understanding of Lakota culture.

CRYP’s Teen Internship Program gives CRYP the opportunity to work one-on-one with teens to build awareness, skills, healthy habits, and confidence in their abilities. CRYP’s approach ensures that it is able to touch all areas of its youth’s lives and strengthen their personal foundations for stronger, more productive futures. Teens can choose from several 50-hour internship tracks offering experiential and classroom learning time that includes a focus on developing critical life and leadership skills. Teens earn a stipend upon successful completion of the program. The internships include Food Sovereignty (learn to plan, plant, grow, harvest, and process food from the garden, while learning about nutrition, staving off diabetes and other diseases, and how to cook the food grown); Native Wellness (through classroom instruction and experiential learning, students learn about fitness, Lakota culture, healthy eating, healthy human relationships, diabetes prevention, drug/alcohol prevention, and more); and Lakota Culture (curriculum teaches about ceremonies, sacred sites, Indigenous foods, how to build a sweat lodge, set up a tipi, tell Lakota stories, and other traditions). Interns attend seasonal camps where they sleep overnight in tipis and engage with the natural world around them.

Catamount Institute

Catamount Institute's (CI) YES Club is a subsidized program providing connection to outdoor nature and recreational activities to youth that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity due to access barriers. YES Club’s overarching goal is to use experiential environmental education and recreation to foster knowledge, appreciation and stewardship of natural resources, while providing a safe after school opportunity. Participants build confidence and skills and are encouraged to engage in an active outdoor lifestyle in recreation and adventure. YES Club is offered through a robust collaboration between CI, school districts, and community-based organizations. By providing YES Club as an after-school program, CI engages schoolteachers, provides a curriculum that complements school lessons, and connects participants to the outdoors.

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown addresses the health and economic inequality facing youth in Central Harlem, where 21% of its residents live below the poverty line. Youth lack access and knowledge when it comes to making long-term healthy choices. Also, many live under food apartheid, where fast-food restaurants are often four-times as prevalent as the overall urban average and access to affordable, healthy food is limited. To address these needs, Harlem Grown aims to inspires its youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition.

NRF funding supports Harlem Grown's After-School Enrichment (ASE) Program that provides youth in Harlem the tools and resources needed to become change agents and leaders within their community. ASE serves a mixed population of sixth graders from various backgrounds. With a socio-emotional framework woven throughout the program, ASE focuses on food and nutrition educational experiences utilizing the organization’s urban farms alongside academic support.

Cultivating Community

Cultivating Community

The best way to maximize the value of outdoor garden classrooms is to ensure programming is part of the school experience in a consistent and reliable way, supported by the school district and integrated into the annual curriculum. Portland Public Schools (PPS) is Maine’s largest and most diverse urban school district, with more than 1,400 students identified as English Language Learners. Within PPS, there are significant gaps between economically disadvantaged students and more advantaged students. PPS has prioritized equity and is working to remove and actively repair these inequities in order to support each student’s particular path to achieving high standards. Cultivating Community’s (CC) partnership with PPS helps address these issues.

Cultivating Community grows sustainable communities by: expanding access to healthy, local food; empowering children, youth, and adults to play diverse roles in restoring the local, sustainable food systems; and modeling, teaching, and advocating for ecological food production. In conjunction with PPS, CC’s school gardens and youth development programs ensure that students have consistent outdoor learning every week, which increases equity by connecting kids of various socioeconomic, citizenship status, and race backgrounds to a consistent and meaningful outdoor learning connection. CC’s work enables more students to reap the known benefits of consistent, outdoor classrooms; provide a greater understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things; increase preference for choosing fruits and vegetables at meal time; increase appreciation for the diversity within humanity and all nature; and improve attitude toward school and learning through positive engagements in outdoor learning spaces associated with their schools. 

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

Center for Native American Youth 

jjk 2020

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation

The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation’s Winning in Life program was developed to empower students to succeed through believing in themsleves. The theory is that children and adults can overcome obstacles and become successful through access to healthy lifestyles, quality educational opportunities, and character education that includes goal setting and the practice of discipline and determination through fitness, sports, recreation and physical activity.

NRF funding has supported the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation as it expanded the Winning in Life model to communities throughout Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota. This year, the JJK Foundation is partnering with higher education programs so that college students (focused on teacher education, physical education, parks and recreation, sports management, etc.) can first learn from and experience the program, and then deliver it to youth in underserved communities across the United States.

Brown Girl Surf

Brown Girl Surf

People of color, particularly women of color, face inequitable access to California’s beaches, ocean and surfing. Brown Girl Surf works to address barriers to ocean and surf access by creating opportunities for girls, women, and gender nonconforming individuals to develop a close relationship with each other, the ocean and surfing. Persistent inequities across race, including housing discrimination, create barriers for people of color to reside near coastal areas and/or to have ample resources to access these areas. This geographic inequity, in addition to preexisting territorialism in surf culture, creates exclusion for underrepresented participants.

NRF funding support BGS’ flagship outdoor education program, the Surf Sister Program, which serves more then 170 youth. It connects girls and women of color to ocean-based recreation through a series of progressive female-centered surf programs and opportunities for leadership development and community building. Its unique intergenerational model fosters connections among younger and older surfers and creates space for mother/daughter participants. Being outdoors is linked to improved health and well-being and it allows individuals to gain confidence and connection with their natural world.

Catalina Island Conservancy

Catalina Island Conservancy

Avalon School’s (on Santa Catalina Island, California) student performance on the most recent California Science Test was below district, county, and state average in percentage of students who met or exceeded standards. Some 70% of Avalon School youth live in low-and-middle income, working poor families, and qualify as disadvantaged; 50% speak English as a second language. Most Avalon youth spend their lives in the one square mile town of Avalon. Many of these children live in homes with no yards and no easy access to outdoor/nature spaces, and their parents often work long hours, making outdoor experiences difficult to coordinate. Enrichment, and particularly science enrichment, is a core need for these students.

The Catalina Island Conservancy’s Island Explorers programming serves kindergarten through fifth grade students at Avalon School. It provides a structured and layered suite of field experiences that connect learners to the out-of-doors; provides bilingual support materials that reinforce continued independent nature exploration, hands-on resources for school and home learning; and, most importantly, sequential year-to-year incremental learning aligned with Next Generation Science Standards for California Public Schools. Support materials provided to teachers include a Journey Map of lesson topics and Journey Kits of hands-on materials for classroom use. To engage the family, all students receive bilingual curricula and have access to hands-on Explore Packs that they can check out for nature exploration at home. Island Explorers helps participating students engage with nature locally and provides a safe and supportive space where they can learn more about their island home.

Chicago Training Center

Chicago Training Center

Chicago has a number of public high schools and middle schools with less than 400 students that are funded well below the numbers for which they were designed. Resultingly, their students have fewer resources directed toward Out-of-School Time. Chicago Training Center (CTC) has identified high schools and middle schools, within three miles of its boathouse, to partner with to bring its rowing program to their students. A Chicago Training Center partnership provides many resources to enhance the physical, emotional, nutritional, and educational aspects of the students’ lives through competitive rowing.

CTC’s rowing curriculum is designed to give youth a toolkit for learning anything new, not just sports. The youth involved will benefit by being more flexible and thus more successful in their approach to learning a new subject, as well as more physically fit and nutritionally aware. CTC provides all students (grades 6-10) an introduction to the sport at school; hosts Splash Days at the Boathouse for students to have their first interaction with the boathouse; provides spots in CTC's Summer Camp; and offers students access to its year-round rowing program. During the most critical three-hour period after school, CTC provides student-athletes with physical training both on and off the water, in a safe, nurturing environment free of charge.

Conservation Legacy

Conservation Legacy / Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps

Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps (ALCC), a Conservation Legacy program, meets community-identified needs by reconnecting Indigenous youth to ancestral lands in order to foster stewardship and healthy development. ALCC holistically supports youth by offering mentorship, peer support, and mental health resources during activities that are designed to foster learning and skill development. While outdoors spaces and experiences have the potential to provide powerful healing and connection to Indigenous youth and young adults, equipment and gear costs remain a significant prohibitive barrier for many. ALCC seeks to remove this barrier to participation by building a substantial gear cache of equipment, including backpacks, tents, and sleeping bags.

Chicago Training Center

Chicago Training Center

The Chicago Training Center (CTC) provides avenues for the youth of Chicago to test their mettle and realize their athletic and academic capabilities through the medium of competitive rowing. CTC’s nurturing atmosphere serves as a catalyst for students to attain physical fitness, cultivate teamwork, bolster self-esteem and leadership acumen, and ultimately, to pursue their educational and life aspirations with unwavering determination. CTC continues to prioritize the support and upliftment of the youth in the City of Chicago and is actively strengthening its partnership with two Chicago Park District locations that are facing limitations in terms of resources.

CTC is expanding its programming to reach youth from Davis Square and Cornell Square Park Districts. These parks have been instrumental in providing after-school programs to a considerable number of students. CTC’s primary objective is to introduce these youth to the captivating sport of sculling, while simultaneously offering them invaluable tutoring services and fostering the development of their problem-solving skills.

Catamount Institute

Catamount Institute (CI) acknowledges that environmental and outdoor education, recreation, and adventure are not yet truly accessible to all, especially to those in historically excluded and underserved populations such as Indigenous, Black, racially, and ethnically diverse, LGBTQ2S+, those with disabilities and neuro diversity, low-income, inner-city, and rural communities. CI addresses this through its YES Club, a subsidized program providing connection to outdoor nature and recreational activities to youth that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity due to access barriers. YES Club’s overarching goal is to use experiential environmental education and recreation to foster knowledge, appreciation and stewardship of natural resources while providing a safe after school opportunity. Participants build confidence and skills and are encouraged to engage in an active outdoor lifestyle in recreation and adventure. YES Club is offered through a robust collaboration between CI, school districts, and community-based organizations. CI utilizes place-based nature activities, recognizing and knocking down access barriers. By providing YES Club as an after-school program, CI engages schoolteachers, provides a curriculum that complements school lessons, and surrounds those kids who would not otherwise have the opportunity with increased protective factors while connecting them to the outdoors.

Gardeneers

CREATE

Center for Recreation Education Arts Technology & Enterprise

The Center for Recreation Education Arts Technology & Enterprise (CREATE) addresses the critical lack of accessible outdoor experiences for youth from economically disadvantaged communities in Baldwin County. Many of these youth lack opportunities to engage with nature, develop life skills, and build resilience through adventure-based learning. CREATE addresses this through its Outdoor Recreation initiative, which empowers youth through adventure, skill-building and personal growth to ignite their potential and guide them toward a brighter future. CREATE is working to expand, sustain, and strengthen its outdoor recreation programing so that more youth (ages 9-21) can access transformative outdoor experiences and by expanding its capacity for adventure-based learning (cycling, camping, paddling and survival skills) and purchase more bikes (allowing more students to participate in long-distance cycling). To ensure safety and leadership development, CREATE is also providing advanced certifications challenge course and first aid/CPR opportunities.

Eden Place

Eden Place Nature Center

Fuller Park has long been one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. This community has Chicago's highest unemployment rate, second highest poverty rate, second lowest per capita income, and fourth highest homicide rate. Its youth are often forced to resort to illegal activities, such as selling drugs and other petty crime, in order to provide for their basic needs. Fuller Park Community Development Corporation (FPCD) works to stabilize a neighborhood on the verge of collapse, addressing the housing, education, and environment issues that have kept the Fuller Park community in poverty, illiteracy, and despair.

FPCD's Eden Place Nature Center educates local residents about nature, the environment they live in, outdoor recreation and how the community can engage with all of these to improve the quality of life, not only for the neighborhood but for others in the city and beyond as well. Outdoor Adventurers is an enhancement of one existing Eden Place program—Leaders in Training, which took place for the first time in 2021. Leaders in Training reaches middle and high school-aged youth and has three main areas of focus: learning about nature, conservation, and related careers; engaging in the entrepreneurial endeavor of growing produce and then selling it at local farmers markets; and participating in community service and leadership training. Youth served through Outdoor Adventures gain knowledge, skills, and experience in outdoor adventures such as hiking, fishing, and camping. They participate in lessons focused local ecosystems, go on outdoor excursions such as camping and fishing (with an emphasis on responsible and environmentally-sound practices), and attend community service workdays focused on cultivating nature in the urban environment.

SailMaine

SailMaine

SailMaine addresses the lack of access to outdoor recreation for youth from underserved communities by providing free sailing lessons through City Sailors (its cornerstone community program). The primary goal of the City Sailors program is to provide access to the water. The secondary goal is for the participants to have access to all the benefits sailing offers: the opportunity to gain confidence, a chance to learn new skills, and a space for participants to interact with the ocean in a unique way. The program also helps create a more inclusive and diverse recreational community by providing opportunities for kids from different backgrounds to interact on a level playing field when the sailors transition from City Sailors to a fee-based program through strong scholarship and mentorship support.

SailMaine is increasing the number of youth served through its SailMaine’s City Sailors program. The youth receive access to sailboats, instructors, facility, transportation, food, sailing gear, and additional programming opportunities. SailMaine has built a strong network of community partners, but growth opportunities still exist in terms of number of participants and depth of the programming experience.

CSC

The Center of Southwest Culture

The Center of Southwest Culture (CSC) works to develop healthy Indigenous and Mexicano/Chicano communities through economic development and cultural educational programs. CSC takes a linguistically and culturally supportive approach that is centered on cultural lifeways, traditional knowledge, and existing resources to increase overall community health. New Mexicans have always relied on the land to sustain communities and families and to facilitate Indigenous learning. However, many of the communities have lost their daily connection to their natural traditional environments due to climate impact, increased reliance on technology, and/or economic barriers. CSC’s Story Riders program is designed to address the critical need for children and youth of color to reconnect with the natural and cultural abundance of New Mexico. CSC provides practical training in bike safety/maintenance and guided cycling experiences, so youth can explore local stories and spaces while building agencies, personal health tools, and connecting to land and language. This place-based learning approach helps the youth develop critical thinking and self-awareness by examining current environmental issues and local history through interviews and activities with elders and artists.

Common Ground

Jubilee Consortium

Jubilee Consortium

The Jubilee Consortium is a collaborative effort by inner-city Los Angeles Episcopal churches to serve low-income communities. One of the ways the Consortium supports these communities is through its Jubilee Jump! program. Jubilee Jump! was founded on a simple concept: with a jump rope, support and a safe space — you can create a transformative experience. Many kids struggle with their physical and mental health and what they can do about it. Studies show that as poverty rises, so does rates of obesity—with nearly 45% of children in low-income families being overweight or obese. Jubilee Jump! provides children the opportunity to participate in competitive activities that promote health, fitness and leadership skills in a safe and healthy environment. Jumping rope burns calories, engages muscle groups, and increases mental sharpness. Plus, rope jumping is fun and can be practiced anywhere which can be vital in creating a sustainable exercise routine for a lifetime. NRF funding supports an increase in the number of leagues, nutritional training for the participants and their families, and an increased awareness of the program.

Camp Joy

Camp Joy

Even before the current health crisis, there was a significant need in the Greater Cincinnati area to provide economically, physically and medically challenged children the opportunity to participate in outdoor activities with positive role models. The need will be even greater when it becomes safe to be together again. Each year, approximately 10,000 youth participate in Camp Joy’s programming, and the ropes courses are one of its most popular activities. High ropes courses are exciting and fun, they require pushing oneself out of one's comfort zone, and they bring people together in ways that difficult challenges often do.

NRF funding helped Camp Joy purchase full-body harnesses to replace older lower-body harnesses. The new harnesses provide increased safety from both a physical and emotional standpoint. Physically, full-body harnesses are safer and will keep participants secure, even in the unlikely event of flipping upside down. Because most of participants are children, the additional straps over their shoulders also provide emotional comfort during these activities.

 
CRYP

Cheyenne River Youth Project

The Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) is a Native, woman-led non-profit serving Lakota youth ages 4-18 on the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota. The purpose of CRYP’s youth centered programming is to build leadership skills; build strong life skills; strengthen the connection between Lakota youth and their culture, art, and traditions; increase the number of kids committed to wellness, exercise, and healthy eating; teach youth to garden to improve food security; and cultivate and train the next generation of culture bearers and community leaders. CRYP works to break the cycle of disease in Lakota youth through art, health and wellness education, and opportunities to participate in exercise and sports.

CRYP is improving its outdoor recreational areas to better serve more its youth by building an arbor under which the youth can learn and perform traditional dances and by making improvements to the walking/jogging path that winds through its Waniyetu Wowapi Art Park. Its teen participants are also working to complete CRYP’s 50-hour Native Wellness internship, which gives CRYP the opportunity to work one-on-one with these teens to build awareness, skills, healthy habits, and confidence in their abilities.

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers serves youth experiencing barriers to success such as poverty, trauma, special education needs, and racial discrimination. Many of its youth live in greater Chicagoland’s high-need communities such as North Chicago and North Lawndale. Chicago Voyagers' outdoor experiential programming uses a multi-faceted, neuroscience-based approach to prevent or diminish the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Offering access to nourishing environments and stimulating activities during this time allows adolescents to develop long-term healthy behaviors that contribute to their future success. Chicago Voyagers works with students ranging in ages from 12-18 and partners with more than 20 area schools and community organizations to offer experiential outdoor adventure programming, including hiking and backpacking, overnight camping, canoeing, and more. Programs are offered year-round and participation in the program is provided at no cost to the teens.

Coombs Outdoors

Coombs Outdoors

Participating in outdoor recreation is a significant part of the culture and community in Jackson, Wyoming, yet the outdoors is not accessible to everyone who lives there. Creating opportunities for participants to take part in the outdoors and to become the next generation of outdoor leaders addresses a real need in the local community and the larger outdoor industry. Coombs Outdoors was established to address the lack of representation and to promote inclusion of the whole community in outdoor recreation opportunities that define the culture of Jackson Hole. It specifically fills this gap for Latinx youth, who face more barriers to access to the outdoors, including not having readily available mentors in sports and activities. Coombs Outdoors’ Engage Programming connects middle school youth to build deeper interpersonal peer relationships and provide strong role models through outdoor recreation. This year-round programming (including summer backpacking camps, activity specific clubs like Bike Club and Climbing Club, and ski mentorship programs) provide participants opportunities to learn and challenge themselves in safe outdoor setting and grow and thrive through programs, mentorship, and community building.

CREATE

Center for Recreation Education Arts Technology & Enterprise

Center for Recreation Education Arts Technology & Enterprise (CREATE) provides holistic support and transformative opportunities to school-aged middle Georgia youth who are facing adversity. CREATE aspires to ignite their potential and guide them toward a brighter future. Its Outdoor Adventures Program provides experiences that promote physical activity, leadership development, and career exploration. The program includes an expansion of CREATE’s cycling program and introduces camping leadership, canoeing, and wilderness first aid training opportunities.

The biking program's partnership with the local public school system has facilitated the introduction of balance bikes and bike handling instruction within the school's physical education curriculum. This initiative ensures that all school children in Baldwin County have the opportunity to learn to ride, fostering a foundation for a lifelong love of cycling.

Collaborating with Georgia College Outdoor Education students, CREATE participants learn essential camping skills prior to participating in any biking expeditions. Its participants also have the opportunity to become certified canoe instructors, broadening their skill set and potential career prospects, and be trained in Wilderness First Aid.

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers’ (CV) mission is to empower youth impacted by injustices through adventure therapy programs that foster healthy relationships and skills for life success. CV focuses on youth experiencing barriers to success, such as poverty, trauma, special education needs, and racial discrimination, and it prioritizes working with communities that have faced decreases in social safety nets and public programs.

CV partners with more than 20 area schools and community organizations to offer evidence-based experiential outdoor adventure programming, including hiking and backpacking, overnight camping, canoeing, and mountain biking. All adventures include activities designed to engage youth and help them with personal development, exploration, and growth. Programming is strength-based and is focused on four components: relationships, growth zone, mindfulness, and experiential learning. CV’s programming helps youth manage Adverse Childhood Experiences by guiding them to cultivate a resilient, positive, problem-solving attitude, and giving them the tools, skills, and strength to overcome the challenges in their lives.

Grand Canyon Youth

Environmental Learning for Kids

Environmental Learning For Kids

Many youth from low-income communities in the Northeast Metro Denver area do not have access to outdoor recreation and extracurricular activities that develop life skills and leadership. Also, high school graduation rates for African American and Latino students in this area are lower than their white peers.

Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) works with a diverse community of learners from Northeast Metro Denver to cultivate a passion for science, leadership and service. It's core program, Denver Youth Naturally (DYN), intensively serves youth, ages 5-18, with interactive, outdoor recreational activities and environmental education. DYN connects these youth to the many outdoor recreational opportunities Colorado has to offer while introducing them to STEM learning experiences. DYN also provides the academic support needed to successfully complete school, as well mentoring from positive role models that offer consistent encouragement and monitoring of the youths' success, attitudes, and behavior. A community service component of the DYN program connects ELK youth to their communities and encourages their stewardship of Colorado’s natural resources and an appreciation for outdoor recreation and physical activities.

Chill Foundation

Chill Foundation

  • Vermont
  • Website: chill.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Many young people living in urban areas encounter financial and societal barriers to accessing natural spaces and recreation. Chill Foundation (Chill) recognizes that board sports, especially snow sports, are not easily accessible for many young people due to both financial and societal barriers to access. Chill wants all youth to experience the wonders of the natural environment and the positive impacts of learning new skills in a safe and supportive setting. Its no-cost programs break down these barriers, so that any young person, regardless of background or circumstances, can participate and see themselves in a community of riders. Chill’s positive youth development snowboarding programs in Portland, OR, Reno, NV, Tahoe, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, support young people, ages 11-19.

Dakota Wicohan 

SOS Outreach

SOS Outreach

Colorado-based SOS Outreach believes that every child deserves the opportunity to thrive no matter what social, physical, academic, familial, emotional and financial challenges exist for them. SOS Outreach engages these youth through meaningful outdoor adventure activities like skiing/snowboarding, rock climbing, and backpacking as well as a proven curriculum, which has empowered more than 3,500 underserved youth to discover their true potential. This year, NRF support has helped SOS Outreach focus on capacity building efforts to ensure its ability to provide consistency to participants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and to focus on the physical, social, and emotional needs of the youth it serves, which are especially critical at this time.

CHildren & Nature Network

Children & Nature Network

The loss of our connection to nature has profound implications for health, youth development and the future of the natural places we cherish. Contact with nature has shown to help improve health and mental health, increase physical activity and reduce stress. The Children & Nature Network's vision is that children and youth have access to nature everywhere they live, learn, work, and play. 

Youth development and nature programming contribute to a common goal of creating young people who are prepared to reach their full potential as humans and as earth stewards. Children & Nature Network brings these two fields together to weave strategies that incorporate social-emotional learning into nature-based programming and the context/benefit of nature into youth development programming. NRF funding supports Children & Nature Network as it works to engage community-based youth-serving organizations in a Nature Leaders Cohort to build their capacity for integrating nature-based activities focused on positive youth development for youth ages 16 to 24. 

Chicago Training Center

Chicago Training Center 

Chicago Training Center has identified 11 Chicago Public Schools high schools that are within three miles of its boathouse and have less than 400 students. Because of the schools’ small size, those students have far fewer resources directed towards their out-of-school time, whether that time is for athletics or project-based learning experiences. A partnership with the Chicago Training Center provides needed resources to enhance the physical, emotional, nutritional, and educational aspects of the students’ lives through competitive rowing.

Chicago Training Center provides an in-school introduction to the sport, using the Center’s equipment, for freshman and sophmore students. Chicago Training Center student-athletes involved in its year-round programming receive physical training, both on and off the water, in a safe, nurturing environment free-of-charge. Those youth practice five day a week, during the most critical three-hour period after school.  Additionally, students are responsible for a group project learning activity defined by them and facilitated by the Center’s staff. Chicago Training Center’s programming supports leadership, teamwork, and pride.

City Kids

City Kids Wilderness Project

City Kids Wilderness Project’s solution to the teen mental health crisis isn’t just to get kids outdoors. Instead, it believes that the complexity of this crisis requires an intervention that is equally layered and creative. Its response is to combine outdoor education with the frameworks of positive youth development and social and emotional learning. City Kids Wilderness Project’s mission is to build resiliency, broaden horizons, and ensure the skills for success for participants, through intensive, long-term youth development programming, using natural and wilderness settings to encourage personal growth. 

City Kids’ programs and spaces foster the skills required to navigate the opportunities and challenges youth will face as they grow. This looks like creating rituals around healthy communication and safe spaces for youth from under-resourced communities to be themselves; carving out time to participate in activities that bring youth joy; removing devices to encourage looking up and experiencing natural and wild spaces; and providing a community of trusted and accepting peers and adult mentors.

DWM

Diamond Willow Ministries

A major need within the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation is for children to have a safe place to go with positive activities. As the community does not have the financial resources to meet its members’ extensive needs, Diamond Willow Ministries founded the Tokata Youth Center (TYC) to connect the needs of the community with resources off the Reservation. Since 2015, it has offered daily after-school and summer programming for youth. TYC assists youth in overcoming daily obstacles, so they can become the next generation of men and women who lead the community towards a better and brighter future. NRF funding supports the construction of an outdoor recreation and garden area. The garden beds allow youth to cultivate traditional plants, as well as grow fruit and vegetables that will be used to supplement daily meals. This gives youth the opportunity to plant, grow, harvest, prepare, cook, and eat fresh produce, providing the first step towards greater food security in the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation community.

Center of Southwest Culture

The Center of Southwest Culture

The Center of Southwest Culture (CSC) works to develop healthy Indigenous and Mexicano/Chicano communities through economic development and cultural educational programs. CSC takes a linguistically and culturally supportive approach and is centered on cultural lifeways, traditional knowledge, and existing resources to increase overall community health. New Mexicans have always relied on the land to sustain communities and families and to facilitate Indigenous learning. However, many of the communities have lost their daily connection to their natural traditional environments due to climate impact, increased reliance on technology, or economic barriers.

CSC’s Story Riders program empowers youth to reconnect with their natural and cultural heritage while providing practical training in bicycle safety and maintenance and guided cycling experiences exploring local stories and spaces. The youth develop critical thinking and self-awareness by learning about current issues affecting the natural environment and local history through interviews and activities with elders while engaging in outdoor activity. Story Riders safely reintroduces youth of color to the natural beauty and knowledge of New Mexico's outdoor spaces to offer the physical benefit of cycling and the social and emotional benefits of reconnecting to land and culture. 

Compass Rose Education

Compass Rose Education

The climate crisis is a major societal issue impacting communities around the world. Society’s reliance on fossil fuels is contributing to climate change, and finding ways to reduce emissions is necessary. Compass Rose Education is focusing on these climate change issues with its students through the development of its Harvest Environmental Stewards program. The program, which targets youth ages 11-14, focuses on bridging the divide between the need for sustainable energy and 21st-century technology through environmental education and wilderness adventures.

Youth involved in the Harvest Environmental Stewards program learn about alternative energy sources and how they can create a more sustainable future while cultivating their appreciation and love of nature. The environmental stewards develop their teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills through hands-on, project-based environmental experiments. The program is delivered through a combination of afterschool/summer project-based instruction, field trips, and wilderness adventures. This can transform this generation of youth to be leaders in the fight against climate change.

Ironwood Tree Experience

FITaos

Field Institute of Taos

New Mexico-based Field Institute of Taos (FITaos) aims to inspire stewards of the environment who understand the multi-faceted value of the natural environment both as a sanctuary and as an opportunity for scientific research, physical challenge, exploration, beauty, and mental strength. Through developing a “sense of place” and a connection with the natural world in their backyard, youth become stewards of the environment and engage in a more active and proactive lifestyle, ultimately resulting in increased self-worth, confidence, resilience, future aspirations, and capacity for learning, as well as decreased obesity and community violence.

FITaos’ programs, for youth ages 6-18, offer active, hands-on learning experiences. Its Mountain Camp summer sessions focus on themes, such as archaeology, river ecology, wildlife biology, orienteering, etc., which are explored through hikes, field notes and drawings, organized activities, art projects, and games. Some sessions also include camping and backpacking trips as well as mountain biking and rock climbing. FITaos’ Letting Off STEAM after-school program is centered around outdoor exploration with topics in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math...all with a nature focus.

Momentum Bike Clubs

Conservation Legacy

Conservation Legacy

Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps (ALCC), a program of Conservation Legacy, annually offer paid opportunities and volunteer positions for Indigenous youth and young adults in fulfilling outdoor experiences that offer reconnection to their land, culture, and heritage while also providing life skills and personal development to support their personal and community long-term success. Community projects include ALCC’s Historic Preservation Program (which preserves ancestral knowledge by engaging Indigenous youth and young adults in restorative and protective practices of sacred sites and areas); Hiking and Explore Clubs (that introduce elementary-aged youth to the land to foster curiosity and stewardship of the environment, which is the first step in supporting the next generation of Indigenous leaders); and Traditional Farm Corps (which facilitates the preservation of traditional agricultural skills and reconnects Indigenous young people to their heritage while addressing community needs around food sovereignty, seed saving, and health and nutrition).

EARTHseed Farm

A fiscally sponsored project of Community Movement Builders

City Kids

City Kids

While more than 40% of the American population are people of color, the National Park Service estimates that only 23% of its visitors are. Even fewer come from densely urban communities. This participation gap has a real impact on the health and wellbeing of urban and minority youth. City Kids works to bridge this gap by annually inviting more than 120 middle and high school youth from Washington, DC’s to explore, recreate and challenge themselves in wilderness settings. These youth develop confidence to try new things and test their interests. They learn how to set meaningful goals. They strengthen their belief that there are opportunities for them outside of where they live. And they come to recognize that their actions and attitudes affect those around them.

NRF funding helps City Kids equip themselves with the resources necessary for its successful model of long-term outdoor education and youth empowerment programming; launch its new College Success and Alumni Services program, and enact its inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan.

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers

Chicago Voyagers focuses exclusively on serving adolescents living in greater Chicago’s high-need communities such as Englewood, Belmont-Cragin, and North Lawndale. Most participants have numerous adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including lack of familial support, abuse, high rates of community violence, and poverty, which can negatively impact the brain’s development leading to emotional dysregulation and antisocial behavior. They also do not have access to nature and the outdoors. Chicago Voyagers’ programs use a multi-faceted, neuroscience-based approach to prevent or diminish the impact of ACEs.

Chicago Voyager’s efforts to provide middle school and high school youth with year-round adventures are carefully designed and therapeutically-informed to improve self-esteem, promote smart decision-making, and encourage responsible behavior. By incorporating a variety of outdoor activities, such as hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, overnight wilderness excursions, and sailing, Chicago Voyagers endeavors to cultivate in participants a sense of self-empowerment, personal responsibility, and a belief in their ability to overcome challenges. Programming is strengths-based and focused on four components: relationship, growth zone, mindfulness, and experiential learning.

Compass Rose Education

Compass Rose Education

Compass Rose Education is committed to serving Texas communities in need by building schools that reflect the strengths of the community and their hopes for their children.  Located 30 miles east of Austin, Bastrop has limited school options, most of which are consistently under-performing. The alternative school choices are private schools, serving only those who can afford them. Compass Rose Education opened Compass Rose Harvest as an agriculture science school that partners with local resources to bring 21st century ag-science learning to its students. Starting in kindergarten, students investigate their world, collaborate with peers to solve problems, and work at the intersection of science, technology, and agriculture with the same intensity they apply to reading, writing, and math.

Compass Rose Harvest plans to construct raised beds around the perimeter of the school. Students will plant, nourish, and harvest flowers, herbs, and vegetables. These beds will allow the students to learn about construction, plant cycles, and healthy foods, while also giving them the opportunity to share the products of their labor with their families. 

Diné WE CAN 

Diné WE CAN’s SiiHasin Bike Program empowers participants through the sport of bicycling, while emphasizing the importance of goal setting, promoting healthy lifestyles, and recognizing the positive effect of K'e (kinship). It also provides educational services from the seat of a bicycle and cultural experiences that include livestock shearing, butchering, traditional meals, riding under the stars, learning about local landmarks, kindship through clan, and bike repair lessons (that teach participants to take care of their bicycles and ultimately take care of oneself). A vital part of the program is relationship building with elders in the community, which is important to the Navajo Nation’s culture.  Diné WE CAN is focused on serving the Navajo Nation in Indian Wells, but also reaches the surrounding communities and the Hopi Reservation, as every family deserves the opportunity to know the joy of riding a bike while enjoying the freedom to explore the natural world on two wheels.

Chill Foudnation
 

Chill Foundation

Young people living in urban areas encounter financial and societal barriers to accessing natural spaces and recreation, especially those from historically marginalized communities, BIPOC youth, and youth from low-income families. Chill Foundation (Chill) recognizes that board sports, especially snow sports, are not easily accessible for many young people due to both financial and societal barriers to access. Chill wants all youth to experience the wonders of the natural environment and the positive impacts of learning new skills in a safe and supportive setting. Its no-cost programs break down these barriers, so that any young person, regardless of background or circumstances, can participate and see themselves in a community of riders. Chill’s positive youth development snowboarding programs in Portland, OR, Reno, NV, Tahoe, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, support young people, ages 11-19, who come from historically marginalized communities or face other challenges in their lives. The program provides everything youth need to participate, including gear, passes, instruction, transportation, and food. By bringing a more diverse population into the outdoor community, Chill works towards building and sustaining a more welcoming and inclusive community for current and future young people to enjoy.

Courage Ranch

Courage Ranch

The prevalence of mental illness does not discriminate between rural and urban residents. Courage Ranch is a trauma-focused, equine-assisted psychotherapy facility founded in response to the significant lack of mental health therapy services for children in rural South Texas. Children who come to Courage Ranch face issues of grief, abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, isolation, fear, and anxiety. Courage Ranch is best suited to provide mental health services in rural counties as it provides programing that offers therapy in nature with horses and donkeys—an approach that reduces the stigma surrounding mental issues and allows clients to move, become congruent with nature, and experience the natural rhythms the environment offers.

Courage Ranch opened a second facility in February 2023. The Ranch is currently supported by three therapists, two equine professionals, and seven horses and three donkeys that serve as therapy partners. To meet the demand for its programming, Courage Ranch is hiring an additional therapist. This will reduce the number of children on the wait list and create additional after school appointment opportunities.

La Semilla Food Center

CultureSeed

CultureSeed

The Columbia Gorge region of the Pacific Northwest is one of the largest national scenic areas in the United States. Despite being an area where people from around the world come to recreate, the rural communities surrounding the Columbia Gorge, which are predominantly Latinx, face pronounced economic disparities. CultureSeed works to strengthen connection to the community and to nature while addressing youth mental health issues. CultureSeed creates a supportive environment that empowers youth, ages 13-18, to navigate challenges they may face during their formative teenage years through: outdoor experiences and multi-day immersions (including hikes, camps, river trips and a variety of other outdoor experiences and adventures), outdoor economic opportunities, weekly peer circles, counseling and therapy, and access funds in order to connect youth with nature and to promote mental well-being and resilience. Local youth attend free and ongoing year-round outdoor programming and can return year-after-year until they graduate high school. 

Friends of Nature Parks

Concrete Couch

Concrete Couch

Concrete Couch has been working in the Hillside neighborhood of Southeast Colorado Springs since 2009. In the last 15 months alone, its work has impacted more than 400 neighbors in that area by working with kids and community groups to create public art, build community and create new environments and experiences. Concrete Couch's programming gives children, families and adults the chance to engage, learn valuable skills and connect with their neighbors in healthy, active ways. 

NRF funding helps support programs at Concrete Couch’s new Learning Laboratory project site (dubbed “Concrete Coyote”) which include the design and building of a treehouse and playground, trails for walking and biking, creek walks and bridges, adventure play, a disc golf course, a mosaic climbing wall, walking and biking trails, and extensive outdoor workshops.

Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida

Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida

Participation in outdoor recreation, education and careers in Florida is not reflective of the demographics of the state. The Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida is working through the Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network (FYCCN) to increase diversity outdoors by reaching more participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and including more historically underserved schools in its environmental education and outdoor activity pursuits.

Programs and activities designed to increase diversity will take place throughout the state, including the Project WILD and Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches (FSYR) programs. Project WILD, an on-site environmental education program, has the primary focus of engaging highly-diverse schools and districts and providing on-side training for educators using the WILD curriculum. Project WILD participants will also have the opportunity to field trips to the Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center.

At FSYR Camps, boys and girls experience many different therapeutic camping activities. Canoeing, archery, swimming, and other recreational activities allow them the opportunity to build basic teamwork and peer communication skills. The FSYR camps would are working to expand upon the environmental education program component and to instill outdoor knowledge and values in participating youth.

Cincinnati Squash Academy

Cincinnati Squash Academy

According to the Cincinnati Health Disparity Reduction Plan, the top three solutions to Cincinnati’s imbalance of healthcare and community wellness practices are to add services in high-need areas, support positive social environments, and focus on health education. The Ohio Department of Education gave Cincinnati Public Schools’ (CPS) an overall grade of a D grade; for gap-closing, graduation rate, and preparedness for success, CPS scored Fs. The Cincinnati Squash Academy’s programming delivers on all fronts to address these crises. CSA is an urban squash program that has been serving youth in Over-the-Rhine since 2014. The purpose of CSA is to help these students leverage the power of sports to gain access to other opportunities—specifically creating a pathway to and through college.

CSA recruits kids from schools where 70% or more of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and provide them with intensive academic support. Its expanded model, “community squash,” breaks down economic and racial barriers. All ages, races, and backgrounds come together for squash and family activities.

Courage Ranch

Courage Ranch

The prevalence of mental illness does not discriminate between rural and urban residents. Texas’ rural communities of Atascosa, Karnes, and Wilson counties are underserved and lack mental health services, especially for children. Courage Ranch, a trauma-focused, equine-assisted psychotherapy facility in Floresville, addresses this rural need by providing a safe space for children to find hope, belonging, and connection to build a foundation of lifelong well-being.

Courage Ranch’s unique and relatable therapy sessions are unlike traditional therapy settings, as sessions are conducted outside, allowing clients to move, become congruent with nature, and experience the natural rhythms the environment offers. Children visiting Courage Ranch face issues of grief, abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, isolation, fear, and anxiety; however, through its program, they find meaning in their trauma and can regulate responses to future trauma.

DRCC

Duamish River Community Coalition

  • Website: drcc.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Washington’s Duwamish Valley is geographically isolated, bounded by highways and the river, and is poorly served by public transportation. The Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC) elevates the voice of those impacted by the Duwamish River pollution and other environmental injustices for a clean, healthy, equitable environment for people and wildlife. It promotes place-keeping and prioritizes community capacity and resilience. DRCC collaborates with community groups, agencies, and organizations to implement effective, meaningful, and culturally sensitive outreach and educational programming about the Superfund cleanup and other community priorities.

DRCC’s Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) is a youth engagement program that focuses on environmental justice and job skills for high school youth. Most of the youth have less access to green public space than their peers and are at higher risk of negative outcomes (childhood asthma, for example) due to living in an industrial community. DVYC programming includes building job skills (like stewardship of public land); working towards environmental justice goals (through activities such as testing moss samples for pollution levels); and opportunities to enjoy the Duwamish River from kayaks and boats and field trips that include hiking or camping. By providing new experiences and lessons, DVYC  enriches and builds upon the lived experience of its youth, providing them the arena needed to grow and achieve.

Connecticut Institute for Communities

  • Website: cifc.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Many children in Danbury, CT, do not have access to or take advantage of outdoor recreation, especially on the water, despite the area's reputation as an outdoor recreation destination. The benefits of being outside can increase the impact of recreation's health benefits even more, making the lack of outdoor recreation for local children even more concerning. Connecticut Institute for Communities, Inc. (CIFC) works to instill a love for the outdoors in children and families as well as a commitment to preserving natural resources and the opportunities they provide.

CIFC recently launched a fishing program that provides transportation, education, and a guided fishing opportunity on local bodies of water (including Candlewood Lake, one of the most productive U.S. lakes for anglers) for children who have completed CIFC’s free swim lesson program and an accompanying parent. The fishing trips are hosted by a guide who teaches the foundations of fishing, including regulations and good environmental stewardship, in hopes that the families will continue to fish together after gaining the knowledge and skills. This is especially important as a parent’s attitude toward outdoor recreation is one of the greatest predictors of a similar attitude in their children.

Cultivate Collective

Cultivate Collective

Cultivate Collective is a national model for holistic community revitalization that unites education, wellness, sustainability, and economic vitality to create a resilient, equitable, and vibrant future for all. Its six-acre demonstration site on Chicago’s Southwest side is located in a food-insecure community and serves a 96% minority constituency. Cultivate’s site opened to the public in September of 2023. The first phase of construction houses the Academy for Global Citizenship's (AGC) existing K-8 public school, an early childhood Head Start center, community health care center, three-acre urban farm, neighborhood marketplace, six teaching kitchens, and a range of community wellness programs and amenities.

The second phase includes an environmental education learning lab and teacher training institute to host regional children and educators for immersion into and learning from its model. AGC, Cultivate Collective and The Field Museum will use the process and community engagement framework from the highly successful Roots & Routes Initiative to engage community members, children, caregivers, and Chicago artists on the Southwest side of the city to collaboratively design and construct an urban green space for gathering on the Cultivate Collective campus. This space will serve as a resource for community members, students, staff, neighborhood children, and caregivers to host events, spend contemplative time in nature and celebrate cultural heritage.

Gallatin Gateway Youth Group

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratories Inc. and Aquarium

Diné WE CAN

The SiiHasin Bike Program, supported by Diné WE CAN, promotes the healthy development of youth and community members on the Navajo Nation. Focused on bicycling, the program emphasizes goal setting, healthy lifestyles, and kinship (K’e) through a three-part bike series that uses cycling as a tool for personal growth and development. Guided by community elders, participants gain essential skills for healthy identities, empathy, and responsible decision-making as well as social and emotional learning through cultural activities. Additionally, the program connects Diné youth to nature through bike rides and bike-packing on Diné Bikéyah, promoting Hózhó in their environment. The program is the only bike program in the southwestern Navajo reservation.

Daring Adventures

Daring Adventures

For young people with disabilities, isolation further compounds the challenges of acceptance by their peers without disabilities and belief in oneself. One of the most unforgettable experiences a person has is accomplishing a challenge that they have been told is out of reach. Individuals with disabilities are told everyday what they can and cannot do. They need opportunities to try new things, to take healthy risks, and to learn from failure and success. The vision of Arizona-based Daring Adventures is to create a world where everyone, regardless of ability, can experience the beauty and power of nature.

NRF funding supports Daring Adventure’s River Rampage program, which brings together teens, both with and without disabilities, in an extended wilderness setting promoting inclusion. Daring Adventures has served more than 1,400 participants/volunteers through its white-water rafting program since 1994.

City Kids

City Kids Wilderness Project

America’s great outdoor spaces belong to all citizens, and yet a large majority of youth of color who grow up in urban communities never get to create in our country’s wild spaces. City Kids Wilderness Project works to bridge this participation gap by inviting middle and high school youth from some of Washington, DC’s most underserved communities to explore, recreate, and challenge themselves in wilderness settings on a long-term, sustained basis. By overcoming that initial barrier to entry, City Kids helps youth to grow as explorers in their own lives.

City Kids uses city, natural, and wilderness settings in DC and Jackson Hole, Wyoming (its home away from home) to achieve its mission to build resiliency, broaden horizons, and develop life skills. During the school year, youth participant in activities on the Billy Goat Trail; biking the C&O Canal; sea kayaking in the rivers, swamps, and oceans of South Carolina; and rock climbing as close as Sport Rock Indoor Climbing Gym and as far as the Shenandoah. During the summer, youth travel to Jackson Hole to participate in summer camp. The summer is filled with camping, horseback riding, backcountry hiking in the Sawtooth and Grand Tetons mountain ranges, kayaking in Yellowstone National Park, and so much more. In addition to these outdoor adventures, the program provides career exploration and job training for high school youth, as well as community service opportunities and social justice workshops.

GirlVentures

GirlVentures

Evidence shows that throughout childhood, girls and boys report similar levels of self-esteem. However, in adolescence, girls’ self-esteem peaks by the age of nine and then sharply drops. While facing conflicting messages about feminine behavior and their appearances, girls often stop stating their true opinions and feelings—giving up their authentic voice. Research also shows the physical and mental health value of being immersed in the outdoors, especially for adolescent girls. Girls (especially girls from marginalized communities) often face barriers to outdoor activities, including a lack of access to safe environments, transportation, and the economic means to participate in fee-based programs. GirlVentures works to overcome these barriers through its mission to inspire girls to lead through outdoor adventure, inner discovery, and collective action.

GirlVentures’ Leadership Progression Model allows girls to participate in outdoor immersion and leadership programs beginning in 6th grade and culminates with professional development opportunities at the end of high school. The summer programs include 1 to 2-week expedition courses for 6-12th graders. Girls and gender nonconforming youth experience the wonders of the Northern California wilderness during expeditions that combine backpacking, kayaking, and rock climbing with social-emotional curriculum focusing on the environment, health, social justice, and leadership. These courses increase participants’ individual connections to nature and provide up to 300 hours of programming per participant per year, ensuring deep investment in each girl. The school year programs strengthen leadership and introduce the girls to outdoor activities including, kayaking, rock climbing, and backpacking, while connecting them with nature and learning from mentors and each other.

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives believes a healthy future for bees reflects a healthy future for humanity. The health of those in inner-cities, specifically people of color, is often the last to be considered – and it’s Detroit Hives’ mission to change this. Detroit Hives is a honeybee education and conservation initiative that engages urban communities in its mission by creating cultural experiences that are both educational and relatable. By transforming vacant lots into urban bee farms, Detroit Hives revitalizes neighborhoods, builds community, cultivates knowledge within the city, and begins conversations about health and healing among young people.

NRF funding supports the expansion of Detroit Hive‘s 'Bee The Change’ educational program, which educates children and families on the native plant species of their natural environment and the pollinators species/types that need these plants to cross-pollinate. Detroit Hives' work also revitalizes vacant lots by removing blight and any/all hazardous materials that potentially present a risk to families. By doing this, Detroit Hives is creating an outdoor learning experience for children and families by reimagining the ‘classroom experience,’ and by creating a safe and inclusive multi-use green space, which also showcases native wildflowers.

FIT

Field Institute of Taos

Post-pandemic, parents and teachers are more aware than ever that outdoor learning and play are key to a child’s health and well-being. By developing a “sense of place” and a connection with the natural world in their backyard, youth become stewards of the environment and engage in more active and proactive lifestyles, ultimately resulting in increased self-worth, confidence, resilience, future aspirations, capacity for learning and decreased obesity and community violence. Knowing they have the freedom to explore outdoors and the ability to find sanctuary in natural spaces has long-term impact on youth. Field Institute of Taos (FITaos) aims to inspire stewards of the environment who understand the multi-faceted value of the natural environment as sanctuary and as an opportunity for scientific research, physical challenge, exploration, experiencing beauty, and mental strength.

To meet a very high community demand for its programming, FITaos continues to expand programming and to provide scholarship assistance to all who request it. NRF funding supports FITaos’ programs, including its Mountain Camps, after school mountain bike club sessions, and Letting Off STEAM.

Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps

Conservation Legacy

Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps (ALCC), a program of Conservation Legacy, fosters the next generation of Indigenous leaders by reconnecting youth and young adults to their ancestral and public lands through activities that provide cultural reconnection, peer and professional mentorship, and healing outdoor experiences.

ALCC recognizes the need to build an ethic of community service and land stewardship in the next generation of Indigenous leaders and to increase the representation of traditional ecological knowledge in public land management agencies and conservation movements. ALCC believes this knowledge is key to the current climate crisis and the health of the Indigenous communities, which are often at the forefront of these issues. ALCC engages Indigenous youth and young adults in outdoor activities such as conservation projects, traditional farming, targeted field trips and more on public and ancestral lands to foster cultural reconnection and for healing for the participants and their communities, as well as life skills and personal development to support their personal success.

Dakota Wicohan

Dakota Wicohan’s mission is to preserve Dakota as a living language, and, through it, transmit Dakota lifeways to future generations. Its vision is to prepare and empower individuals, generation by generation, to lead with wo’Dakota (Dakota values). Through numerous programs, including art workshops, after school youth mentoring, language classes, and suicide prevention efforts, Dakota Wicohan has helped more than 1,000 community members heal from generational trauma and connect to the Dakota language and culture. Its program strategies are Remember, Reclaim and Reconnect—Remember its rich heritage, Reclaim its identity and cultural teachings, and Reconnect its families, students, friends, neighbors and community members to its rich heritage and values.

Dakota Wicohan's outdoor youth programming, including its Sunktanka Wicayuhapi (They Care for Horses) Program (a mentor-based program helps youth aged 12-21 build and sustain relationships with horses each year); expand outdoor programming (camping, teepees, archery, foraging, gardening, canoeing, and fishing); and explore new activities (such as a two-day youth culture outdoor day camp with different activity stations, like drum group, pipestone carving, language games, lacrosse, etc). Dakota Wicohan’s programming helps youth gain strength and self-confidence as they understand what it means to be Dakota. Success looks like engaged and active youth participating in programming, and then continuing those activities throughout their lives as Dakota culture bearers.

EY

Elevate Youth

Elevate Youth (EY) works to break down systemic barriers to outdoor access, diversify outdoor spaces, and create opportunities for positive mentoring relationships in Greater Boston. Its impact centers on creating self-efficacy in youth, a sense of belonging in natural spaces, and empowering the next generation of diverse environmental stewards and leaders. EY is amplifying its impact by extending programming to overnight camping and backpacking, full-day ocean sailing and kayaking trips, and full-day environmental service experiences. Through its Summer Voyagers Program, EY provides youth, ages 9-16, with a week of these innovative day trips in and around the Boston area, and with a culminating overnight camping trip. The youth experience immersive nature opportunities during the summer months, solidify the skills and lessons learned throughout the school year, and open up pathways for further engagement in nature. The programs offer a progressive learning curriculum to introduce students to outdoor activities, such as hiking, skiing, fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, and more, while being supported by adult mentors and EY staff. By introducing kids to a diverse range of outdoor recreational activities, the youth are given the chance to find an outdoor activity they would like to pursue further.

Localogy/Vida Camp

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives is a honeybee education and conservation initiative that works to build community and cultivate knowledge within the city and begin conversations about health and healing among young people. Detroit Hives is transforming vacant lots into urban bee farms and revitalizing local neighborhoods. NRF funding supports Detroit Hives “Bee The Change” educational program which educates children and families on the native plant species of their natural environment and the pollinators species/types that need these plants to cross-pollinate. The program also revitalizes vacant lots by removing blight and all hazardous materials that potentially present a risk to families.

Through educational tours, partnerships with schools, and its Bee the Change community development/education campaign (which teaches Detroit-area high school students how to facilitate place-based transformation initiatives), Detroit Hives has been able to expose over 2,000 students and families to its programming. 

 

 

Greater Newark Conservancy

Greater Newark Conservancy

The Greater Newark Conservancy’s (GNC) mission is to promote environmental stewardship to improve the quality of life in New Jersey’s urban communities, with a specific focus on the City of Newark. The majority of youth who participate in its Newark Youth Leadership Project (NYLP) would, otherwise, rarely have the opportunity to learn about the natural urban environment and how it affects their health and well-being.

NYLP's summer program provides Newark high school and college youth with outdoor education activities, employment experience (oftentimes their first), leadership development, and physical activity as they learn about environmental education, urban farming, horticulture, and entrepreneurial activities, all in an urban setting. The students engage in hands-on activities at the Conservancy’s outdoor project sites and by assisting in the operation of its inner-city mobile farm stand. NYLP participants develop marketable skills at a job site where they are placed based on their strengths and interests, work under the supervision of college mentors and Conservancy staff who take an interest in the success of their interns, and develop career goals through hands-on work experience.

Colorado Springs Youth Sports

Colorado Springs Youth Sports

Young people in the lower income areas of Colorado Springs have limited access to soccer fields and are in need of constructive activities. Nearly all local soccer fields, whether at schools or in parks, are either locked or restricted only to organizations with insurance that are renting the fields. The societal issues of concern include sedentary lifestyles, and lack of access to proper athletic fields and a safe, constructive activity during times when young people are often engaged in less-than-safe activities. Colorado Springs Youth Sports is addressing these issues through its Youth Soccer Outreach Program, which is designed to provide high-school aged participants supervised access to a high-quality soccer field for evening use. This access provides opportunities for character development through team-based athletic participation and physical fitness, and it gives high school youth a healthy alternative to other activities teenagers may engage in during out-of-school hours.

Participants in the outreach program are high-school aged from Harrison School District, Colorado Springs School District 11, and Widefield School District. All three of these school districts encompass portions of southeast Colorado Springs, are highly diverse, and include a significant number of low-income families.

Detroit Horse Power

Detroit Horse Power

Horseback riding is a form of recreation generally unavailable to youth from low-income, urban, and minority communities. Detroit Horse Power (DHP) has taken a leading role in making this programming available to urban, youth of color in under-resourced Detroit communities. NRF funding supports DHP’s summer horseback riding camps for youth and its summer camp staff, student transportation, meals, and supplies. DHP’s programming is informed by research on equine-assisted learning and precedents from urban riding programs that already serve similar populations in other U.S. cities. These examples and its own track record of demonstrated impact document the transferable skill-building possible through riding and caring for horses: Perseverance, Empathy, Responsible risk-taking, Confidence, and Self-control. Students learn how to ride and care for a horse, interact with guest speakers from equine professions, and reflect on their experiences.

While DHP currently operates by bringing youth from the city to partner horse barns outside Detroit, it is on a three-year path to open a new urban equestrian destination on a 14-acre vacant land site in Detroit. This will make its program accessible in students’ communities, while strengthening the fabric of the neighborhoods in which they live.

Fish & Wildlife Foundation Of Florida

Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida

The Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, working through the Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network (FYCCN), gets kids outdoors to create the next generation that cares. It does this via its four centers and a network of nearly 400 partners. Since FYCCN’s inception, more than two million youth have received experiences and education related to FYCCN’s four pillars—angling, boating, shooting sports, and wildlife exploration. FYCCN increases diversity outdoors by reaching more participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and by engaging historically underserved schools and students in environmental education and outdoor activity pursuits.

To reach new partners, new schools, and new youth from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and to support current partners in various ways that lead to more inclusion of participants, FYCCN is taking its hands-on conservation training and Project WILD lessons on the road. With support from NRF, FYCCN refurbished and retrofitted a trailer stocked with items such as archery equipment, fishing poles, tackle, aquatic and terrestrial/flying materials and storage for stimulating conservation materials. By traveling to communities throughout the state, FYCCN can reach youth unable to come to its centers.

CultureSeed

CultureSeed

The Columbia Gorge region of the Pacific Northwest is one of the largest national scenic areas in the United States. Despite being an area where people from around the world come to recreate, the rural communities surrounding the Columbia Gorge, which are predominantly Latinx, face pronounced economic disparities. CultureSeed shapes its organization and programming through a racial justice lens and works to strengthen connection to the community and to nature while addressing youth mental health issues. CultureSeed creates a supportive environment that empowers youth, ages 13-18, to navigate challenges they may face during their formative teenage years through: outdoor experiences and multi-day immersions (including hikes, camps, river trips and a variety of other outdoor experiences and adventures), outdoor economic opportunities, weekly peer circles, counseling and therapy, and access funds in order to connect youth with nature and to promote mental well-being and resilience. Local youth attend free and ongoing year-round outdoor programming and can return year-after-year until they graduate high school. 

Denver City LAX

Denver City LAX

Thousands of children live in Denver’s Northeast corridor, many without access and opportunity to participate in meaningful programming. Denver City Lax (DCL) is a sports-based youth development organization working to provide equal access to educational and enrichment opportunities to boys and girls in under-resourced neighborhoods through the sport of lacrosse. It believes sport, and lacrosse specifically, is uniquely suited to be part of the solution because the game combines physical activity, relationships, structure, and competence building. The culture of perseverance, resilience, grit, and teamwork, coupled with educational aims, translates directly into building self-confidence in its student-thletes’ personal lives.

DCL's Little Laxer Program is step one in establishing lacrosse and its numerous ties to education as a legitimate activity to pursue. Its Girls Development Program closes the numerical gap between boys and girls; fewer girls participate in physical activity and sports than boys, and even fewer girls of color. To ensure no boy or girl is excluded, all programming and necessary equipment is provided at no cost. The spring lacrosse season is the centerpiece, but year-round programming has been established in three well-defined areas: Lacrosse, Education and Enrichment. Programming includes: a quality youth sports program, health and nutritional guidance, academic assistance, life skills development, social emotional skills building, mental health workshops, enrichment activities including outdoor adventure, and adult and peer mentoring.

Explore Austin

Explore Austin

The youth served by Explore Austin live in economically and racially segregated neighborhoods, where members of these communities are underrepresented in outdoor recreation and face barriers to accessing nature. Through outdoor adventure and long-term mentorship, Explore Austin supports adventurous youth from these communities as they develop into confident and courageous adults. Its free, six-year program connects Explorers (grades 6-12) with caring mentors to cultivate authentic relationships and self-discovery through teamwork and outdoor adventure. Over the six years, a youth Explorer spends 1,100 hours in nature, being physically active, developing social-emotional competencies, and boosting their mental health, alongside supportive mentors. Explore Austin facilitates trust and belonging by creating a safe space to try and do hard things. As Explorers gain technical skills through backpacking, climbing, biking, and canoeing, they develop confidence, integrity, and courage to pursue their own version of success.

Lookout Mountain Conservancy

Detroit Horse Power

Detroit Horse Power

Modern horseback riding is usually not available to youth growing up in urban areas. The Aspen Institute's State of Play report shows that horseback riding is one of the least common offerings in southeast Michigan. Furthermore, these limited offerings are disproportionately inaccessible to young people of color.  Detroit Horse Power has taken a leading role in making this programming available to urban youth of color in Detroit.

NRF funding supports Detroit Horse Power’s summer horseback riding camps, which expose Detroit youth to horses and the life lessons they teach us (confidence, perseverance, empathy, etc.). Campers learn riding and horse care, interact with guest speakers from various equine professions, and reflect on their experiences.

Outdoors Empowered Network

Outdoors Empowered Network

Time outdoors can greatly impact health and wellness. However, numerous barriers exist that prevent inclusion in outdoor spaces, with the high cost of gear being one of the most universal barriers. Although well-made outdoor recreation gear like tents, backpacks and sleeping bags can last for many years, the initial investment can be overwhelming and thus prevent entry. Gear libraries provide a community-based solution to this problem by providing all of the basics to a family or program free or at greatly reduced costs. Outdoors Empowered Network (OEN) is dedicated to increasing access to and diversity in the outdoors through building equity-based tools and resources. Its national network of member-run gear libraries and outdoor leadership training dramatically decrease the barriers to outdoor recreation for low-income communities and communities of color.

OEN is currently focusing its outreach on primarily BIPOC communities that are interested in running a local gear library. Through this grassroots collaboration, the whole community is given new opportunities for outdoor access. A gear library for 15 can support 780 weekend camping trips a year! Participating youth will benefit from time spent in the local natural areas as well as from increased mentoring and skills development.

Courage Ranch

Courage Ranch

The rural Texas communities in Atascosa, Karnes and Wilson counties are underserved for mental health services, especially for children. There are greater challenges to the provision of mental health services in rural communities, including the stigma that surrounds mental health as well as an overall distrust of unfamiliar individuals and practices. Rural residents often travel long distances to receive services and are less likely to be insured for mental health services and to recognize an illness. Courage Ranch is a trauma-focused, equine-assisted psychotherapy facility, located in Floresville, which was founded in response to the significant lack of mental health therapy services in rural South Texas. Courage Ranch provides a safe space for clients to find hope, belonging, and connection in order to build a foundation of lifelong well-being. Its unique program features are attractive to rural communities, which lessens the stigma and creates a greater sense of safety and comfort for its clients.

Sessions are conducted outside and every client establishes a greater sense of connection through their relationship with a horse or donkey—a foundation for healing. Clients who come to Courage Ranch face issues of grief, abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, isolation, fear, and anxiety. Through connection, however, clients find meaning in their trauma and can regulate responses to future trauma.

ESCC

Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps

Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps (ESCC) builds a more inclusive outdoor community by offering professional development opportunities and wilderness access experiences to youth and young adults who continue to be underrepresented in outdoor leadership. It provides stable housing, living wage employment, access to nutritious meals, access to outdoor recreation, and mental health support services. ESCC’s members are immersed in wilderness settings, challenged physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally as they complete tasks with their group and undergo marked transformations. Youth that experience mental health support have the opportunity for a greater integration of experience that leads to continued positive engagement with the outdoors and an increased likelihood of participating in future conservation and stewardship efforts.

Flint River Watershed Coalition

Flint River Watershed Coalition

Michigan-based Flint River Watershed Coalition (FRWC) works to protect, promote, and improve the Flint River ecosystem and its watershed to benefit and promote ecosystem health, community health, economic health, and education and recreation. FRWC recognizes that it is essential to support families impacted by ongoing structural racism and inequities in environmental justice (including the Flint Water Crisis) and to break down barriers affiliated with the cost of outdoor recreation. FRWC BIPOC Youth Service Expansion is reimagining access to Kayak Flint programming by applying a lens of environmental and social justice to its work. Through collaborations with youth-serving organizations, churches and neighborhood groups, FRWC provides free kayak and paddle board opportunities, transportation support, expanded location offerings, and space for discussions related to safety and concerns.


Diving With A Purpose

Diving With a Purpose (DWP) is a volunteer underwater archaeology program started by members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS) and the National Park Service (NPS) in Biscayne National Park. The organization is dedicated to the conservation and protection of underwater cultural heritage resources by providing education, training, certification and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. DWP’s special focus is the documentation, interpretation and protection of shipwrecks that were involved in the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement and the maritime history and culture of African Americans who formed a core of labor and expertise for America’s maritime enterprises. DWP has trained more than 600 adult and youth divers in underwater archaeology documentation and coral reef conservation.

Historically, U.S. drowning rates among African American youth have been disproportionately higher compared to other racial and ethnic groups. DWP's Africatown Swim-To-SCUBA program, in collaboration with swim-based training programs in the local area, help youth become more proficient swimmers and be more confident in the water. The SCUBA training portion of the program provides youth with life skills in critical thinking and problem solving with the added complexity of dynamics in an aquatic environment. The program also exposes youth to the science and physics of SCUBA diving and a higher level of experiential learning.The objective of the Discover SCUBA sessions is to introduce youth to the sport of scuba diving by professional instructors utilizing full SCUBA gear in a controlled environment.

FOMDP

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

Through its Moving Montañas program, Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peak (FOMDP) works with schools to leverage outside resources (and proximity and knowledge of 500,000 acres of outdoor recreational opportunities), partnership networks, and funding to connect community youth to the outdoors through immersive, educational, and safe programming. After-school activities are self-directed by the middle and high school students and include hikes, camping, bikes, and rock climbing. Summer Programming offers week-long day camps designed around different themes and age ranges. The fall and spring break camps are the newest addition to FOMDP’s programming. These camps fill a gap for local youth, as recent changes in the school calendar created a two week break in both the fall and spring semesters. FOMDP also has a growing mountain bike program where students learn the basics of mountain biking. All Moving Montañas programs connect youth to mentors in their community and create opportunities for older students to step into leadership roles around the protection of public lands.

LOOP NOLA

Diné WE CAN 

Diné WE CAN’s SiiHasin Bike Program empowers participants through the sport of bicycling, while emphasizing the importance of goal setting, promoting healthy lifestyles, and recognizing the positive effect of K'e (kinship). It also provides educational services from the seat of a bicycle and cultural experiences that include livestock shearing, butchering, traditional meals, riding under the stars, learning about local landmarks, kindship through clan, and bike repair lessons (that teach participants to take care of their bicycles and ultimately take care of oneself). A vital part of the program is relationship building with elders in the community, which is important to the Navajo Nation’s culture. Diné WE CAN is focused on serving the Navajo Nation in Indian Wells, AZ, but also reaches the surrounding communities and the Hopi Reservation, as every family deserves the opportunity to know the joy of riding a bike while enjoying the freedom to explore the natural world on two wheels.

Lower Brule Sioux Tribe

Environmental Law & Policy Center 2020

Environmental Law & Policy Center

  • Website: elpc.org
  • Grant amount: $15,000

Chicago has consistently poor air quality, particularly on the south and west sides, which have large industrial plants and heavy truck traffic. In some neighborhoods, the pediatric asthma level is 1 in 3, compared to a national average of 1 in 10. Children are especially vulnerable because their lungs are still developing. As climate change worsens and because of the ongoing pandemic, it is critical that our children and future leaders understand how air quality impacts health, especially in communities surrounded by industrial areas.

ELPC’s Citizen Science Project encourages youth to be active outdoors by collecting air quality data using handheld, Bluetooth-enabled monitors as they walk/bike through their neighborhoods, This project engages young people in hands-on learning about air pollution and how it impacts personal health and well-being. Since 2017, youth have walked/biked thousands of miles in almost all of Chicago’s neighborhoods for the Citizen Science Project. In 2021, NRF funding supports ELPC's efforts to expand its program to engage more youth.

Detroit Hives

Detroit Hives

The health of those in inner cities, and more specifically people of color, is often the last to be considered. Detroit Hives, a honeybee education and conservation initiative, hopes to change this by building community and cultivating knowledge within the city and by beginning conversations about health and healing among young people. Detroit Hives' “Bee The Change” program educates children and families on the native plant species of their natural environment, the pollinators species/types that need these plants to cross-pollinate, and revitalizes vacant lots by removing blight and hazardous materials that potentially present a risk to families. 

Bee the Change is an out-of-school experience for young people and interested community members. Participants have the opportunity to do learning on their own, through collaborative experiences with an expert at the apiary, and within their community. Participants benefit from a 2-6 week educational partnership that is anticipated to lead into a longer-term project within the community and a lifetime of healthy lifestyle choices moving forward.

Outward Bound Adventures

Outward Bound Adventures 

California-based Outward Bound Adventures (OBA) exists to change the lives of high-risk and underserved youth of color through fun and challenging outdoor learning experiences. Its vision is that youth from diverse low-income communities will have access to nature, outdoor education, environmental education, leadership development and preparation for careers in conservation. Its Outdoor Recreation & Environmental Studies Expeditions (OR-ESE), an expansion of its ongoing OBA program, is a series of stimulating, outdoor recreational camping and backpacking trips that occur year-round. These theme-based trips range from one-day hikes to 20+ day expeditions.

Using a small cohort format and the wilderness as a classroom, each course of the outcome-driven, culturally-relevant, trauma-informed OR-ESE program is designed to help participants become more resilient, altruistic, socially responsible, and healthier, while increasing their self-image and self-mastery. The curriculum creates a growth mindset (perseverance in the face of challenge) and awareness of metacognition (thinking about how they are thinking). These two skills are crucial for moving past barriers in life. The ultimate goal is to provide youth with the tools that franchise them into the daily conversations and decisions that directly impact them and engage them in settings that redirect their focus towards much bigger issues that serve to create purpose and value in their lives. OBA’s  curriculum embodies six core values: community, leadership, physical challenge, environmental and cultural literacy, and stewardship ethics. Most of the youth that will be involved with OR-ESE have never hiked among forests, camped under the stars, or placed their feet in an icy stream.

Excite All Stars

Excite All Stars

The state of Louisiana (“Sportsman’s Paradise”) is a place rich in seafood, swamps, wildlife, fishing, and many outdoor activities. Unfortunately, many of the youth in the inner city of New Orleans do not have the opportunity to experience this side of Louisiana. They often experience the more unpleasant side of environmental issues and injustices which puts them and their family members at risk for health inequities and exposure to toxic waste. Excite All Stars empowers youth to be environmental advocates for their communities by including environmental education in its programming. It teaches independence and self-awareness through outdoor adventures, demonstrating partnership and trust through outdoor activities, and developing outdoor leaders through innovative programing and trips to public lands.

Excite All Stars offers 16 weeks of outdoor/adventure programming, including a week-long overnight environmental-focused camping experience for youth from underserved Greater New Orleans communities. In addition to the overnight camp experience, Excite All Stars also provides year-round opportunities for canoeing, hiking, high ropes course and rowing.

Friends of Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

The pandemic highlighted the importance of access to outdoor recreation, but the resources it takes to spend time outdoors are often out of reach for the Doña Ana County community, with a third of the population living at or below the federal poverty level. Friends of Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks works to connect community youth to outdoor spaces and to close the access gap that exists through its Moving Montañas program.

Moving Montañas utilizes Friends of Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks’ strong partnership network (after school providers, school districts and other non-profits) to provide outdoor recreation activities to areas of the county that lack resources. Activities include after school outdoor clubs, summer camps, 4th grade field trips, rock climbing, biking, family camping trips and hiking. 

EARTHseed Farm

EARTHseed Farm 

A fiscally sponsored project by Community Movement Builders

EARTHseed Farm is a 14-acre solar-powered organic farm and orchard located on the ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Peoples in Sonoma County, California. The farm is operated and rooted in Afro-Indigenous permaculture principles and built on the long legacy of Earth wisdom traditions of people of African descent. EARTHseed aims to share experiences that support youth to build their connection to nature, which has immense benefits for mental and physical health. Eating healthy and being connected to your food source is important for people of all ages, and EARTHseed is delighted to be able to share that knowledge and experience with young people in formative times of their lives. EARTHseed’s curriculum provides a way to teach youth about bigger ecological principles, and connect the dots with their interests, while sharing with them its approach in which care for people, Earth, and community are connected.

EARTHseed’s Back to Our Roots program serves youth, ages 6-21, through immersive daylong experiences in a natural environment at the farm. This includes U-Pick opportunities (elementary school aged) and daylong field trips (middle or high school aged). EARTHseed’s primarily serves youth of color who usually do not have access to a Black-led farm. Youth participants experience EARTHseed’s farm and educational center, visit animals on site, learn about Afro-Indigenous permaculture and traditional ecological knowledge, and gain awareness of historical and current cultural practices for stewarding the earth. Youth develop life skills through practicing harvesting and food preparation, as well as other hands-on skills, and learn about ecological concepts such as water conservation, soil and compost, biodiversity, and more through observing and discussing elements around the farm.

Gallatin Gateway Youth Group

Gallatin Gateway is a small, rural community 12 miles southwest of Bozeman. The community’s rural location, coupled with a commuting population of parents who work in surrounding areas (including Big Sky, Bozeman, and Belgrade) creates a void in opportunities for after-school or summer programs that keep students engaged. Gateway Youth Group (GYG) addresses this void by providing programs, scholarships, and activities for all Gallatin Gateway's youth to learn, develop leadership skills, and engage in community service. GYG’s Middle School Leadership Summer Camp provides a two-night, three-day Wilderness Overnight Camp experience to Gallatin youth, which connects youth with the outdoors and fosters an appreciation for nature and the local environment. By providing this opportunity, GYG cultivates a deeper sense of community and belonging, while also builds confidence and imparts new skills. The program includes transportation to the wilderness camp, rental of camping equipment for students in need, and supplies such as fishing gear, which ensures that all participants can fully engage in the outdoor experience.

Elevate Youth

Elevate Youth

Elevate Youth (EY) works to break down systemic barriers to outdoor access, diversify outdoor spaces, and create opportunities for positive mentoring relationships in Greater Boston. Its impact centers on creating self-efficacy in youth, a sense of belonging in natural spaces, and empowering the next generation of diverse environmental stewards and leaders. EY is amplifying its impact by extending programming to overnight camping and backpacking, full-day ocean sailing and kayaking trips, and full-day environmental service experiences. Through its Summer Voyagers Program, EY provides youth, ages 9-16, with a week of these innovative day trips in and around the Boston area, and with a culminating overnight camping trip. The youth experience immersive nature opportunities during the summer months, solidify the skills and lessons learned throughout the school year, and open up pathways for further engagement in nature. The programs offer a progressive learning curriculum to introduce students to outdoor activities, such as hiking, skiing, fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, and more, while being supported by adult mentors and EY staff. By introducing kids to a diverse range of outdoor recreational activities, the youth are given the chance to find an outdoor activity they would like to pursue further.

Museum of the Rockies

Exceptional Needs Network

Exceptional Needs Network

Exceptional Need Network provides camp for children with special needs. For most families, ENN camp is the “once a year respite” break to recharge and be able to do typical family outings while their special needs child reaps the benefit of attending camp with peers. Each year ENN serves campers with varying physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities. No one is turned away from camp due to the degree of their needs, as ENN has experienced staff that are able to care for such special campers.

NRF funding helped ENN acquire adapted equipment that enables campers to have an easier time engaging in outdoor activities in similar ability as their peers. At camp, ENN strives for each and every one of its campers to be able to participate in every activity (like swimming, horseback riding, rock climbing, zip lining, creating art, music therapy, sensory activities, sports, games and programs). ENN has been providing camp at no cost to families of special needs children in the San Francisco East Bay Area since 2002, and has served more than 1,000 campers since.

Rippleffect

Rippleffect

Casco Bay High School, in Portland, Maine, is the most culturally- and socio-economically diverse high school in the state. Many of it students are significantly underrepresented among those who engage in outdoor pursuits and, therefore, have limited exposure to the benefits of the positive emotional, behavioral, social, and intellectual development that comes from connecting with nature. Rippleffect is a centeral partner of CBHS in providing low-to-no barrier access to the outdoors.

Rippleffect takes CBHS’ entire Freshman and Senior classes on two separate week-long wilderness expeditions in the mountains of New England and the islands and waters of the Gulf of Maine. The students first embark upon this immersive wilderness expedition as freshman and then again as seniors, with the aim of exposing students to the many benefits of the outdoors within the frame of CBHS's core principals of instilling the Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships that students need to be both college and world ready. Through backpacking, ecology study, rock climbing, sea kayaking, and expedition base camping, Rippleffect works alongside CBHS faculty to build a positive school culture, foster personal growth, and expose students to challenge through the outdoors.

Detroit Horse Power

Detroit Horse Power

Modern horseback riding is an activity often unavailable in low-income, urban, and minority communities. Horseback riding builds transferable skills through riding and caring for horses, such as perseverance, empathy, responsible risk-taking, confidence, and self-control. Detroit Horse Power (DHP) has taken a leading role in making this programming available to urban, youth-of-color in Detroit. The organization’s riding programs are informed by research on equine-assisted learning and are designed using precedents set by urban riding programs that already serve similar populations in other United States cities.

Detroit Horse Power’s summer horseback riding camps provide students, between 8-18 years old, a free weeklong day camp experience. Students learn riding and horse care, interact with guest speakers from equine professions, and reflect on their experiences. DHP is also working toward constructing an unmatched urban equestrian destination on a 14-acre vacant land site in Detroit by 2023. This innovative development will make DHP’s unique program accessible in students’ communities.

Gardeneers

Gardeneers

Due to racial inequities and centuries of systemic racism, many BIPOC communities in Chicago face significant health issues. Since its founding in 2014, Gardeneers has partnered with schools in under-resourced communities to directly address issues related to food apartheid. Gardeneers seeks to connect communities to self-sustaining resources that will help create a more equitable food system. The skills and knowledge gained in the program paves the way for healthier futures for all Chicagoans.

Gardeneers partners with a network of elementary through high schools, primarily on the West and South sides of Chicago, in low-income, under-resourced communities of color that face barriers to fresh, healthy food access. Gardeneers provides weekly programming for students to grow and maintain vibrant learning gardens that promote healthy eating, a love of nature, and a connection to community. Its school farm and garden programs contribute positively to the larger food system by building students' awareness, knowledge, and skills to address food inequality and become leaders who care for themselves, their communities, and their environment. Each site hosts farm stands, workshops and other opportunities for families and community members to engage in the gardens and access fresh produce. This collective work results in the production and donation of 6,000 pounds of fresh produce to local communities through weekly farm stands, Community Resource Days, and workshops at the garden and farm sites.

Excite All Stars

Excite All Stars

Louisiana (“Sportsman’s Paradise”) is a place that is rich in seafood, swamps, wildlife, fishing, and many outdoor activities. Unfortunately, many of the youth in the inner city of New Orleans do not have the opportunity to experience this side of Louisiana. Instead, they often experience the more unpleasant side of environmental issues and injustices which puts themselves and family members at risk for health inequities and exposure to toxic waste. Excite All Stars empowers kids to become leaders that change the world by providing a stable support system; exposure to all-in-one All Star experiences in leadership, academics, the arts, and athletics; and trailblazing thinking that teaches kids to create change in their community.

Excite All Star’s outdoor adventure programming includes a week-long environmentally focused camping experience for youth from the Greater New Orleans area. Excite All Stars also provide year-round opportunities for canoeing, hiking, high ropes course and rowing. These opportunities, in partnership with Louisiana Outdoors Outreach Program and New Orleans Rowing Club, take place on Saturdays during the school year. Providing youth from underrepresented communities access to outdoor adventures, in potentially new and interesting ways, teaches independence and self-awareness, demonstrates partnership and trust, and develops outdoor leaders through innovative programing and trips to public lands.

GIW

Generations Indigenous Ways

An affiliate of Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

  • South Dakota
  • Website: giways.org
  • Grant amount: $10,000

Generations Indigenous Ways provides positive, culturally appropriate programming, and a safe place for youth to excel in STEM education and discovery at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its surrounding areas. Its Lakota Summer Science Field Institute is a four-week program that is offered to participants ages 11-18 years old that reside within Lakota Territory. The goal of the program is to motivate youth to discover and explore science, technology, engineering, and math. Participants learn how physics, mathematics, and the scientific methods are required and used in designing a traditional bow; harvesting traditional plants and foods; water and air quality; and creating traditional beadwork and quillwork. Other learning topics that  supplement the STEM curriculum include Astronomy, Paleontology & Geology, and a Tipi erecting presentation. 

Naples Botanical Garden

Generations Indigenous Ways

A fiscally sponsored project of Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous People.

Census statistics attributed to the Pine Ridge Hospital in South Dakota cite an average life expectancy for men at 47 years and women at 55 years. This is due to factors that include poor diet and exercise, as well as drug and alcohol abuse attributed to depression and loss of hope. In Lakota County, teen suicide is 150% higher than the rest of the United States. Diabetes and cancer are a reality for most families. At the Pine Ridge Reservation and its surrounding areas, Generations Indigenous Ways provides informal science education opportunities to Lakota youth in efforts to lower the current high school dropout rate and to develop more STEM-educated Lakota leaders.

Generations Indigenous Ways’ Lakota Summer Science Field Institute motivates youth to discover and explore science, technology, engineering, and math. Participants will learn how physics, mathematics, and the scientific method are required and used in designing a traditional bow, harvesting traditional plants and foods, water and air quality control, and creating traditional beadwork and quillwork. The Lakota Summer Science Field Institute connects youth with Lakota Cultural experts as well as experts in the fields of Earth Science, Botany, Paleontology, Geology, Astronomy, Entomology, Climate Change and Air Quality. The youth also develop leadership, coping and goal setting skills, and learn how to advocate for themselves.

Explore Austin

Explore Austin

The youth served by Explore Austin live in economically and racially segregated neighborhoods, where members of these communities are underrepresented in outdoor recreation and face barriers to accessing nature. Through outdoor adventure and long-term mentorship, Explore Austin supports adventurous youth from these communities as they develop into confident and courageous adults. Its free, six-year program connects Explorers (grades 6-12) with caring mentors to cultivate authentic relationships and self-discovery through teamwork and outdoor adventure. Over the six years, a youth Explorer spends 1,100 hours in nature, being physically active, developing social-emotional competencies, and boosting their mental health, alongside supportive mentors. Explore Austin facilitates trust and belonging by creating a safe space to try and do hard things. As Explorers gain technical skills through backpacking, climbing, biking, and canoeing, they develop confidence, integrity, and courage to pursue their own version of success.

First Tee North Florida

First Tee North Florida

The First Tee of North Florida serves a seven-county area, which includes Jacksonville’s northside—a predominantly African American community that is home to First Tee’s Brentwood Golf Course Program location. The City of Jacksonville’s crime rate is 52% above the national average, and the high schools that service the Brentwood area have historically been under the county graduation rate average.

NRF funding supports First Tee North Florida's pilot program, Rising Leaders Inner JAX, which focuses on youth from Jacksonville’s northside district and targets middle-school aged children that have never played golf or engaged in First Tee curriculum. Rising Leaders Inner JAX enables youth to participate in 48 weeks of programming of First Tee’s traditional curriculum (which presents Core Values, Healthy Habits, and Life Skills to children all while introducing the game of golf) to invest in their character foundation and to give them resources to be a successful Rising Leader.

First Tee North Florida

First Tee North Florida

The First Tee of North Florida serves a seven-county area, which contains several underserved communities. One of those is Jacksonville’s northside, a predominantly African American community that is home to First Tee’s Brentwood Golf Course program location. The City of Jacksonville’s crime rate is 52% above the national average, and the high schools that serve the Brentwood area (Raines and Ribault High) have historically been under the county’s average graduation rate. The children in the Brentwood area community risk being involved in crime and not finishing high school.

First Tee of North Florida’s Rising Leaders of Jacksonville program specifically targets middle-school aged children that have never played golf or engaged in First Tee curriculum. The program enables participants to build the strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges. It includes all aspects of First Tee’s traditional curriculum in a condensed, fast-track way to get participants on par with the First Tee curriculum of Core Values, Healthy Habits, and Life Skills, all while introducing the game of golf. Rising Leaders also adds components of education, volunteerism, and advanced golf instruction. The program helps invest in the children’s character foundation and give them to resources to be a successful Rising Leader.

Rocking the Boat

Rocking the Boat

Rocking the Boat serves the neighborhoods of the South Bronx, vibrant but historically and physically marginalized BIPOC communities. Among institutionalized obstructions, youth lack access to specialized science education facilities and programs compared with schools in other neighborhoods, a factor in the vast underrepresentation of POC in fields of scientific study and professions. This area also suffers from limited opportunities for outdoor activities, from both inadequate spaces and environmental damage. In a community plagued by multiple environmental threats but lacking the voice or resources to address them, Rocking the Boat’s Environmental Science Program uses hands-muddy activities in student-built boats to connect participants to the Bronx River in their backyard and equip them with the skills to take part in research and conservation projects with local, state, and national organizations.

Rocking the Boat’s intensive Environmental Science Program provides both outdoor access and applied science content for teenagers in South Bronx. It runs year-round on a three-semester calendar. Grounding lessons in exploration of the neighborhood waterway and giving them an important role in its restoration, the teens develop environmental awareness and the skills to become stewards of their local natural spaces. Activities centered on small boats and local waters are the unique vehicles Rocking the Boat uses to affect profound changes in the lives of young people and the vitality of their community. Rocking the Boat captivates and challenges young people, exposes them to new experiences, and shows them they are capable of doing things they never imagined, or only dreamed of. In doing so the youth develop the technical, social, and emotional skills to replicate the successes they have in the boatbuilding shop and on the water in their personal, academic, and professional lives.

Get Outdoors Leadville!

Get Outdoors Leadville!

A fiscally sponsored program of Lake County Community Fund. 

Despite living in a region renowned for its outdoor assets, many youth and families in Lake County, Colorado, face significant barriers to accessing the physical and psychological health benefits of outdoor experiences. Roughly 70% of Lake County students are Latinx, but they are significantly underrepresented in outdoor recreation. Get Outdoors Leadville! (GOL!) was established with the aim of identifying and addressing barriers to outdoor access for Lake County youth and adults. It offers nature-based field work in public schools, out of school time enrichment, community programs for individuals and families, and a donation-based gear library.

GOL! envisions a world where people of all identities, backgrounds, and abilities experience safety, wellness, and a sense of belonging in the natural world. GOL! offers a Rockies Rock Adventure Camp, a 4-week summer camp for youth ages 5-18 from Lake County’s diverse community. Besides providing critical out of school time childcare for local families, Rockies Rock also offers youth an immersive nature-based experience. GOL! provides program transportation, partners with local schools to provide free meals and snacks to participants, and offers sliding scale tuition, payment plans, and tuition waivers to ensure equitable access. 

Get Outdoors Leadville!

Get Outdoors Leadville!

A fiscally sponsored program of Lake County Community Fund. 

Despite living in a region renowned for its outdoor assets, many youth and families in Lake County, Colorado, face significant barriers to accessing the benefits of outdoor experiences. Roughly 70% of Lake County students are Latine and are significantly underrepresented in outdoor recreation. Many families are recent immigrants and often undocumented, resulting in compounded barriers to accessing the outdoors. Get Outdoors Leadville!’s (GOL!) mission is to deepen the community's connection to the natural world by expanding equitable access to culturally informed and enriching outdoor experiences.

GOL!’s out of school time (OOST) program activities (including hiking, biking, canoeing, rock climbing, archery, ice skating, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing) support youth in building outdoor activity competencies and applying these competencies in a non-competitive environment. All program days provide at least 60 minutes of physical activity, increasing youths’ daily activity levels and fueling lifelong habits of finding joy through movement in nature. The programs also support local youth through day camps during school closures (including summer, spring, and winter breaks); afternoon “5th Day” programming on Fridays throughout the school year; and outdoor facilitation for Lake County School District’s after-school program. GOL! provides program transportation, partners with local schools to provide free meals and snacks, and offers sliding scale tuition, payment plans, and waivers to ensure equitable program access, which helps ensure that all Lake County youth have the opportunity to access the benefits of outdoor recreation.

GYF

Greening Youth Foundation

Knowing how to swim is a prerequisite to safe, outdoor, aquatic recreation. According to a 2021 national study conducted at American YMCAs by the USA Swimming Foundation and University of Memphis, 64% of Black children cannot swim (in comparison to 40% of Caucasian children). Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) is working to address this issue by engaging youth from Atlanta’s Adamsville and Oakcliff neighborhoods in swimming; environmental education about rivers, lakes and streams; and visits to natural areas outdoors. Through these activities, GYF plans to increase community access to outdoor waters and ultimately increase stewardship of Georgia’s streams, lakes, and rivers by members of these underserved communities. 

Oaye Luta Okolakiciye

Hands and Hearts for Horses

Hands and Hearts for Horses

Hands and Hearts for Horses provides therapeutic horseback riding services to people with challenges including autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries and behavioral, emotional, and cognitive difficulties. It brings together horses and certified instructors who collaborate with professionals in the medical, psychological, and educational fields to enrich lives and promote independence. The center serves children and adults with disabilities from south Georgia and north Florida, including self-contained school groups. One of the many challenges people living with disabilities face is safe access to nature. Hands and Hearts for Horses has a sensory trail on its property which is being expanded and renovated so that it is usable year-round. Renovations will include bridges over the streams; an above ground plank walkway; and weather resistant items, like metal chimes. The natural and man-made sensory experiences encourage integration of the senses, motor planning, problem solving and multifaceted sensory stimulation that comes from being immersed in nature.

Field Institute of Taos

Field Institute of Taos

Field Institute of Taos (FITaos) inspires stewards of the environment who understand the multi-faceted value of the natural environment as a sanctuary and as an opportunity for scientific research, physical challenge, exploration, experiencing beauty, and mental strength. By developing a “sense of place” and connection with the natural world in its backyard, FITaos helps youth become stewards of the environment and engage in a more active and proactive lifestyle, which ultimately results in increased self-worth; confidence; resilience; increased future aspirations; increased capacity for learning; decreased obesity; decreased community violence; and increased and ongoing access to a protected natural environment.

FITaos offers exceptional, professional programming in a safe, impactful manner. FITaos’ programs include Mountain Camps, after school mountain bike club, EdVentures (school field trips), Building Bikes, and Building Futures at Taos Pueblo (school field trips and out-of-school adventures).

PowerPlay NYC

forza soccer team

Forza Sport Academies

The east area of the city of Austin has a 14.5% poverty level, which is one of the higher poverty levels in the area. Within United States youth sports, the continued shift to a "pay to play" system has made it harder and harder for economically challenged families to participate. Competitive soccer ranges from $2,500 to $5,000 per player, per season plus additional traveling and tournament expenses. Many of the families in the east Austin area cannot afford these types of programs.

Forza Sports Academy strives to provide high-level sports training to athletes from diverse backgrounds. FSA currently serves more than 150 youth of all ages who are willing to learn and commit regardless of their socioeconomic background. The program not only helps them learn soccer skills, but it also teaches life lessons, values, and commitment to success in life. The academy strives to teach and instill in its players the core values of sportsmanship, integrity, discipline, respect, leadership, and excellence. 

Sicangu Community Development Corporation

Sicangu Community Development Corporation

As a result of intergenerational trauma and colonial oppression, Lakota people suffer from some of the worst health outcomes (both physical and emotional) in the Western hemisphere. Life expectancy for people living on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota is more than 10 years less than the average across all of the United States. Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) is addressing this epidemic through wellness-oriented youth summer camps, for children ages 7-17. The camps promote physical activity and outdoor recreation through activities such as hiking, wild food harvesting, assembling a tipi, participating in a buffalo harvest, lacrosse, and other activities designed to build a stronger connection to the land and foster a commitment to land stewardship.

The camp takes place during the summer at the Wolakota Buffalo Range, allowing youth to learn about the cultural importance of both buffalo and the land. This program is implemented through a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Rosebud. This pilot program is allowing Sicangu CDC to lay the groundwork for expanded camp programming in the future.

Gardeneers

Gardeneers

Since its founding in 2014, Gardeneers has partnered with schools in under-resourced communities to directly address issues related to food apartheid. Due to racial inequities and centuries of systemic racism, many BIPOC communities in Chicago face significant health issues. Our nation’s food system is unjust. Gardeneers seeks to connect communities to self-sustaining resources that will help create a more equitable food system. The skills and knowledge gained in Gardeneers’ program paves the way for healthier futures for all Chicagoans.

Gardeneers partners with a network of elementary through high schools, primarily on the West and South sides of Chicago, in low-income, under-resourced communities of color that face barriers to fresh, healthy food access. Its school farm and garden programs contribute positively to the larger food system by building students' awareness, knowledge, and skills to address food inequality and become leaders who care for themselves, their communities and their environment. Gardeneers’ full-service, customized school garden and farm programs engage K-12 students each year through spring, summer, and fall 10-week programs. Gardeneers’ curriculum is based on three pillars of learning: supporting student nutrition, experiencing natures, and connecting with communities.

GOTRT

Girls on the Run Triangle

Girls on the Run of the Triangle (GOTR) is a physical activity-based, positive youth development program for girls in 3rd-8th grades. Its mission is to create a world full of joyful, healthy, and confident girls acting on their values and opportunities. GOTR's programming is designed to develop and enhance girls’ social, psychological, and physical competencies to successfully navigate life experiences.

Heritage Trails Partnership of the MS Gulf Coast

Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast believes a healthy physical and mental lifestyle is achievable for all individuals through access to natural, safe outdoor spaces. The partnership advocates for and supports the vision of a safe, coast-wide network of diverse trails that connect neighborhoods to businesses, schools, green spaces, and blue spaces so that everyone can enjoy scenic, historic, educational, and natural areas. Heritage Trails’ Youth Trails Stewardship Program encourages children and young adults to explore and appreciate nature as well as the many workforce opportunities available in the outdoor recreation industry. Through this program, Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast hosts monthly bike rides from local neighborhoods to the Clower-Thornton Nature Area where youth participate in outdoor activities that support and promote their interest in nature. Rides also encourage continued discussion around areas in the city and region where protected rides are possible and places where changes are needed to improve bike and pedestrian safety.

Heritage Conservancy

Heritage Conservancy

Heritage Conservancy (HC) works in partnership with Pennsylvania communities, landowners, businesses, governments, and other mission-focused organizations to ensure that the natural and cultural landscapes that make its region special endure and flourish, for the benefit of both people and nature. It has worked to protect more than 16,000 acres of open space, farmland, wildlife habitat, and important watershed areas throughout Bucks and surrounding counties. In Lower Bucks County, access to safe outdoor spaces for education and recreation are limited and socio-economic factors further limit opportunities for children to connect with nature beyond the school day. Croydon Woods was once designated as an EPA Superfund site, but it has been remediated and is now an HC nature preserve.

HC engages students at Keystone Elementary School (which is adjacent to Croydon Woods) in hands-on outdoor learning across grade levels. With teacher and district input, HC leads students in environmental education activities including mindfulness walks, guided hikes, and habitat sustainability that support students’ physical, mental, emotional, and educational wellbeing. Additionally, student leaders from 4th grade will be selected to participate in a Tree Protectors program to deepen their connection with the outdoors, help to educate younger students, and engage the community in learning about this natural area.

GTG Outdoors

GTG Outdoors "Families Around the Fire" pilot program, is a mentorship program specifically designed for BIPOC families. The program promotes time in nature through a series of bi-weekly meetings covering essential outdoor skills and experiences. From "Leave No Trace" principles and outdoor cooking to wildlife education, the curriculum is crafted to foster appreciation, skills, and a sense of belonging in the natural world. Additionally, the program addresses the need for cultural inclusivity and safety in outdoor spaces, aiming to break the cycle of environmental disconnection and build a community that values and actively participates in conservation efforts. For families seeking deeper engagement, an extended six-month backpacking mentorship offers specialized training in backcountry skills, ensuring families are well equipped to explore nature independently. "Families Around the Fire" isn’t just an outdoor mentorship program—it's a strategic initiative to reconnect BIPOC families with nature, addressing both the symptoms and root causes of disengagement, and empowering them to claim their space in the great outdoors while fostering a sustainable relationship with the environment.

Purgatoire Watershed Partnership

Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida

Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida

The Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network (FYCCN) is part of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). FYCCN aims to uphold Florida's outdoor heritage by educating and empowering Florida's youth and educators with outdoor knowledge and conservation concepts. FYCCN and its partners are teaching kids to hunt responsibly, fish ethically, hike attentively, camp resourcefully, think critically, and explore curiously. FYCCN works through the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, which seeks to protect outstanding animals and plants and the lands and waters they need to survive.

FYCCN has made great strides in getting kids outdoors and creating the next generation that cares via its five centers and a network of nearly 400 partners. FYCCN continues to reach new partners, new schools, and new youth, as well as support current partners in ways that lead to more inclusion of participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

Sacred Storm Buffalo

Friends of Momentum Bike Clubs

Friends of Momentum Bike Clubs

Research shows that having a consistent, caring adult who demonstrates unconditional positive regard is the single strongest intervention for young people with multiple levels of trauma and risk. Momentum Bike Clubs is a Clemson University initiative that serves middle and high school youth by establishing bike clubs in local communities and schools, and by providing youth development seminars, internships, trips and college and career preparatory support. NRF funding supports both MBC’s ongoing operation of its bike clubs, which encourage healthy living and builds resilience, and its new effort—Momentum Outdoor Adventures. Momentum Outdoor Adventures actively engages students in unique outdoor experiences. These experiences (YMCA camp, whitewater rafting, and adventure cycling) will enhance and deepen the important work MBC is doing with its middle school bike clubs and high school Challenge Team.

Girls on the Run Triangle

The 2017 Status of Girls in North Carolina report provides the following data: 65% of high school females are not physically active and the percentage of young women in North Carolina making a serious suicide attempt has doubled since 2011. Girls on the Run Triangle (GOTR) is a physical activity-based, positive youth development program for girls in 3rd-8th grades designed to develop and enhance their social, psychological, and physical competencies to successfully navigate life experiences. Its mission is to support a world for girls to act on their values and opportunities.

The GOTR curriculum treats health as a holistic state of being and addresses the mental, emotional, social, and physical health of participants, which combine to create a positive influence that is greater than the sum of its parts. By investing intentional time, education, compassion, and mentorship in participating girls, GOTR strives to prevent unhealthy behaviors. GOTR has successfully forged alliances with several Parks and Recreation Departments, specifically in Durham and Chapel Hill, and has piloted neighborhood teams in local parks—introducing many resources to families who were unaware of the organization’s existence. GOTR is capitalizing on these efforts to identify parks and communities to host teams. In addition, it is reaching into Wake County and identify regional parks that are located near high-need schools and neighborhoods.

Tree Street Youth

Tree Street Youth

Tree Street Youth is a Lewiston, Maine-based community of youth and adults who use their diverse lived experiences and collective empowerment to co-create youth-centered programs and partnerships that encourage leadership, learning, exploration, and growth. Despite living in Maine, many of its participants have not had opportunities to experience the beauty of the state’s lakes, forests, and mountains. Most of its families have limited access to transportation or funds for environmental recreation, if they are even aware of the experiences available. In addition, a majority of the youth that Tree Street Youth serves identify as youth of color, who often have far less contact with outdoor experiences. Due to stereotype or projected biases, they (and often their parents) do not see these experiences as something they "do,” "should be interested in," or most often “could never afford.”

Tree Street Youth is expanding its outdoor exposure for youth in grades pre-K-12 by utilizing novel outdoor experiences to counter the many challenges youth face growing up in underserved communities. It builds these opportunities into regular programming so that youth of every age and experience have outdoor experiences, from a guided walk to the local river, hiking, swimming to multi-day excursions for older youth. No matter how big or small the opportunities are, these experiences are critical to social-emotional growth, as well as relationship building, both amongst the youth themselves and with adults. Through these outings, Tree Street Youth accompanies youth outside their traditional comfort zone and supports their personal and social-emotional growth as well as fosters a love of the environment. These outdoor experiences will challenge youth to learn new skills and develop an appreciation for nature as well as the confidence to seek opportunities on their own and with their families.

Glacier Peak Institute

Glacier Peak Institute

The Darrington, Washington, community has been told for years that outdoor recreation is the economic way forward. However, there are no local outdoor recreational employment opportunities in town. Glacier Peak Institute empowers youth to build resilient and sustainable rural communities and healthy ecosystems across the Glacier Peak region of Western Washington through innovative, action-based education programs integrating Science, Technology, recreation, Engineering, art, Mathematics, and skill-building (STrEaMs).

Glacier Peak Institute’s “Rivers as Bridges” program works to produce more resilient futures for youth (participants) and a handful of young adults (leaders) by providing healthy outlets through paddle sports in local surroundings. For millennia, people of the Sauk and Stilly rivers were renowned for boating skills. This is no longer true. Even with the Wild and Scenic Sauk River running through town, youth are more likely to die by the age of 30 than to have rafted the local rivers. In addition to serving school-aged youth, Glacier Peak Institute will recruit alumni from its programs and existing Latinx, BIPOC, Homeless and Tribal partner communities to place marginalized persons in positions of leadership. Glacier Peak will provide raft guide training, a space for participants to see their own community members in positions of leadership, and knowledge of local ecosystems. 

Camp Rio

Idea Public Schools / Camp RIO

Hispanics living in Rio Grande Valley (RGV) are less likely to engage in physical activity (which increases health risks), have high levels of social support, or complete a high school education. For many youth, attending a high-quality outdoor recreation and camp experience is neither accessible nor affordable. Idea Public Schools’ Camp RIO is a year-round outdoor education camp that sits on 85-acres of predominantly untouched wildlife preserve in Brownsville, Texas. It seeks to address these inequities by providing all youth and families in South Texas access to affordable, high-quality outdoor education and recreational programming.

Camp RIO’s outdoor education programming exposes more than 33,000 South Texas students from low-income backgrounds to recreational and educational activities that reinforce the chemistry, biology and aquatic concepts learned in the formal classroom. Camp RIO utilizes the benefits of outdoor education for addressing the personal and educational needs of each participant. The outdoor education platform also engages participants in outdoor activities that support healthy living; encourage social networking that increases confidence and provide long-lasting friendships; and introduce participants to STEM in nature.

Indigenous Lacross Alliance

Indigenous Lacrosse Alliance

A fiscally sponsored project of Homegrown Lacrosse

The Indigenous Lacrosse Alliance (ILA) works to support Indigenous youth in the Upper Midwest through sports-based youth development efforts with a focus on traditional and modern lacrosse. Using sport as the conduit, ILA pulls together geographic and programmatic partners to create enriching and engaging programs with a focus on cultural belonging, resiliency and intergenerational learning. It creates multiple touch points for the youth it serves, and for the senior staff, site partners, and Leadership Development Program participants, to learn and grow together.

LA’s three programs (Lax-4-Life Camp, Turtle Islanders Club, and Community Development Program) provide multiple interventions to help youth grow in both sport and in their educational, social-emotional, and cultural learning. Lax-4-Life Summer Lacrosse Camp is an overnight camp experience for Indigenous youth to develop lacrosse and leadership skills as a part of a health and wellness-focused curriculum on the Fond du Lac Reservation. Turtle Islanders Lacrosse Club offers a team experience for Indigenous groups focused on skill development and healthy connection among Native teens and young adults. The Community Development Program is an interrelated series of direct service and organizational support programs to develop in-school and out-of-school programs for Indigenous youth in tribal communities across the state.

In addition to bringing together community partners, ILA also work with its fiscal sponsor, Homegrown Lacrosse, a recognized leader in sports-based youth development, to create curricula that centers culturally competent and trauma-informed care for the Indigenous youth in its programs.

Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

Many children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds lack opportunities to engage in hands-on, nature-based learning experiences that foster a deep connection to the natural world. This gap not only limits their understanding of marine ecosystems but also restricts their ability to develop a sense of environmental stewardship. The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab addresses this critical need for equitable access to environmental education by offering scholarships to campers from low-income backgrounds. The scholarships cover camp fees, making the camp accessible to those who might otherwise be unable to attend. This initiative empowers a diverse group of young participants, equipping them with the knowledge and inspiration to protect and preserve marine environments. The camp is staffed by experienced marine biologists, educators, and volunteers who ensure that activities are both educational and fun. 

FRWC

Flint River Watershed Coalition

Michigan-based Flint River Watershed Coalition (FRWC) works to protect, promote, and improve the Flint River ecosystem and its watershed to benefit and promote ecosystem health, community health, economic health, and education and recreation. FRWC recognizes that it is essential to support families impacted by ongoing structural racism and inequities in environmental justice (including the Flint Water Crisis) and to break down barriers affiliated with the cost of outdoor recreation. FRWC BIPOC Youth Service Expansion is reimagining access to Kayak Flint programming by applying a lens of environmental and social justice to its work. Through collaborations with youth-serving organizations, churches and neighborhood groups, FRWC provides free kayak and paddle board opportunities, transportation support, expanded location offerings, and space for discussions related to safety and concerns.

See You at the Top (Syatt)

Gardeneers

Gardeneers

The west and south sides of Chicago are low-income, high-crime communities. The students that live in those areas have little access and opportunity to experience the outdoors. Gardeneers introduces these students to nature-based learning, outdoor recreation and participation through growing food.

NRF’s funding supports Gardeneers team of growers and educators as they continue growing food on their largest production sites for residents in Chicago’s North Lawndale and Englewood communities (which lacked access to fresh healthy food). Although Gardeneers is not able to work with schools and students at this time, the organization hopes to grow and distribute nearly 6,000 pounds of produce across the south and west sides of Chicago. When school is back in session, the organization will continue to work directly with students in its partner schools’ gardens on a weekly basis, Gardeneers serves more than 2,000 students each week through its hands-on, experiential garden education programming. 

Glacier Peak Institute

Glacier Peak Institute

Over the last 20 years, Darrington, Washington, has experienced a significant rise in poverty, an increase in free and reduced meal rates, and increased special needs within the Darrington School District, all while funding has been cut by a third. These factors put Darrington youth at high risk of academic failure, crime, mental health disorders, and substance abuse. Rural communities, such as Darrington, have been told for years that outdoor recreation is the economic way forward. However, there are no local outdoor recreational employment opportunities in town. Glacier Peak Institute’s mission is to empower youth to build resilient and sustainable rural communities and healthy ecosystems across the Glacier Peak region of Western Washington through innovative, action-based education programs integrating science, technology, recreation, engineering, art, mathematics, and skill-building.

Glacier Peak Institute has launched a new rafting program, Rivers as Bridges, that will serve youth (ages 11-18) through paddle sports. The program is guided by rafters (ages 18-24) from similar communities who have attended guide training. Rivers as Bridges creates access through gear, land, and mentorship. Glacier Peak Institute will partner with local school districts, tribes, universities, nonprofits, and environmental groups to provide exposure to a conservation ethic, outdoor recreation, job training, skill building, and the resiliency of surrounding ecosystems.

Trekkers

Trekkers

Maine-based Trekkers serves 7-12 grade students from its rural six-town service area (Rockland, South Thomaston, Cushing, Owls Head, Thomaston, and St. George). The challenges Trekkers students face growing up in rural and homogeneous communities have been summarized as an opportunity gap. Despite living in small towns, this gap stems from youth feeling a disconnect from their communities and lacking the resources, opportunities, and enrichment experiences to develop aspirational goals. They have limited opportunities for positive adult-youth connections in the community, their strengths are not nurtured and lifted up, and they experience challenges that aren’t addressed or supported by peers, family, schools, or community. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is widening the opportunity gap and having a devastating impact on their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing.

Throughout Trekkers’ six-year Core Expedition Program students plan expeditions, explore interests, try new things, learn about other perspectives, see a world of possibility, and develop a sense of agency. Much of the student experience is held in outdoor wilderness settings, so students come to enjoy, respect, and appreciate the natural world as well as their role in it. The Trekkers' experience starts in 7th grade and commences in 12th grade. During the first year, students travel to Acadia National Park and build foundational relationships and basic outdoor skills they will use throughout the program. In eighth through twelfth grade, teens meet monthly to plan expeditions and in between for activities and one-to-one mentoring with staff and volunteer mentors. Students use consensus decision-making to set their own academic and behavioral requirements and to plan trip activities. Every year, programs fulfill five educational components: Environmental Education, Cultural Awareness, Community Service, Wilderness, and Adventure or Challenge.

Grand Canyon Youth

Grand Canyon Youth

In this highly connected world, youth are struggling with high rates of obesity, anxiety, and depression because of economic and social inequities. This is especially true for Indigenous youth. The rivers of the Southwest have been deeply important for Indigenous people since time immemorial. Through colonization, access to the river has been limited to mostly white, wealthy tourists. Grand Canyon Youth (GCY) envisions a diverse and equitable world where all youth are empowered to live with purpose while discovering and caring for self, community, and the natural world.

GCY provides access to river expeditions for Indigenous youth. GCY expeditions are designed to encourage participation, reflection, and teamwork where youth have the opportunity to try something new, work through challenges and simply play. Student health is supported through physical activity and healthy eating. Project-based learning and critical thinking are crucial to cognitive development and are ways for youth to connect and navigate through their outdoor experiences. Participating youth work alongside scientists, elders, educators, and guides to create connections and future stewards of the rivers and canyons of the Southwest. Additionally, GCY strives to recruit, train, and support Indigenous youth to explore becoming guides and mentors.

KCSKC

Khmer Community of Seattle King County

The Khmer Community of Seattle King County empowers the Khmer community and bridges the intergenerational gap between elders and youth through cultural preservation and promoting well-being. Khmer refugees have come from a predominantly agrarian society, with extensive knowledge of how to live on the land. These practices may have been lost, suppressed, or unable to be exercised upon resettlement into the United States. The Khmer Youth Environmental Leadership project helps bridge invaluable intergenerational connections, connect youth to outdoor recreation and natural resources in the region, and further contribute to the preservation of Khmer culture and environmental knowledge. Khmer youth will learn from Khmer elders, a passing on of the community’s environmental and cultural values. Program activities include intergenerational camping weekends; learning the importance of cultural plants, herbs, vegetables, and growing practices; hands-on Native American, indigenous plants and cooking experiences; Youth Environmental Learning Cultural Exchanges; and intergenerational snowboard/ski trips.

Ironwood Tree Experience

Ironwood Tree Experience

Desert regions experience more consecutive days of temperatures over 100 degrees, local and statewide wildfires, and megadroughts. While everyone is affected, many of the young people in urban areas are disproportionately impacted by these natural disasters, in addition to other societal and environmental injustices. This causes young people to feel less hopeful about their future, especially if they don’t have positive experiences outdoors that can inspire hope and center their well-being. In order to create healthy and resilient communities, Ironwood Tree Experience (ITE) makes it possible for young people to engage with the natural world and be stewards of the environment.

ITE’s “Nurture Yourself in Nature” program was designed as a train-the-trainer program for staff and youth leaders to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver programs that center the health and well-being of themselves, ITE youth participants, and the natural world. Nurture Yourself in Nature consists of a series of workshops intended for professional development for youth leaders who have completed a previous internship with ITE and staff and board members. The workshops take place in urban green spaces or public lands located in Tucson and Southern Arizona. Program goals are for staff and youth leaders to understand that a connection with nature improves the health and wellness of themselves, their community, and the environment; be skillful in lessons and techniques that strengthen the human-nature connection; and inspire others, especially youth ages 14-18, to connect with nature for improved health and wellness for themselves, their community, and the natural world.

La Semilla Food Center

La Semilla Food Center’s (LSFC) mission is to foster a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region, which includes Southern New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Through its six community-centered and land-based programs (Community Farm, Farm Fresh, Edible Education, Community Education, Policy, and Storytelling), LSFC builds relationships and creates empowering spaces for youth and families to grow and cook healthy food, create positive change, and foster connections among nature, health, foodways, and local economies. Its Food and Farm Youth Apprenticeship program provides opportunities for youth to form deep connections with the Chihuahuan Desert via experiential, land-based educational training. Led by its Community Farm and Community Education program, LSFC is building on an existing framework that provides interested youth and young adults with intensive training in farm production, urban gardening, agroecological practices, and foraging of native plants and desert foods. The apprentices also serve as Crew Leaders for La Semilla Food Center’s Raíces Youth Program, which guides participants (ages 14-22) to explore how food and methods of production are intrinsically tied to the health and wellbeing of a community and local economies.

Friends of Anacostia Park

Friends of Anacostia Park

Friends of Anacostia Park (FoAP) enriches the lives of Washington, D.C. residents by preserving Anacostia Park and connecting surrounding communities. FoAP’s work centers on outdoor programming that enriches the mental and physical health of residents who otherwise wouldn’t have access to opportunities for growth and rest.

FoAP’s THRIVE program gives youth a safe space to focus on mental, social, and physical health through recreational offerings the first seven weeks of the school year. FoAP’s is growing its THRIVE cohort and connecting the youth to its youth-focused programs that are offered throughout the year. During THRIVE programming, students have the option to rotate through guided arts and crafts, a meditation corner near the river, facilitated physical fitness, homework help and park stewardship. All students are required to participate in ME TIME, a guided group discussion focused on social-emotional health.

THRIVE students also have opportunities to engage with FoAP programming through expansion of its in-school outdoor recreation and education programming for Anacostia High School's Environmental Stewardship Club (during the winter) and through volunteering during FoAP’s NatureFest (during spring break), Family Days and Late Skates. Increasing the number of times FoAP connects with THRIVE youth throughout the year also helps grow the THRIVE Anacostia Park Youth Corps comprised of students who are deputized as conservation and community engagement experts in the park.

Sitka Trail Works

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

In Los Angeles County, 1 in 5 workers is unemployed, and at the same time, many youth programs are either closing or raising costs. Due to the pandemic, Girl Scouts are experiencing the loss of school and camp interaction with friends and mentors and the stress of uncertain times. Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles knows that spending time outdoors improves concentration and creative reasoning, promotes healthy social development, and increases self-esteem. This is now more important than ever.

GSGLA's commitment to providing outdoor recreational experiences for girls is the foundation of its Great Outdoor Adventure program. NRF funding helps GSGLA provide a combined virtual and outdoor camp experience for girls (whether at home or when they are able to return to their group activities) with progressive experiences that culminate in overnight adventures during the summer. GSGLA will serve more than 900 Girl Scouts through its Great Outdoor Adventure program. 

Grand Canyon Youth

Grand Canyon Youth

Grand Canyon Youth (GCY) envisions a diverse, equitable world empowering all youth to live with purpose while caring for self, community, and the natural world. Youth are struggling with high rates of obesity, diabetes, anxiety, and depression with economic and social inequities, which is especially true for Indigenous youth. The rivers of the Southwest have been deeply important for Indigenous people since time immemorial. Through colonization, access to the river has been limited to mostly white, wealthy tourists. GCY seeks to open up this access through collaboratively designed experiences that connect Indigenous youth to these special places. These immersive experiences, when combined with intentional pre- and post-expedition support, can be transformative. Youth work alongside scientists, Tribal elders, educators, and guides to create connections and create future stewards of the rivers and canyons of the Southwest. Additionally, GCY strives to recruit, train, and support Indigenous youth to explore becoming guides and mentors.

GCY efforts promote opportunities for mentorship, participation in citizen science, exploration of potential careers and immersion in the outdoors through one-to-17 day projects that take place on several sections of river. GCY has working relationships with schools, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. The partners participating in the project help with recruitment of participants and the co-design and implementation of the expedition curriculum.

Wilderness Inquiry
Photo by Christine Rettler for Wilderness Inquiry

Wilderness Inquiry

Experiences in nature improve physical and emotional health, increase confidence, and facilitate deep and meaningful connections to our environment and fellow citizens. Unfortunately, many communities, including urban populations, people who identify as BIPOC, and individuals with disabilities, face barriers to accessing the outdoors. Through Canoemobile and other youth programming, Minnesota-based Wilderness Inquiry provides an important framework for investing in positive mental, physical, and emotional health outcomes for its diverse community of participants.

Canoemobile is a tool to change the narrative of outdoor representation and access by directly connecting diverse youth to place-based programming on public lands and waterways. The program engages youth to improve school performance, cultivates a stewardship ethic, and creates pathways to pursue educational and career opportunities in the outdoors. Wilderness Inquiry works with dozens of multi-sector partners (including schools, state and federal agencies, non-profits, and others) to conduct activities that include canoeing, environmental education, and experiential learning around STEM, history, and language arts. For 80% of participants, Canoemobile is their first outdoor experience. Canoemobile is expanding its programming in East Coast communities, including New York City, Newark, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., to engage more youth in hands-on recreational and educational opportunities.

ITE

Ironwood Tree Experience

Latinx, Hispanic, and Indigenous youth need to feel included, joyful, and worthy while regularly and safely accessing and using public lands forests, parks, and historic trails. Ironwood Tree Experience (ITE) works to create healthy and resilient communities and make it possible for young people to engage with the natural world and be stewards of the environment. It’s Youth Action Community program directly meets this need through various outdoor recreation activities such as camping, hiking, wildlife identification and observation, and picnicking with youth peers, family members, and adult mentors.

La Semilla Food Center

La Semilla Food Center

Urban agriculture projects are vital to a sustainable and just food system in the Paso del Norte/Chihuahuan Desert region of New Mexico. The need for desert-adapted, sustainable approaches to food production in this urban setting to address food insecurity is urgent and clear, as is the need for culturally relevant education and training for poverty-affected youth. With increased generational disconnection from the terrain community members call “home,” equally important are opportunities for deeper connection with the ecosystem. The Le Semilla Food Center’s Food and Farm Youth Apprenticeship Program addresses these issues and provides opportunities to connect youth with the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem and hands-on, land-based educational training.

The apprenticeship program, led by Le Semilla Food Center’s Community Farm and Community Education teams, addresses these needs by providing training grounded in agroecology, experiential on-site outdoor learning, and leadership opportunities for underserved youth. The program provides interested youth and young adults with intensive training in foraging, farm production, community gardening, and agroecological practices. Deepening their understanding of what the desert ecosystem can teach us, apprentices play an active role in infrastructure, production, and maintenance.

Kids in Focus

Kids in Focus

Pressure from parents, social media, friends, and the complexities of daily life have made being a kid harder than it was a generation ago. Despite this, research shows that a creative outlet, coupled with the support of a caring adult, can have a profound impact on a young person's resilience, self-confidence, and opportunity. Kids in Focus’ (KIF) believes that photography is a unique and powerful tool for self-expression and personal growth, and that every child deserves the opportunity to explore their unique perspective and voice. KIF strives to provide a safe and supportive environment where children can learn, connect with their communities, and discover their own potential, with an ultimate goal to inspire the next generation of creative thinkers and leaders while inspiring them to make a positive impact in the world.

KIF’s True North Photography Day Camp's three day-long sessions are held for Maricopa County youth, ages 11-15, from adverse circumstances that include poverty, foster care, abuse, and neglect. During each True North excursion, the youth receive a camera to use for the day and a backpack to keep. Adult mentors (who are also experienced photographers) are paired with the youth; and together they will travel to rural Arizona and explore nature through the lens of a camera while taking part in physical activities such as hiking, walking, and climbing. The trip home includes a celebratory slideshow with photos selected by participants. True North is offered free of charge to youth and includes transportation, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

LBC

Laru Beya Collective

The Laru Beya Collective, a Black- and mostly female-led organization, offers free surf therapy and wellness programs through traditional Garifuna Afro-Indigenous healing methods. The organization is named “Laru Beya,” which means “on the beach” because the Garifuna founders want to share their respect for the ocean as a source of physical and emotional nourishment and healing energy. Laru Beya Collective’s efforts address gaps in local infrastructure by ensuring access to critical water safety training and mental wellness resources. Its programming builds community, develops confidence, and cultivates resilience through structured activities that prioritize mental health and self-empowerment. It allows youth (ages 8–25) from Far Rockaway and New York City to participate in and benefit from Summer Surf Therapy, Year-Round Surf Therapy, Beach Cleanups, Environmental Stewardship, and Mentorship Programs.

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

New Mexico is blessed with an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities, but many of those remain out of reach for the local community. Lack of resources from a family perspective as well as a lack of opportunities for after-school enrichment programs combine to make spending time outdoors difficult for families. Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks’ Moving Montañas program addresses these issues by leveraging expertise and extensive relationships within the school and after-school program community to remove barriers and create opportunities for authentic and enriching engagement in outdoor spaces.

Moving Montañas Fourth Grade Hikes program is part of the nationwide program that grants a year-long entry pass to all national parks and monuments to 4th grade students and their families. To raise awareness of this program, Moving Montañas hosts field trips (both during school and after school) to local national monuments and parks. During the summer, Moving Montañas holds summer programs and camps that include weekly trips and more immersive outdoor experiences, such as rock climbing and mountain biking. Moving Montañas also continues to engage middle school and high school youth through outdoor clubs that provide valuable after school options as well as create opportunities for older students to step into leadership roles around the protection of public lands. 

The Semilla Project

Grand Canyon Youth

Grand Canyon Youth

In this highly connected world, youth are struggling with high rates of obesity, anxiety, and depression, with economic and social inequities having an even greater impact on some. In the Southwest, few opportunities exist for diverse youth to participate in affordable multi-day rafting trips. These immersive experiences, when combined with intentional pre- and post- expedition support, can be transformational. Grand Canyon Youth provides these kinds of experiences, connecting youth to their potential, what it means to be part of a community, and the matchless opportunity to paddle down a desert river, sleeping under the stars, and conducting citizen science projects.

NRF funding supports Grand Canyon Youth’s river and land-based expeditions. GCY runs three types of programs: school/group expeditions, individual expeditions where individual youth sign-up and expeditions to support youth who have experienced trauma. While each expedition is custom-designed for impact, each program is infused with art, science and team building activities as a way to cultivate observational skills, give back to the place youth are travelling, and to be an important member of the team.

Wilderness Works

Wilderness Works (WW) strives to empower and guide homeless and under-resourced Atlanta children (elementary-ages 8 an up) toward more fulfilling futures with experiential education, cultural enrichment, and outdoor adventure. Inspired by the summer camp model, WW’s City Camp addresses important emotional and recreational needs through overnight camp programming that takes place primarily on weekends and school breaks.

City Camp incorporates exercise, outdoors, nutrition and friendship, and always includes a fun and educational off-campus field trip to area parks, museums, and recreation sites. The children show improved self-control, emotional regulation, relationships with adults and peers, and a new sense of optimism. During summer months the children attend weeks of summer camp in Georgia or North Carolina location. The majority of children stay in WW programming for more than five years with a significant increase in emotional stability as a result.

Grow Dat Youth Farm

Grow Dat Youth Farm

In New Orleans, parents warn their children not to venture outside of securely locked doors into a neighborhood full of unknown and danger. These youth don't get a chance to enjoy nature, sunlight, or feel the soil between their fingers. Unfortunately, students who don't have the opportunity to learn about nature or to "love the land" may be missing out on opportunities to excel both academically and socially. In outdoor settings, students are more motivated to work together in groups, which can improve their social skills. And outdoor learning allows students to put their focus back on nature. Grow Dat intentionally serves youth throughout New Orleans, a city known for both its culinary creativity and prevalence of food deserts. According to the 2019 report “Map the Meal,” 26% of the children in Orleans Parish were food insecure. In 2020, the same report, indicated how the pandemic exacerbated already high food insecurity rates, as young children were faced with missing breakfast and lunch due to school closures.

Grow Dat is uniquely situated to provide opportunities to develop leadership skills, initiate change in communities alongside a diverse group of residents and increase fresh food access for local residents. It responds by working with young adults to increase food access with fresh harvest to be taken home and to their communities. Its participants are a diverse group of young leaders, ages 15-24, who work alongside adult staff and volunteers to grow over 30,000 pounds of food each year. These young adults thrive on the farm as they cement their purposes in life via engagement with natural environments and food production.

Kids in Focus

Kids in Focus

Kids in Focus (KIF) uses photography, field trips to exciting locations, and the guidance of caring mentors to restore hope, resiliency, and self-esteem in kids who have suffered adversities, enabling them to better cope with trauma and become happier, more productive individuals. KIF’s True North Photography Day Camps provide kids an opportunity to get out of their neighborhoods (and often stressful lives) for a full day of exciting outdoor adventures. They learn basic photography skills and participate in healthy outdoor physical activities that connect them to nature and a new world of possibilities. During the camps, 2-3 kids are paired with an adult mentor. Together they explore the outdoors and learn to see the world in new ways, building confidence, trust, and hope.

LOOP NOLA

LOOP NOLA

LOOP NOLA is focused on making the outdoors more equitably accessible for youth so that everyone can experience the physical and mental health benefits of outdoor recreation along with the joy and awe generated in natural spaces. By providing equitable access to the mental and health benefits of the outdoors, the overall well-being of youth increases, no matter socioeconomic background. This positively impacts youth’s ability to be engaged at school, work, and in their community. LOOP NOLA’s Partner Programs offers age-appropriate school day programming in local parks. Most first-time participants have little experience with structured outdoor recreation activities and have little understanding of the ecology of southeast Louisiana. The activities offered include canoeing, low and high ropes, and environmental education experiences. 

Miles4Mentors

Miles4Mentors

Miles4Mentors (M4M) is dedicated to ensuring sports and physical activities become more accessible for all children in Willmar and West Central Minnesota communities. It provides opportunities for children to be physically active through running and other activities. These activities foster the learning of valuable life lessons, character building, relationships, and an appreciation of being active for all levels of ability. They also help improve physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

M4M’s free Fun Run Series is held each summer and encourages kids to try a fun physical outdoor activity. The running series has been a powerful way to introduce local children to physical activity and to encourage those already active to increase their overall health and wellness. The runs bring children and their families together from a variety of cultures and social-economic backgrounds. M4M also provides scholarships through its Pay to Play Initiative, which has allowed more children a year to participate in youth sports and activities.

Localogy

Vida Camp, Localogy’s summer day camp program, connects youth in Northern Taos County with the local foodshed, watershed and resilient culture. The camp fosters stewardship and respect for lands, waters, and cultural heritage through an immersive place-based curriculum unique to the local youth and landscape. Campers (ages 5-12) explore local farms, ranches, acequias and streams. They become active stewards of vital systems through fun and engaging service learning, which includes trout habitat restoration, working on the acequias, harvesting produce for the North Central Food Pantry, and mural painting downtown with community members as guides. Tuition is on a sliding scale; transportation and lunches are provided.

Gateway to the Great Outdoors

Gateway to the Great Outdoors

Gateway to the Great Outdoors (GGO) partners with Title I schools in Chicago and St. Louis where more than 90% of the students are eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program. For many students, GGO's program offers transformative first-time experiences, including learning to ride a bike, encountering local wildlife, and growing produce. To provide such meaningful experiences, GGO maintains a strong connection to the community and recruits student mentors from local universities.

GGO’s Trail Blazers is a year of camping trips and two units of environmental education for classrooms across six different Title I public schools in Chicago and St. Louis. GGO provides students with social and emotional learning lessons, nature connection field trips, and fun-filled camping trips that promote positive youth development and equitable access to outdoor recreation and education opportunities. Some of the students’ favorite activities include: identifying native flora, creating respectful and awe-inspiring relationships with wild elk, and building community and outdoor recreation skills by kayaking on local waterways. By establishing connections between students and the outdoors, GGO fosters environmental stewardship values, builds necessary skills, and nurtures supportive relationships that help students reach their full potential.

StreetWaves

Lower Brule Sioux Tribe

The mission of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe’s Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation is to conserve, protect and enhance the wildlife, fish and recreational resources of the Tribe. The department holds over 20,000 acres of land for wildlife conservation purposes, including black-footed ferret recovery, reintroductions of wild turkey, buffalo and elk, as well as native wildlife species. It also manages several outdoor recreation areas with boat ramps, swimming beaches, playgrounds and other facilities. The Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation's Playground and Recreation Area Enhancement Project will improve safety, aesthetics, and enjoyment in key outdoor recreation areas and community spaces by replacing aging playground borders with modern, safe alternatives; resurfacing the playgrounds and adding playground equipment for safety; and restoring the swim beach at Wata Onazin. This effort supports the Tribe’s commitment to providing safe, welcoming, and lively recreational facilities that encourage outdoor engagement for all tribal members and visitors.

 

La Puente Home

La Puente Home

Colorado’s San Luis Valley is a vast, isolated region that experiences nationally high rates of poverty, with nearly 1 in 4 people living in poverty. Poverty all too often begets hunger, homelessness, and other crises. Through its Positive Activities Lead to Success (PALS) after-school and summer program, La Puente Home provides children social-emotional learning in a structured environment of nurture, creativity and exploration.

One of the ways PALS serves its students and families is through outdoor recreation. NRF funding support PALS’ efforts to help youth (and their families) experience the majesty and healing of the great outdoors by exploring local trails and traveling to national parks. PALS provide therapeutic and positive outdoor experiences and supports expenditures for trips to a national park and for the purchase of camping gear, ski lift tickets and more. Youth and their families also have access to the PALS camping library, which provides families the opportunity to check out tents, sleeping bags, etc. to go camping on their own.

Ironwood Tree Experience

Ironwood Tree Experience

Communities are experiencing societal and environmental challenges that affect the happiness, health, and wellbeing of people, places, and the planet. To forge a future that is restorative, hopeful, and healthful, youth need opportunities to safely access public lands and gain a sense of belonging in the natural world; gain skills and confidence through enriching outdoor activities; and inspire environmental justice in their community. To create these healthy and resilient communities, Ironwood Tree Experience (ITE) makes it possible for young to engage with the natural world and be stewards of the environment.

ITE’s Youth Action Corps (YAC) is an outdoor recreation and environmental education leadership program for youth ages 14-18, from southern Arizona high schools that have a majority population of Hispanic, Native American, and Black students. Members work together with community leaders, scientists, nature enthusiasts, and ITE staff to gain awareness, skills, and confidence in hiking, camping, backpacking, wildlife observations, stewardship and conservation practices, and natural and cultural history lessons of the Sonoran Desert and its people.

YES

YES Nature to Neighborhoods

Richmond, California contains 6,528 acres of green space and 31 miles of shoreline, yet many families face barriers in accessing these spaces. Children, youth, and families with limited access to the outdoors and outdoor programming are denied the significant benefits of time spent in nature. YES Nature to Neighborhoods’ (YES) programs provide equitable access to nature by eliminating many of the cultural, logistical, and financial barriers that prevent urban youth from accessing and benefitting from the outdoors by designing programs with leadership and input from participants and by providing low-cost/no cost activities that reflect the interests of participants. 

YES’ Pathways to the Outdoors program is part of its Youth Leadership Pathway (YLP), a ten-year journey that begins with a week of nature-based summer camp. The program has four age-based cohorts: Explorers (ages 8-10), Rangers (11-13), Camp-to-Community (C2C) Leaders (14-15) and Fellows (16- 18). Each cohort receives essential access to outdoor recreation, hands-on experiential learning that connects underrepresented youth more deeply to nature and develops outdoor leadership and peer mentorship skills. 

Learning Outside

Learning Outside

All children need opportunities to connect with the natural world. Time to be physically active in nature; to learn-by-doing, making discoveries, collaborating with others, and engaging in imaginative play. These experiences grow children’s physical, social, and emotional skills, and their ability to make positive choices for themselves and for those around them. They invite children to engage in risk-assessment, to learn how to positively resolve conflicts with others, and to feel a sense of belonging. Learning Outside (LO) provides these opportunities for all children enrolled in its programs.

NRF funding supports LO’s 2023 summer camps where campers spend time in the natural world; hiking, exploring and connecting with nature and with one another. Campers also spend time working in the Learning Garden, caring for LO’s farm animals, playing group field games, and taking part in arts activities and other nature-based projects.

Movement Education Outdoors

Movement Education Outdoors

A fiscally sponsored project of New Urban Arts

Though Rhode Island is called the “Ocean State,” redlining, gentrification, and environmental racism exclude communities of color from waterways suitable for fishing, swimming, and recreation. In these communities, waterways are often seen as hazards rather than safe recreational resources. Movement Education Outdoors inspires youth to connect to the land they live on and the communities they live in. Its MOBILE Fellowship program empowers BIPOC high school students as environmental justice changemakers through shared reclamation of ancestral knowledge and practices. The fellows experience Rhode Island’s coast by land and water and explore the intersections between marine science, Black and Indigenous history, and food and environmental justice in their communities. The fellows participate in hands-on projects to monitor water quality and to promote oyster restoration. After the completion of their projects, the fellows develop materials to educate others about these practices and share what they’ve learned in a culminating intergenerational hike and oyster cookout.

Momentum Bike Clubs

Momentum Bike Clubs

Adolescence is a time when youth build attitudes, competencies, values, and social skills that will carry them forward to a successful adulthood. For youth from marginalized and under resources communities, these skills often seemingly unattainable without intervention. Momentum Bike Clubs (MBC) serves youth, ages 11-18, who face multiple risk factors and an accumulation of childhood trauma. It transforms the lives of its students through a comprehensive youth development program using cycling as a platform to foster and sustain mentoring relationships. 

Through middle school bike clubs, high school bike clubs, and Challenge Team, MBC’s mentors connect with youth on weekly rides. To further develop and deepen relationships between students and mentors, MBC also engages students and mentors in unique outdoor adventure experiences, including white water rafting, adventure cycling, hiking, and camping. MBC’s outdoor adventure experiences are offered to Challenge Team students. Trips include cycling adventures on the Greenbrier River Trail in West Virginia, Silver Comet Trail in Atlanta, DuPont State Forest Mountain/Gravel Ride and Paris Mountain Adventures. In August, Challenge Team students will have the opportunity to go white water rafting, which is an incredible opportunity for students to experience the outdoors in a way that most have not before.

MD

Mountain Dreamers

Mountain Dreamers' (MD) Oso Snowboard program focuses on serving BIPOC and immigrant youth in rural Summit County, CO, addressing the accessibility of snowsports like skiing and snowboarding. Despite a BIPOC student population of 44% in the Summit School District, only 5.6% of skier visits are from Latino individuals, reflecting broader trends in the U.S. where BIPOC communities represent only 12.9% of ski visits. This is especially disturbing since Summit County is home to four world class ski resorts. Skiing and snowboarding are vital for social life in the area, but increasing participation means dismantling the social, cultural, and financial barriers that BIPOC youth face. Oso nurtures youth outdoor leaders, advocates for policy changes, and designs sustainable programs. Its goal is to integrate local youth and families into outdoor environments like Colorado mountain ski resorts, ensuring sustained access beyond program durations by breaking down the cultural, financial and gear barriers. At no cost, Oso provides a series of beginner group lessons to local young people (18-24) and adults who have never been able to access this opportunity. This initiative equips the youth with tangible skills, bolstering confidence and leadership abilities and resulting in positive ripple effects on their families and social environments.

Thunder Valley CDC

Generations Indigenous Ways

An affiliate of Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

Generations Indigenous Ways provides positive cultural appropriate programming and a safe place for youth to excel in STEM education and discovery at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its surrounding areas.

The goal of its Lakota Summer Science Field Institute is to motivate youth to discover and explore science, technology, engineering, and math. Participants learn how physics, mathematics, and the scientific methods are required and used in designing a traditional bow; harvesting traditional plants and foods; water and air quality; and creating traditional beadwork and quillwork. Other learning topics that supplement the STEM curriculum are Astronomy, Paleontology & Geology, and a Tipi erecting presentation.

CCL

Lake Forest Open Lands Association

Many residents of coastal Lake County, Ill., have limited awareness of the opportunities, challenges and needs associated with Lake Michigan. This limited awareness, accessibility and community engagement leads to underutilization of easily available areas of natural beauty; failure to take advantage of opportunities for recreation, stewardship, and volunteer participation in caring for these areas; and continuation of practices that pollute or otherwise harm them. 

NRF’s funding supports the Conservation Explorers (CONEX, pronounced “connects”) program, which is a three-week conservation- and environmentally-based outdoor summer program for eighth grade students. It connects Lake Forest Open Lands’ Center for Conservation Leadership Program with the Lake County Forest Preserves’ Science Explorers program. The goal of this program is to link students’ knowledge and appreciation of nature with the role conservation and stewardship play in the environment. Focusing on water, wildlife and way of life, students get to know the various eco-systems in Lake County and understand the importance of conservation efforts to study and protect these unique areas.

Kids in Focus

Kids in Focus

In 2019, over 377,811 Arizona children were living in poverty and 87,862 experienced abuse, neglect, or homelessness. When kids experience these traumas, it affects every aspect of their life, creating many barriers to success, including impaired brain development, trouble focusing, increased stress and anxiety, chronic diseases, and a disconnect from the world and themselves. For this population of kids, the social isolation, financial insecurity, family losses, and other stressors caused by the pandemic are particularly devastating. Preliminary research indicates an increased risk of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicidal ideation in kids ages 6-18. Identifying and responding to these mental health needs is more important than ever. Kids in Focus (KIF) is dedicated to empowering and equipping kids to shift from surviving to thriving. Through the healing power of photography, KIF inspires kids to reconnect with their world and build resilience, trust, and hope.

KIF’s True North Photography Day Camps provide kids from Maricopa County an opportunity to get out of their neighborhoods, and often stressful lives, for a full day of exciting adventure. The camps provide four fun-filled day excursions throughout the year for kids and mentors to take the classroom on the road. They travel on buses equipped with state-of-the-art screens allowing them to partake in fun interactive photography lessons as they ride safely to their destination. Once there, they engage in physical outdoor activities that connect them to nature and themselves. Each child receives a camera to use, a backpack to keep, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The trip home includes a celebratory slide show of the kids' best photos.

Youth Opportunities Unlimited

Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) has always met an important need in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by offering youth the opportunity to learn how to ride a bicycle and how to use it as a tool to explore and learn about the surrounding environment. Over the past two years, the pandemic has reinforced the importance of its programming and for children to have regular opportunities to explore nature, get outside in the fresh air, and nurture their social and emotional development. For many of New Bedford's parents, a lack of transportation cuts them off to surrounding programs. YOU removes that barrier since all of its programming is located in New Bedford’s south end, within the city limit and on a public bus route.

YOU’s year-round programming provides participants important opportunities to get outside, move their bodies, get their hands dirty and spark their curiosity, all through trusting relationships with mentors. The programs are free to families and participants, providing families with safe and accessible programming where children can explore nature, gain new experiences, and be exposed to new ideas and perspectives, while strengthening their confidence and resiliency. Programming includes Explore Your Environment (EYE) Program (summer), Urban Explorers (spring/fall), Winter INdoor Discoveries (WIND), Food For Thought Cooking Program (winter), and its Bicycle Repair & Maintenance Program (spring/fall).

Living Classrooms

Living Classrooms Foundation

Using unique learning environments, Living Classrooms Foundation provides access to more equitable education, workforce, and health/wellness opportunities that enable individuals to achieve their aspirations and build safer, stronger, and healthier communities. Living Classrooms’ WILD program takes youth on a 9-day outdoor adventure trip to Torrey, Utah, home to the red rock canyons of Capitol Reef National Park. WILD challenges youth (ages 14-24) who have not previously had access to this kind of experience to take healthy risks and try new outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, horseback riding, and stargazing. Participants learn about conservation of these important outdoor spaces in the west while being immersed in the physical and mental health benefits that come from spending time in nature. Through visits to the Capitol Reef Field Station and volunteer opportunities alongside Park Rangers, participants are introduced to career and higher education exploration in an array of sciences, natural resources management, and historical/cultural resources. This opportunity takes participants outside of their comfort zone, allows them to connect to nature, and uses positive youth development practices to help them learn and master healthy life skills and increase their resiliency.

Native Like Water

Native Like Water

There is a need to amplify and uplift the voices of Indigenous youth for them to feel confident in leadership positions and to continue their development of water safety and ocean culture. In today's world, with climate crisis, environmental justice, and social justice being hot topics, it is crucial for these youth to have strength and confidence in their voice and the capability to make a difference. California-based Native Like Water (NLW) assists in raising the next generation of holistic Indigenous leaders—individuals that are equally connected to the water and their community—by offering the knowledge and resources for them to care for themselves, their community, and the earth.

NLW addresses the need for Indigenous youth leaders by providing educational programming and nutritional healthy lifestyles along the coastal seascapes of California and beyond. Its Indigenous Youth Leadership Program serves youth and young adults, from ages 13-24. It provides in-depth service to young leaders in culture, ocean, and water safety. These leaders co-lead ocean clinics that NLW hosts through its programming. Many Indigenous tribes have been displaced and disconnected from the ocean and the source of culture, recreation, and healing it has to offer. Being able to develop the natural knowledge and perspectives of these young leaders will create a bountiful impact on the community.

OKC Latina

OKC Latina

A fiscally sponsored project of The Third Space Foundation

  • Grant amount: $10,000

Latinx in Oklahoma are severely underserved when it comes to outdoor recreation program access. OKC Latina works to create safe and inclusive spaces for people to explore new skills and spend time together outdoors. Its free fishing clinics provide access to experts in the field and allow participants to spend time honing their skills surrounded by community members.

OKC Latina is also working to support a younger generation of Latinx in Oklahoma City by serving youth and young adults through fishing clinics. Participants are provided all the equipment necessary to participate in the day's activities. Some of the events also include outdoor wellness fairs with community partners providing programs and resources for overall wellness. OKC Latina has found that connecting its community with resources is the best way to help make a difference in their lives. Spanish-speaking volunteers are present at all of OKC Latina events so no one is denied access due to a language barrier.

Urban Adventure Squad

Museum of the Rockies

Of the estimated 1.06M residents of Montana, more than 67K are American Indian or Alaska Native. The Blackfeet Indian Reservation alone has a population of 9,523 individuals (with a poverty rate of 40%). As such, societal issues often create barriers and prevent Indigenous students from exploring and engaging with the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, leaving a gap in their educational journeys. Museum of the Rockies (MOR), in collaboration of Blackfeet tribal elders and Browning High School teachers, are addressing this issue by developing a program that provides Blackfeet high school students hands-on learning opportunities in science and paleontology. The Blackfeet Egg Mountain Paleontological and Cultural Discovery Camp will take place within the Willow Creek Anticline Two Medicine Formation where Egg Mountain and MOR's 553-acre research site is located. These Indigenous lands are the ancestral homelands of the Blackfeet Nation and are the location of the first discovery of dinosaur eggs and embryos in North America. The goal of the program is to inspire Blackfeet youth to explore new career paths in paleontology and other STEM-related fields through virtual and in-school programming and hands-on experiences in the field (working with experts from MOR) while reconnecting them to their nation’s history with the land.

 

Greeing Youth Foundation

Greening Youth Foundation

Research indicates that African Americans constitute 10.8% of the overall workforce, but only represent 5.9% of those employed in life and physical science occupations. This disparity can be attributed to a lack of childhood exposure to natural resource fields and outdoor activities. While summer camps present an excellent opportunity to introduce children to greenspaces, low-cost summer camps often do not offer environmentally focused camp experiences. Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) began by offering environmental conservation education to elementary students in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Now it focuses on connecting students and young adults of color to conservation careers, and is one of the country’s leading organizations that links youth to careers in natural resource management.

GYF’s Eco-Summer Camp provides free, nature-focused activities to low-income residents of Atlanta’s Westside. The six-week camp experience offers environmental education and awareness to students in grades K-5, by engaging them in outdoor activities at the Urban Conservation Training Institute (a four-acre urban working farm that features various areas like farming spaces, an outdoor classroom, community gardening space, walking trails, composting area, chicken coop, irrigation well, and an old farmhouse). The camp also provides visits to environmental sites across the Atlanta metro area.

NT

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

When a child catches their first trout, sees an eagle take flight, or explores a backcountry trail, they light up, they learn something new, they connect. But it's not always easy to get outside. Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project (NTCP) was created with the sole purpose of connecting New Mexico youth to the places they might not otherwise see—public lands, urban green spaces, mountains, deserts, and rivers. Nature Niños (NN) is an entry point to the outdoors for communities who experience "nature nerves"  from a lack of exposure. NTCP and NN partnered to create Nuestro Futuro, a program that advances equity, access, and representation in the outdoors for all New Mexico youth through empowerment and engagement in outdoor recreation and education. Nuestro Futuro is expanding learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. Its Albuquerque program directly serves Title 1 schools in South Valley with school-time outdoor experiences, which are tailored to the needs of each individual school partner to ensure that the students are having their needs and interests met in ways that are culturally responsive. Project opportunities vary from six-week long fishing and sustainable eating experiences to public land hikes that work to educate the youth on regional flora and fauna. A main component of all programming is the use of nature journaling, which fosters a deeper connection with the natural world and enhances various aspects of youth well-being.

Latino Outdoors

Latino Outdoors 

According to The Nature Gap, a recent report published by the Center for American Progress and co-commissioned by the Hispanic Access Foundation, the unequal distribution of nature in the United States adversely impacts people of color, families with children, and particularly families of color with children the most. Three quarters of nonwhite families with children live in a nature-deprived area versus 36% of families without children and 39% of white families with children. Latino Outdoors is part of a growing movement of outdoor engagement organizations and initiatives to address these inequities.

NRF funding supports Latino Outdoor’s Vamos Outdoors program, which will serve more than 650 youth in 2021. To help reduce barriers to outdoor recreation, Vamos Outdoors offers free, family-friendly outdoor activities that emphasize connections between people, place, process, and policy. The goal is to inspire participants’ conservation ethic, encourage their evolving engagement in outdoor recreation, and recognize and celebrate diverse forms of outdoor engagement by diverse communities.

 

Living Classrooms

Living Classrooms Foundation

Many Baltimore communities are experiencing the effects of generational poverty driven by decades of racially inequitable policy, limited access to quality education and living wage job opportunities. These inequities also include a lack of safe outdoor recreation spaces for children and youth who are, therefore, unable to reap the physical and mental benefits offered by nature and outside activity. In addition, these communities have historically high rates of adverse childhood experiences, such as neglect, abuse, having incarcerated parents, exposure to drug activity, and high rates of teen pregnancy, which create barriers for youth desiring to achieve educational and career aspirations. To address these issues, Living Classrooms has developed a Girls’ Empowerment Mission (GEM).

GEM teens go on a week-long outdoor adventure trip to Torrey, Utah—home of Capitol Reef National Park and Fishlake National Forest. They likely have never traveled far from their urban surroundings in Baltimore nor experienced character-building outdoor adventures in the western canyon country. This trip of a lifetime challenges the girls to take healthy risks and try new outdoor activities. They will be introduced to career and higher education exploration in an array of sciences, natural resources management, and historical/cultural resources. This opportunity will take the students outside of their comfort zone, where they will learn and master new life skills that may not be presented to them in their daily lives in Baltimore.

YMCA of Greater Seattle

YMCA of Greater Seattle

Now more than ever, young people need experiences that offer ways to build resilience, release stress and grow in community with others. The YMCA of Greater Seattle is the home base for the BOLD & GOLD National Team, which leads and supports programs (at partner YMCAs across the United States) that offer young people a place of respite and a connection to nature, where they can build resilience and positive identity in a wilderness setting.

The BOLD & GOLD National Team continues to respond to an overwhelming need for thoughtful, culturally-responsive, and nuanced wellness curriculum. They use data to support strong Social Emotional Learning (which leads to better mental health outcomes) to inform the creation of the curriculum and resources as well as to update trainings. The National Team also supports the BOLD & GOLD programs by training program directors and instructors, creating national partnerships, providing a platform for sites to work together on common issues and ensuring the quality and sustainability of each program. This structure allows them to tailor new BOLD & GOLD programs to the unique needs of youth in the different communities served.

Lucky to Ride

Lucky to Ride

Bike riding offers lifelong opportunities to engage in a fun, low-cost, healthy, and pro-social activity. Unfortunately, youth from low-income families rarely have the financial resources needed to purchase their own bicycle. Giving youth a bike is not sufficient; youth need STEM-based learning skills, training, and practice in how to ride safely and how to maintain their “new” bike. Owning and riding a bike helps youth learn independence and to get themselves where they want to go, while also offering opportunities for regular exercise. Lucky to Ride offers low-cost cycling programs for youth throughout the Denver Metro area. Rides take youth on mountain bike trips. Learn-to-Earn and Youth@Work provides paid internships and teach kids basic bike repair, riding skills, job readiness skills, and the opportunity to earn a bike of their own, all while following a STEM based curriculum.

OIC

Outdoor Inclusion Coalition

A fiscally sponsored project of New Sun Rising

The Outdoor Inclusion Coalition (OIC), based out of Millvale, Pennsylvania, addresses representation in the outdoors and works to break down barriers associated with winter sports (including the costs of a quality experience at a resort, transportation, gear, and lessons). Its Ski & Snowboard Program introduces first-time skiers and snowboard students, aged 7-23, to the winter sports industry through a seven-week, on-snow education curriculum led by instructors that facilitate skill progression through mentorship and confidence building. The no-cost program covers all expenses related to a quality experience including gear, rentals, transportation, and education. OIC’s program supports sport and individual growth through a cultivated space that celebrates underrepresented expression. Participants experience life skills development through social-emotional learning; gain a greater understanding of self; and experience a greater connection to community and mentors through positive interactions. 

Red Tail Scholarship Foundation

Red Tail Scholarship Foundation

  • Website: rtfa.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

There is a severe shortage of pilots and maintenance professionals in the workforce, and it is projected to last 20 years or more. Only 2-3% of pilots are African American in spite of the accomplishments by the Tuskegee Airmen. The mission of the Red Tail Scholarship Foundation (RTSF) is to seek, identify, and develop qualified, motivated students who demonstrate the values the original Tuskegee Airmen embodied, and provide them the tools necessary to succeed in the aviation career field. RTSF’s vision is to develop a top-notch Flight and Aviation Maintenance School that addresses the gaps in diversity as well as the shortage of pilots and maintenance technicians in the airline industry to create opportunities in under-resourced communities and effect positive change that will impact generations to come.

RTSF’s Education in Pilot Training program is a blend of physical and mental activity. RTSF offers the support and mentoring these youth need to overcome barriers keeping them from attaining a career in the aviation industry. Students also have the opportunity to receive fight training that allows them to earn a Private Pilot Certificate. The students can continue their training to obtain the Instrument Rating and advance to a Commercial Pilot Certificate and the Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) Certificate. All RTSF’s students who become CFIs continue to teach inside the program, building flight time while mentoring newer students.

Vamos Outdoors Project

GTG Outdoors

GTG Outdoors "Families Around the Fire" pilot program, is a 6-12-month mentorship program specifically designed for BIPOC families. The program promotes time in nature through a series of bi-weekly meetings covering essential outdoor skills and experiences. From "Leave No Trace" principles and outdoor cooking to wildlife education, the curriculum is crafted to foster appreciation, skills, and a sense of belonging in the natural world. Additionally, the program addresses the need for cultural inclusivity and safety in outdoor spaces, aiming to break the cycle of environmental disconnection and build a community that values and actively participates in conservation efforts. For families seeking deeper engagement, an extended six-month backpacking mentorship offers specialized training in backcountry skills, ensuring families are well equipped to explore nature independently. "Families Around the Fire" isn’t just an outdoor mentorship program—it's a strategic initiative to reconnect BIPOC families with nature, addressing both the symptoms and root causes of disengagement, and empowering them to claim their space in the great outdoors while fostering a sustainable relationship with the environment.

OIC

Outdoor Inclusion Coallition

  • Pennsylvania
  • Website: theoic.org
  • Grant amount: $20,000

Systemic barriers such as financial constraints, lack of representation, and limited access to safe outdoor spaces continue to prevent youth from marginalized communities from engaging in nature-based activities that foster leadership, conservation ethics, and personal development. The Outdoor Inclusion Coalition (OIC) is working to address these barriers through its Urban Wilderness Program (UWP) and Youth Equity in Snow Sports (YESS) programs.

UWP is an eight-week summer camp that blends recreation with conservation education, fostering a lifelong appreciation for nature. By participating in activities such as camping, mountain biking, climbing, fishing and more, students develop outdoor skills while also engaging in ecological studies that include tree assessment, water quality analysis, and GIS mapping. UWP leverages play as a mechanism to normalize environmental stewardship, ensuring that youth enjoy nature and understand how to protect and sustain it. YESS, a collaboration between the OIC and Gilson Snow, aims to increase representation in snow sports. This initiative merges artistry and craftsmanship by enabling youth to handcraft their own custom designed boards. Participants gain insight into the engineering and artistry behind their equipment and embrace their identities as creators. YESS serves as a catalyst for inclusion, self-expression, and confidence in the snow industry. Both initiatives advance equity, conservation, and outdoor recreation access for historically underrepresented youth. These programs provide cohort-based experiential education, equipping students with technical skills, environmental awareness, and creative expression at no cost to families.

Living Classrooms

Living Classrooms Foundation

Many Baltimore, Md., communities are experiencing the effects of generational poverty driven by decades of racially inequitable policy, limited access to quality education and living wage job opportunities. These inequities include a lack of safe outdoor recreation spaces for youth who are unable to reap the physical and mental benefits offered by nature and outside activity. To address these issues Living Classrooms is developing a Youth Outdoor Leadership and Adventure Program.

YOLA will take Baltimore teens on a week-long outdoor adventure trip to Torrey, Utah—home to red rock outcrops and canyons of Capitol Reef National Park and forests and lakes of Fishlake National Forest. This trip of a lifetime will challenge students to take healthy risks and try new outdoor activities, while allowing them to experience the physical and mental health benefits of spending time in nature. Students will be introduced to career and higher education exploration in an array of sciences, natural resources management, and historical/cultural resources. This opportunity will take the students far outside of their comfort zone, where they will learn and master new life skills that may not be presented to them in their urban lives.

MN Zoo

Minnesota Zoo Foundation

Many youth lack access to nature and nature-based experiences due to geography (overly developed urban landscapes), socioeconomic status, and/or physical or cultural barriers (lack of representation, accessibility accommodations, etc.). Evidence indicates that spending time in nature leads to increased physical activity, improved mental wellness and emotional balance, and enhanced academic performance. The Minnesota Zoo’s mission is to connect people, animals, and the natural world to save wildlife. Research shows that meaningful experiences in nature lead to empathy for nature. Providing opportunities for youth to develop a positive relationship with nature within their own cultural, social, and personal context improves their own wellness and builds the foundation for a conservation ethic that supports a healthy future for wildlife.

The Minnesota Zoo’s new Nature Survival Camp program provides week-long summer camp experiences for youth at the Zoo. The week-long summer day camp is based on its popular Survival Training camp, which culminates in an overnight tent-camping experience at the Zoo. Participating youth gain life skills for nature recreation and exploration that empower them to transcend barriers, both real and perceived. These small group camps are offered to different groups of middle school-aged children each week for 3-4 weeks during the summer. These nature-based “classroom-less” camps allow campers to explore how animals survive in the wild, spend time observing animals around the Zoo, and practice survival skills on nature trails in the Zoo’s undeveloped North Woods.

Miles4Mentors

Miles4Mentors

Miles4Mentors (M4M) is committed to making sports and activities accessible to children who may not otherwise have the opportunity to participate. The intended side effects of this mission are to develop stronger, healthier, and more confident and caring children and parents, as well as strengthening the community in Willmar, Minnesota (a culturally diverse community in west central Minnesota).

M4M's Fun Run Series is free and open to all children ages 4 to 11 years. The series consists of 5 runs, all centered around community events, with one additional invitational run for children identified by the school district. M4M's fun run series is intended to get kids outside to be active and to shares key elements of healthy living, including tips on making better food choices to reduce obesity. The organization purchases footwear, so kids can start off on the right foot and feel confident to start running and be physically active.

Park Pride

Park Pride

The neighborhoods around Columbia Elementary School, a Title 1 School in Decatur, Georgia, are considered a park desert with no easily accessible parks or greenspaces in the area. Understanding the links between race and environmental injustice, and the connection between access to nature and health, a neighborhood resident spearheaded a movement to address the community’s greenspace needs. The resident organized a team of leaders from the school, local government, and non-profit organizations, and worked with Park Pride to engage students and neighbors to design a conceptual masterplan to guide development of the greenspace.

The build out is occurring in stages, with the cleaning and building of a trail along the streambank already complete. NRF funding supports the increase of outdoor learning and play opportunities, so that more students can gain experiences with nature, time outdoors, and the physical and mental benefits that access to nature provides. Recreation and learning activities (including playing on the open field, walking on the trail, environmental science lessons at the streambank, and working on the educational garden and compost pile) will bring students outdoors more often and for longer periods of time and will foster a connection to nature for students and surrounding community members.

The Semilla Project

The Semilla Project

New Mexico is known for its rich biodiversity and picturesque landscapes. Yet for communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), intersectional racial and economic inequities have foreclosed access to and enjoyment of the outdoors. The Semilla Project is working to change this through a unique, land-based learning and organizing model that intervenes in this trend by helping BIPOC youth access the outdoors and empowering their activation as positive agents of change for their communities, lands, and water.

The Semilla Project’s Land Based Learning & SemiYA! programming engages youth in outdoor experiences, such as backpacking, rock climbing, mountaineering, and snow travel, while providing the equipment, training, transportation, and experienced guides to facilitate participation at any income or experience level. These trips feature a curriculum that decolonizes outdoor recreation, wellness, and leadership; shares Indigenous knowledge; and empowers youth of color to know they too belong in outdoor spaces. By reconnecting these youth with nature, The Semilla Project not only facilitates life-changing outdoor experiences, but it also galvanizes youth to advocate for the environmental, economic, and racial justice that will create equitable change for future generations. To make possible the advancement of wellbeing for all communities, The Semilla Project centers BIPOC/BIWOC leaders and teach upcoming generations that systematic change starts by reconnecting, understanding, and reclaiming culture, identity, wellness, and their relationship with land.

OO

Outdoor Outreach

Outdoor Outreach reaches youth, ages 9-24, from communities characterized as “under-parked” (having less than three acres of parkland per 1,000 people and a median household income below $45,000). Seventy-five percent of Outdoor Outreach’s youth participants report that they lack transportation to outdoor spaces; 44% are not aware of green spaces near their home; and 13% report that gangs or crime make close-to-home green spaces unsafe. Outdoor Outreach provides adventure-based outdoor programs for young people through adventure-based youth development programs. With multiple opportunities to surf, bike, kayak, or climb each year, youth gain more than access to outdoor recreation—they share new experiences and tap into their strengths, while building a support system of peers and mentors who believe in them and show them they matter. To accomplish this, Outdoor Outreach partners with 50+ Title I schools and social service agencies. It serves San Diego County youth (from low-income communities and other groups, including Native youth, medical and juvenile justice-involved youth, LGBTQIA+ youth, youth from military families, and those from immigrant families, who experience disproportionate levels of mental health challenges in comparison to the general population by directly removing barriers) by providing outdoors-based programs and all necessary equipment, transportation, instruction, meals and snacks to participants at no cost.

Vibe Tribe Adventures

Hands and Hearts for Horses

Hands and Hearts for Horses

Hands and Hearts for Horses provides therapeutic horseback riding services to people with challenges including autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries and behavioral, emotional, and cognitive difficulties. It brings together horses and certified instructors who collaborate with professionals in the medical, psychological, and educational fields to enrich lives and promote independence. The center serves children and adults with disabilities from south Georgia and north Florida, including self-contained school groups. One of the many challenges people living with disabilities face is safe access to nature. Hands and Hearts for Horses has a sensory trail on its property which is being expanded and renovated so that it is usable year-round. Renovations will include bridges over the streams; an above ground plank walkway; and weather resistant items, like metal chimes. The natural and man-made sensory experiences encourage integration of the senses, motor planning, problem solving and multifaceted sensory stimulation that comes from being immersed in nature.

MVCA

Miami Valley Christian Academy

The Miami Valley Christian Academy, located in the greater Cincinnati area, is introducing athletic, physical education and outdoor recreation programs that will be held on its new all-weather field this summer. MVCA has already experienced great success with student and community programs, but it has never had a home field or outdoor place on campus to facilitate more of the programming that would benefit the students at and children living near the school. NRF funding support the intoduction of these new programs and the all-weather field. 

 

MN Landscape Arboretum

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Growing research connects nature-based programs with improved health and well-being of young people. Although the benefits of nature-based programs are clear, access is often limited by geography, economics, and age. Urban teenagers are especially in need of positive, nature-based, community-integrated experiences where they can learn, explore, develop ideas and make valuable contributions. Gardening is one of the most hands-on, experiential ways to interact with nature. The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s partnership with Hennepin County’s Parents in Community Action (PICA) Head Start expands access to quality, hands-on, nature-based programming for children while at the same time creating a unique paid summer internship for Growing Good Urban Garden Teenagers.

The Arboretum’s Growing Good PICA Partnership Program creates opportunities for urban teens to deepen their own engagement with nature while contributing to their younger peers connecting with nature through hands-on garden experiences. Working with the Arboretum, paid interns design a summer garden project for PICA Head Start summer classrooms, which include the planning and installing of raised bed gardens, planting plans and activities for three garden sessions. Interns learn and collaborate with Early Childhood educators and Arboretum staff as they develop and prepare the experiences for the early childhood classes.

 

Momentum Bike Clubs

Momentum Bike Clubs

Adolescence is the critical period between childhood and adulthood—a time when youth build attitudes, competencies, values, and social skills that will carry them forward to a successful adulthood. For youth from marginalized, under-resourced communities, however, these skills are often seemingly unattainable without intervention. Momentum Bike Clubs (MBC) transforms the lives of students through a comprehensive youth development program using cycling as a platform to foster and sustain mentoring relationships in Greenville County, South Carolina. MBC is working to build strong mentoring relationships with students so that they have the support and opportunities to set and achieve goals and to experience economic and social mobility.

Red Cloud Renewable

Indian reservations often were placed on land that nobody else wanted, because it was extremely hot, cold, windy and/or dry. The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is all of those things. Additionally, the governing agencies did not make the management of natural resources and activities like planting trees a funding priority. As a result, the tree cover at the Pine Ridge Reservation has steadily declined after many decades of neglect. In 2015, Red Could Renewable started a place-based conservation initiative which is executed by a generation of young Native men and women who want to increase biodiversity and see their lands protected and restored for the next seven generations.

NRF funding supports Red Cloud Renewable’s reforestation efforts. The tree-planting initiative is led by Lakota youth and is an example of local tribal members managing neglected land for improved resilience, habitat quality, watershed protection, and as a means to contribute in a practical way towards climate change solutions. The organization’s latest conservation campaign, “Planting the Hills of Pine Ridge,” is aimed at restoring the long neglected, fragmented native habitat and returning wildlife and a more diverse plant ecosystem to Pine Ridge. Planting trees is both community service and physical activity for the Lakota youth. In addition, it has educational qualities and a deep cultural meaning for the Lakota, who believe they have a responsibility to protect the natural world for generations to come.

SHAPE Community Center

SHAPE Community Center

SHAPE Community Center works to improve the quality of life for people of African descent (all people) through programs and activities, with an emphasis on unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. SHAPE offer a variety of daily classes and activities after school, during school breaks, and all day throughout the summer. While social change has become a prominent topic of conversation over the last few years, local schools have suffered major setbacks in cultural education. SHAPE’s programs specifically help children to develop a positive cultural identity.

SHAPE’s programming gives children a chance to experience and understand culturally significant events that helped form the group identity of Black people in America so they can determine how it will shape them as individuals. After school and during school breaks, SHAPE provides children with enrichment programs and activities that allow them to explore local cultural landmarks. At the end of the summer, the children and chaperones will take a seven-day bus tour—called the Freedom Tour, in the spirit of the great Freedom Riders of the 1960s—across the South to retrace the Civil Rights Movement. The tour will bring to life the lands, parks, and trails that intersected with cultural movements and provide students with opportunity to connect with the challenges and triumphs of the past in order to serve as a catalyst to engage the children in social change.

Purgatoire Watershed Partnership

The Purgatoire Watershed Partnership (PWP) is an environmental conservation organization, based in Trinidad, that serves all community members across the Purgatoire River watershed. Its mission is to restore, protect, and enhance the Purgatoire River Watershed through stakeholder engagement, collaboration, education, and on-the-ground work for the benefit of all. In the past few years, PWP has been working closely with the Youth Club of Trinidad to bring outdoor engagement and education opportunities to local youth. The youth gain outdoor skills and knowledge in new environments.

Wenatchee River Institute

Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast believes a healthy physical and mental lifestyle is achievable for all individuals through access to natural, safe outdoor spaces. The partnership advocates for and supports the vision of a safe, coast-wide network of diverse trails that connect neighborhoods to businesses, schools, green spaces, and blue spaces so that everyone can enjoy scenic, historic, educational, and natural areas. Heritage Trails’ Youth Trails Stewardship Program encourages children and young adults to explore and appreciate nature as well as the many workforce opportunities available in the outdoor recreation industry. Through this program, Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast hosts monthly bike rides from local neighborhoods to the Clower-Thornton Nature Area where youth participate in outdoor activities that support and promote their interest in nature. Rides also encourage continued discussion around areas in the city and region where protected rides are possible and places where changes are needed to improve bike and pedestrian safety.

Miles4Mentors

Miles4Mentors

Children today are spending less time "playing" and being active. Physical education periods and recess in school are shorter and kids generally are spending more time in sedentary activities such as video gaming  and other online activities. Miles4Mentors is committed to making sports and activities accessible to children who may not otherwise have the opportunity to participate and be active. It's flagship event, a free Kids Fun Run Series, was created to develop stronger, healthier, and more confident and caring children and parents, as well as strengthen the community in Willmar, Minn., a culturally diverse community in the west central part of the state.

NRF funding will support Miles4Mentors as it brings its 2021 Kids Fun Run Series back in-person and expands it to enable more than 500 kids and families from the community participate. 

MIC

Montezuma Lane Conservancy / Montezuma Inspire Coalition 

Youth in Montezuma County, Colorado, do not have access to high-quality education and struggle to easily access public lands on which to recreate. A high percent of students live below the poverty line and its teachers are underpaid, leading to high teacher turnover and contributing to the county's low ranking in performance and attendance. Geographic and population nodes within the county are widespread, which can cause youth and families to struggle with transportation, access to the internet, completing education, and participation in supporting programs. As a result, 10 diverse nonprofit organizations, agencies and municipalities came together to form the Montezuma Inspire Coalition (MIC), which aims to empower the next generation to respect, care for, and steward themselves, their community, and the natural world around them by offering life-long skills that will be passed from generation to generation.

MIC partner Dolores River Boating Advocates offers summer programming for youth to gain an understanding of their local watershed, ecological and conservation issues related to the Dolores River, enrich their classroom learning, and explore the river first-hand. San Juan Mountains Association (SJMA), also a MIC partner, provides outdoor science enrichment programs that takes place during the regular school day. Throughout the school year, students explore their local environment, examine environmental issues through the lens of a scientist, learn principles of leave no trace, and acquire basic outdoor skills.

Nature for All

Nature for All

In 2019, LA County Metropolitan Transportation's (Metro) Transit to Parks Strategic Plan presented a systematic vision for increasing access to parks and open space countywide. At the time of publication, only five existing transit lines served any of Los Angeles’ mountain open space destinations. Only 22% of the county population lives within one-half mile of bus stops or routes that service beach parks, and it takes an hour or more for 60% of residents to get to the mountains. Expanding access is a key priority for the region as LA County has a wealth of open space and recreational assets. Nature for All programming aims to diversify and expand access to nature and get underserved communities outdoors to enjoy the benefits provided by public lands and open, green spaces.

The All Aboard for Nature program provides youth and young adults trips the opportunity to take trip to locations such as the San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles County Parks, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, and Will Rogers State Beach. The All Aboard for Nature program improves access and connectivity to a variety of open spaces by reaching out exclusively to high-need and very-high-need communities and by providing residents with free travel to natural areas within 1 to 1.5 hours of their homes.

Rios to Rivers

Ríos to Rivers

Large hydroelectric dams have destroyed the health of rivers and Indigenous communities that depend on them. Through decades of land dispossession and federal termination, efforts to remove Indigenous people from the landscape have taken their toll on traditions and health. Indigenous youth from damaged river basins have grown up hearing stories of once-healthy rivers and traditions of paddling on them as a means of transportation and livelihood. Yet, their lived experience is primarily of degraded watersheds as large dams have displaced Indigenous communities, submerged ancestral territory, and threatened First Foods such as salmon. Long fought for by Tribes and others, four dams along the Klamath River are slated to be removed in 2024, completing the largest dam removal in history. Colorado-based Ríos to Rivers’ (R2R) mission is to inspire the protection of rivers worldwide by investing in underserved and Indigenous youth who are intimately connected to their local waters and support them as the next generation of river stewards.

Paddle Tribal Waters (PTW) is a kayaking and youth leadership program led by R2R and Maqlaqs Paddle. PTW will prepare Indigenous youth from the Klamath Basin to paddle the undammed free-flowing river as the rightful people to make its “first descent” and camp with tribal communities along the way. An inter-generational celebration will take place at the end where the Klamath meets the Pacific Ocean. In addition to white water skills, PTW provides leadership training and engages tribal members through inter-generational events and traditional knowledge exchange. To spread the vision of what Indigenous youth can achieve as the next generation of kayakers and river stewards, a professional documentary will be made about PTW. The PTW program launched its first cohort of youth kayakers in 2022, and will expand to another cohort of youth paddlers in 2023, in preparation for Indigenous youth to make the “first descent” of the free-flowing Klamath in 2024.

Solar Youth

Solar Youth

Urban youth face enormous daily challenges, such as high family unemployment, substance abuse, crime, and violence. Parents/guardians, while loving, may lack the skills and/or time and energy to provide the support and attention their children need. Too often, youth have an abundance of unsupervised time, which may result in finding a sense of value and identity through negative behaviors, beginning at an early age. Solar Youth targets two of New Haven's neighborhoods where few resources promoting positive youth development exist despite the tremendous need. Solar Youth addresses these issues by being a consistent presence in these neighborhoods. Families rely on Solar Youth to help build community, connect youth to the environment, and foster social cohesion.

Solar Youth’s Steward Program is a core youth program that serves youth, ages 5 to 12, as well as teenage interns, ages 13-18. The program connects youth to the environment, their communities and each other, while helping them build the skills and motivations necessary to be positive contributors to their community, have healthy relationships, be physically and mentally healthy, and become economically self-sufficient. Solar Youth’s five core program elements are environmental exploration, youth-led problem solving, nonviolent communication, mindfulness, and youth leadership. Through unique programs, youth explore their environment, learn the skills and joys of being agents of positive change, and teach what they have learned to others (Kids Explore! Kids Do! Kids Teach!).

River Newe

River Newe

River Newe works to overcome Shoshone-Bannock disconnection to traditional knowledge due to limited access to homelands and learning experiences on land. River Newe supports Shoshone-Bannock youth through experiential, river-based programming on traditional and historic tribal lands. Students participate in cultural and river-based activities to exercise treaty rights, impact confidence and identity, and build skills through river-based learning. Through a Newe-centered approach, this program increases representation and creates spaces of equity through learning experiences on homelands with Shoshone-Bannocks, Indigenous, and minoritized communities on and off river landscapes.

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance

Humble Hustle

The Humble Hustle

While Roanoke, VA, is full of outdoor opportunities, those spaces are sometimes closed off to communities of color, especially youth. Many outdoor spaces can be challenging to access and require prohibitively expensive specialized equipment. Humble Hustle aims to remove these barriers so that youth of color can access and enjoy the outdoors worry free by providing all gear, transportation, lunch, water, and snacks.

Humble Hustle participants learn about the outdoors, recreate, and experience a relaxing time while enjoying nature. Humble Hustle is launching a consistent overnight camping program as well as a yearly conference for Humble Hikes, which would bring together youth and outdoor enthusiasts for one day to develop excitement and education around the outdoors. Humble Hikes aims to expose, educate, and empower Black youth to the outdoors. It is also is working to increase female participation in its outdoor recreation programming.

West Point Association of Graduates

Mama's House

Palm Desert-based Mama’s House houses women in crises and addresses their most critical basic needs. Mama's House recently purchased a one-acre property, named Campus for Mama’s House, that will be expanded so it can quadruple the number of women and children served at a time. NRF funding supports Mama’s House’s efforts to create outdoor recreational areas on the Campus to enable gathering areas for residents to spend much of their time outside with play equipment, water features, lighting for evening activities, gardening, fitness activities and more. Outdoor space for recreational activities is critical for the women and children that Mama’s House serves, as most come from dire circumstances (most often straight from the street and on occasion from human sex trafficking where life leaves little room for anything other than simply surviving). The ability to enjoy outdoor physical activities on site will enhance the work taking place and further nurture these women and their children back to wellness, wholeness and productivity.

Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers

For too many children, access to nature is determined by race, income and zip code. Current data shows that the average American spends 93% of their time inside, with kids spending 44 hours per week in front of a screen and less than 10 minutes playing outdoors. Muddy Sneakers was created to awaken in children a deeply felt connection with the natural world.

Muddy Sneakers partners with public schools throughout North Carolina, including Rowan-Salisbury and Henderson County Schools, providing interdisciplinary, science-focused outdoor experiences for 5th-grade students that the schools would not be able to replicate on their own. These partnerships allow schools to expose students to content experts who can light a passion for science education through authentic outdoor experiences that connect students to nature. Students have real-world, experiential learning opportunities outside, six times a year, all supplementing the state’s Essential Science Standards. Educators find deep value in these partnerships as they too learn from content experts on how to craft a curriculum-aligned outdoor lesson for their students.

Openlands

Openlands

By understanding more about birds, including how they survive and contribute to the urban environment, students forge a critical connection with nature as it exists in their own communities. Birds in my Neighborhood (BIMN) is a volunteer-driven, environmental education program offered free-of-charge to schools in Northeastern Illinois. Managed by Openlands with assistance from the Chicago Audubon Society and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) at Volo Bog, the BIMN program teaches 2nd-5th graders about birds and their habitats, guiding them toward an appreciation of nature. Through its in-class lessons, field trips, and programming, it aims to create greater access to these uncommon natural areas, putting a new generation in touch with landscape near home while fostering health, well-being, and pro-environmental attitudes and habits.

NRF funding supports the program’s expansion in Lake County and helps deliver Birds in my Neighborhood programming to hundreds of Lake County youth. The volunteer driven BIMN curriculum connects youth to nature through the song, plumage, colors, and antics of birds. Craning their necks, scanning leaves of neighborhood street trees for flight, or walking boardwalks through marshes at places like Volo Bog, children learn to socialize, exercise, and nurture their mental health through the natural world.

Saved By Nature

Saved By Nature

California-based Saved By Nature’s programming intentionally is designed to address barriers to accessing nature and public lands and to connect underrepresented communities to nearby natural surroundings. Its Alive Outside Adventure Series provides Hispanic youth (ages 13-18) free access to professional guided hikes and backpacking trips and outdoor leadership opportunities through hands-on activities. The adventure series includes an orientation hike among the redwoods at Mt. Madonna County Park; a preparation hike at Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve; and a two-day/one-night backpacking adventure at Henry Coe State Park. Saved By Nature calls Spanish speaking parents individually to invite, encourage, and increase participation, provides transportation, and opens access to its REI Gear Library. This library has all the camping gear necessary for these hiking and camping outings. The Alive Outside Adventure Series fosters an understanding of nature as a vehicle to healing and provides a guide to manage stress and anxiety. 

Urban Word

Urban Word

Urban Word champions, centers, and elevates young, marginalized voices as leaders at the intersection of the arts and civic engagement. Through the  transformative power of the written and spoken word, Urban Word provides young, creative voices the tools, training, and platforms to rewrite the narratives that shape their lives and communities. Urban Word provides platforms for critical literacy, youth development and leadership through free and uncensored writing, social impact, performance, and healing arts-centered workshops and opportunities.

Urban Word’s Movement of Body and Pen workshop series supports young people with finding healthy ways to heal and explore their mind, body, and soul through creative writing expression, yoga, movement, meditative practices, and nature walks to provide them tools to support their mental wellness. Each workshop addresses a different theme and opens with a wellness activity. Urban Word's youth continue to express interest in providing them with emotional support around their creativity, so Urban Word trains its creative writing teaching artists to integrate mindfulness practices into their workshops. By the end of the program, participants will have a basic understanding of how to continue wellness practices using what they learned as tools for self-awareness, healing and stress-management and will grow as writers in their community. 

SJ

SheJumps

SheJumps works to increase the participation of women and girls in outdoor activities. Its Into the Canyon Program provides immigrant and refugee girls in the Salt Lake Valley with accessible outdoor recreation opportunities. While the program traditionally focused on learn-to-ski sessions in the Wasatch Mountains, itis expanding to ioffer year-round outdoor recreation activities that include skiing, rock climbing, and hiking. SheJumps collaborates with Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families (HC4YF) to host a series of youth outdoor adventure programs that create no-cost opportunities for HC4YF girls to experience the outdoors each year. The program also serves as a model for replication at other SheJumps sites across the U.S., including SheJumps’ youth outdoor program with the Mountain View Boys & Girls Club in Anchorage, Alaska.

 

Jefferson County Youth Council

Jefferson County Youth Council

  • Grant amount: $15,000

Jefferson County Youth Council's mission is to serve as a strong advocate for the county’s youth. It provides a safe and accessible environment that promotes academic and social growth at no cost to participating youth. The vast majority of the youth the Council serves have limited exposure to experiences that encourage growth and learning and limited access to safe, outdoor green spaces. The Council coordinates activities in partnership with various youth-serving organizations and provides support to local schools, both public and private, the Jefferson Art’s Council, the Jefferson County 4-H program and the Jefferson County Education Foundation.

Jefferson County Youth Council exposes youth (13-17 years old) to “hands on” visits to state parks, recreation areas, college campuses, museums, aquariums, the state capitol, and various other field trips. It also concentrates on promoting respect for the environment by engaging in activities that focus on valued natural resources. Being introduced to these new opportunities and experiences will promote physical activity and academic and social growth for the youth the Council serves. 

SHRED Foundation

The SHRED Foundation identifies a critical need within the communities of Newburgh and Albany where BIPOC youth face significant barriers to recreational sports participation, notably snowboarding. SHRED's comprehensive approach aims to dismantle economic and social barriers, enabling participants to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of snowboarding and gain valuable leadership and teaching skills through the instructor training program. This foster a sustainable, inclusive environment within the snowboarding community, encouraging participants to become mentors and role models for future generations. SHRED provides comprehensive support, including access to gear, mentorship, and career opportunities in snowboarding to ensure that the transformative benefits of this sport (including improved mental health, enhanced decision-making, and increased confidence) are accessible to all—fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment for personal and community growth, and significantly impacting the lives of the youth SHRED serves. Ultimately, this contributes to a more diverse and equitable snowboarding culture.

Wilderness Inquiry

Muddy Sneakers 2020

Muddy Sneakers

American children are growing up in a new paradigm. Without a connection to their neighboring lands at a formative age, they lack a sense of place and an understanding of their role within the natural world. This paradigm presents a significant challenge in creating the next generation of environmental stewards. It also means youth lack comfort being active outdoors, which is of great detriment on their personal development and physical and mental wellbeing.

The 2020-2021 school year holds unprecedented challenges for educators. Muddy Sneakers, which is based out of Brevard, NC, is in a unique position to be of service during this time, by bringing its award-winning and standards-aligned experiences, both in-person and via remote learning, to more than 3,400 students and educators at 46 schools students. NRF’s funding helps MS will create new interdisciplinary curriculum pathways—Remote Expeditions—which will offer six standards-aligned remote learning packages that introduce educators and students to the power of outdoor experiential education while harnessing technology to stimulate interest in our natural resources and environment. 

National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy

Many New York City youth do not have the resources to help them develop the life skills of examining, interpreting, and processing the barrage of information they receive, be it historical or current events. The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy’s mission at Federal Hall is to create a unique forum for civic and civil engagement, where multi-disciplinary talents will interpret the ideas, ideals, flaws, and contradictions of American democracy through the arts, humanities, and cultural experiences. The Conservancy is using its play—The Democracy Project—as a centerpiece for a workshop which uses history as a prompt for critical examination of history and creative expression.

The Democracy Project is a 45-minute perspective-shifting odyssey through the 531 days when New York City was the nation’s first capital; when the presidency was new; the slave trade was in debate; and the U.S. Constitution—and the rights of all of America’s inhabitants—hung in the balance. The Democracy Projects’ Youth Storytelling Workshop uses American history as a prompt for critical exploration and creative expression. During this workshop, high school-aged youth from NYC public schools and other groups, are engaged through a specially devised curriculum, attend a play performance and a skills session and will be asked to submit creative projects in response to these activities. The goal for youth after the workshop is that they’re able to examine history, current events, their own lived experience, and weave creative narratives.

Radical Monarchs

Radical Monarchs

A fiscally sponsored program of Community Initiatives. 

California-based Radical Monarchs is a social justice education organization with a deep environmental justice commitment. The organization works to address the exploitation and neglect that girls and nonbinary youth of color experience. Based off first-hand experience and observations, Radical Monarchs believes that dismantling systemic oppression and structural violence must be rooted in being able to name and shape what the girls and nonbinary youth of color need to thrive. To this end, the Radical Monarchs implements strengths-based, self-empowerment education strategies operationalized through its core Badge curriculum and Alumni program. Radical Monarch’s equips youth/Monarchs across Radical Troops nationwide annually with the knowledge, skills, and stakeholder networks to empower them to protect and materialize their rights to dignified healthcare, housing, and income, as well as opportunities to thrive and experience the fullness of their humanity through outdoor recreation.

See You at the Top

See You At The Top (Syatt) works to normalize the use of nature/outside as a source of recreation; the presence of Black and brown youth recreating in both informal and formal outdoor spaces; and the presence of Black and brown facilitators of outdoor recreation activities. NRF funding supports three Syatt programs: Urban Campouts, Syatt Dives, and U-Matter Institute. Urban camping experiences help connect kids to nature. While many families cannot readily access formal green spaces, Syatt wants youth to understand that they are surrounded by nature. Syatt also offers Black and brown youth an opportunity to become certified scuba divers. Partnering with Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP), Syatt Dives’ cohort of youth engage in an underwater archaeology training program to survey and document shipwrecks of slave-carrying vessels. Syatt Dives also teaches youth how to protect and rebuild delicate corals. The youth then complete service hours at coral farms to help actively rebuild coral to promote growth. Syatt’s U-Matter Institute is modeled after a typical academic trimester where participants engage in a youth-led research project focused on social, civic, and environmental issues. Throughout this experience, youth recreate, complete service projects, and see themselves as environmental stewards. Traditionally, Black, and brown voices have been omitted from the ecological movement. Syatt is restoring that connection through the U-Matter Institute.

Walter Anderson Museum of Art

Walter Anderson Museum of Art

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) in Ocean Springs, MS, is just blocks away from the Mississippi Sound. It is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of artist-philosopher Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), whose paintings, drawings, murals, block prints, sculptures, and writings of coastal plants, animals, landscapes, and people have placed him among the most compelling and singular artists of the 20th century. The Museum is guided by Anderson's belief that "in order to realize the beauty of humanity, we must realize our relation to nature."

WAMA’s Public Art Enterprise leverages art making and the environment to meet the need for increased outdoor education and recreation in public schools, as well as to address the challenges of brain drain and STEM workforce development. Over the course of the 12-month program, students from nearby Hancock County work with professional artists to design, fabricate, and install a large-scale steel sculpture in their community that speaks to socio-environmental resilience and connection to the natural world. Students find inspiration through excursions to coastal environments, conduct community-engaged design work to solicit public input, collaborate with professional artists to engineer the steel structure, and hone skills of welding and fabrication to bring the artwork to life. The sculpture’s location, selected in partnership with the municipal leaders, serves as an anchor for community placemaking and recreation, as well as a vehicle for STEM skill acquisition and student discovery that supports homegrown workforce development and overall student health in Coastal Mississippi.

Wozu, Inc.

Khmer Community of Seattle King County

Khmer Community of Seattle King County

The Khmer Community of Seattle King County empowers the Khmer community and bridges the intergenerational gap between elders and youth through cultural preservation and promoting well-being. Khmer refugees have come from a predominantly agrarian society, with extensive knowledge of how to live on the land. These practices may have been lost, suppressed, or unable to be exercised upon resettlement into the United States. The Khmer Youth Environmental Leadership project helps bridge invaluable intergenerational connections, connect youth to outdoor recreation and natural resources in the region, and further contribute to the preservation of Khmer culture and environmental knowledge. Khmer youth will learn from Khmer elders, a passing on of the community’s environmental and cultural values. Program activities include intergenerational camping weekends; learning the importance of cultural plants, herbs, vegetables, and growing practices; hands-on Native American, indigenous plants and cooking experiences; Youth Environmental Learning Cultural Exchanges; and intergenerational snowboard/ski trips.

ST

Soul Trak Outdoors

  • Washington, D.C.
  • Website: soultrak.com
  • Grant amount: $20,000

SoulTrak Outdoors aims to address the underrepresentation of people of color in the outdoor leadership field by providing college students of color with leadership opportunities and certifications in outdoor recreation. This gap in leadership access is particularly evident in the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area, where community members of color often lack the resources and mentorship needed to pursue careers in outdoor spaces. Soul Trak’s College Ambassador Cohort engages students in meaningful leadership roles, enabling them to mentor and guide youth of color through outdoor activities. Participants in this year-round program gain outdoor leadership experience, environmental education, and mentorship, while guiding more than 300 youth in the greater DMV area through activities such as hiking, paddling, climbing, and environmental education. The program not only builds leadership skills in the ambassadors but also increases access and commitment to nature and outdoor experiences for youth in the region. The ambassadors and the youth participants benefit from increased exposure to outdoor recreation, mentorship, and the development of skills that foster both personal and community growth. Ambassadors also are provided opportunities for certifications in outdoor skills, preparing them for future leadership roles in the sector. Through this initiative, Soul Trak Outdoors ensures more diverse leadership representation in outdoor spaces while encouraging youth to engage in nature and become future stewards of public lands.

NB3 Foundation

Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation

Indigenous lifeways and knowledge are alive and well among the tribes of the Southwest, yet Native youth are increasingly disconnected from direct outdoor experiences, particularly from the knowledge, stories and practices of their ancestral relatives. New Mexico-based Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation is changing the lives of Native youth through presentation of Native-driven, culturally-centered programs and through presentation of direct opportunities for Native youth to live healthy, active lives.

NRF’s funding supports the Foundation’s “The X” Program, which is designed to connect Native youth with their land and to reinforce their ancestral knowledge through hands-on, outdoor learning including nature exploration, camping, and youth leadership. “The X” Program staff collaborates with tribes and pueblos, local organizations, and with experts who hold knowledge and expertise of varying outdoor experiences such as camping, hiking, rafting, plant identification, and storytelling.

Openlands

Openlands

By understanding more about birds, including how they survive and contribute to the urban environment, students forge a critical connection with nature as it exists in their own communities. Birds in my Neighborhood (BIMN) is a volunteer-driven, environmental education program offered free-of-charge to schools in Northeastern Illinois. Managed by Openlands with assistance from the Chicago Audubon Society and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) at Volo Bog, the program introduces students in grades two through five to the common birds of the region through in-class lessons and field trips. It connects students to nature where they live, develops and empowers future stewards of the natural world, creates a culture of conservation within the communities, and strengthens the region’s ability to conserve land.

BIMN promotes children spending time outdoors as a safe way to socialize, exercise, support mental health, and to become more familiar with the natural world. Currently there are seven schools with in Lake and McHenry Counties in the BIMN network. Openlands is expanding the program to include as additional schools in communities like Round Lake, North Chicago, and Waukegan.

SHAPE Community Center

SHAPE Community Center

Across Texas, youth are facing their mortality on a daily basis, and the overwhelming stress they experience has a negative impact on their physical and emotional health. SHAPE Community Center helps provide youth with the motivation to help themselves, their families and community. The acronym S.H.A.P.E. stands for Self Help for African (All) People through Education. SHAPE’s Youth Enrichment Program provides activities that increase academic performance, provide alternatives to online activity, decrease risky behavior, provide cultural safety, promote family involvement, and form community partnerships. SHAPE also aims to increase the amount of time children spend in physical activity and outside, to help improve their overall physical and mental health. 

Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest

Research shows that outdoor learning profoundly impacts academic and developmental growth. Academic success is the lynchpin on which a child’s future success depends. To succeed academically and become financially self-sufficient as adults, however, children need a foundation of critical developmental milestones. Specifically, they must be able to engage in self-directed productivity; connect with others; and independently make good decisions and life-choices. St. Louis-based Sherwood Forest provides youth from under-resourced communities dynamic programs and immersive outdoor experiences that inspire and empower them to discover their resilience, prepare for their future, and embrace their civic responsibility.

Sherwood Forest’s Quest Program consists of monthly programming during the school year that culminates in a two-to-four week residential camp experience over the summer. The camp offers youth opportunities to choose areas of interest and build skills. All camp activities fall into one of five departments: Outdoor Living Skills; Library, Literacy, and STEM; Creative and Performing Arts; Aquatics; and Adventure Sports. Activities are aligned with the overall outcomes for each grade level. Each year, activities build on the lessons learned and skills developed the previous year. Children choose their activities daily and build skills at their own pace. Because the program begins after 1st grade and continues through 9th grade, participating youth grow up with Sherwood Forest and have their learning and development continuously reinforced.

We've Got Friends

Teens with special needs spend many hours in structured, therapeutic settings. Having organic, unstructured opportunities to develop friendship and connection via outdoor and indoor recreational activities is beneficial to the teens’ physical and emotional health. We’ve Got Friends (WGF) Social Network for Teens with Special Needs provides opportunities for teens to develop friendships and connections through mutual interests in a natural environment.

WGF’s Social Network's weekly groups are teen-led and the activity centers the teens can choose from are guided by their interests and input. Activity centers include personal care activities (e.g., painting fingernails, making lip balms), Lego brick stations, listening to music, making crafts, playing sports, performing music, watching movies, and interactive games. When able, these group activities are offered outside. Being engaged in outdoor recreational activities allows the teens to find the type of recreation that stimulates or relaxes them, based on what their sensory and neurological systems need. Knowing how to modulate their emotional state helps teens with special needs use their social and communication skills more effectively.

TYC

Tokata Youth Center

  • South Dakota
  • Website: d-w-m.org
  • Grant amount: $15,000

The Tokata Youth Center is located on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, with most residents residing in Buffalo County. This is one of the poorest counties in the United States. TYC is developing its outdoor space for its youth. Recently, TYC built a garden and a sports field. TYC is now in the process of constructing a kickball field, sand volleyball, gaga ball pit, drinking fountain, and concrete slab for picnic shelter and picnic tables. The picnic shelter and tables will provide students with a cool and shaded place to get a drink and rest between games. This sheltered space allows TYC to provide more outdoor activities during the hot summer months, where they would normally need to go inside to help keep the students cool.

 

nuestra tierra

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

Public lands and waters are often seen as a defining feature of our nation’s shared heritage and character. However, throughout history, racism, exclusion, oppression and injustices have traditionally shaped the operations and policies of land management agencies and created barriers to access and public participation. The Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project works at the local, state and national level to ensure that youth from traditionally overlooked populations have the opportunity to substantively and meaningfully engage in the policy process. NTCP led the charge for the creation of the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund during the 2019 New Mexico Legislative session to empower youth and create a state fund whose sole purpose is to eliminate barriers to access the outdoors for them. NRF funding supports NTCP’s continued work to ensure the true spirit of the Outdoor Equity Fund is realized and that the resources are distributed to the youth that are most overlooked in the state of New Mexico. NTCP will continue to tell and share the stories of fund receipents to showcase the successes of the program's first year.

 
La Semilla Food Center

La Semilla Food Center

La Semilla Food Center’s mission is to foster a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region, which includes Southern New Mexico, El Paso, TX, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Through its six community-centered and land-based programs, La Semilla Food Center builds relationships and creates empowering spaces for youth and families to grow and cook healthy food, create positive change, and foster connections among nature, health, foodways, and local economies.

La Semilla Food Center’s Food and Farm Apprenticeship Program provides youth apprentices training grounded in agroecology, experiential on-site outdoor learning, and leadership opportunities. It increases connection with natural sites and resources, as well as local growers and other experts, and it lays a foundation for a more sustainable food system. The program also expands a growing network of younger generations of local growers and food justice advocates that are more deeply connected and knowledgeable about the regional ecosystem. The apprentices assist with a diverse range of farm production and marketing activities, including produce sales and the development of value-added products. Apprentices also play a critical role as Crew Leaders for La Semilla Food Center’s Raíces 6-week program, which guides participants (ages 14-22) as they explore how food and methods of production are intrinsically tied to the health and wellbeing of a community and local economies. The youth examine their own histories and links to agriculture, learn “seed-to-table” skills, and develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills to address complex food injustices experienced in the food system.

Radical Monarchs

Radical Monarchs

California-based Radical Monarchs’ work is rooted in the belief that early adolescent girls of color need dedicated spaces that sharpen their socio-political critical thinking skill set in order to understand and address inequities that impact their lives. In general, 3rd-5th grade girls of color are often overlooked and deemed “too young” to engage in the civic engagement and the political decision-making process. The girls that Radical Monarchs serves (and their families) belong to many of the communities under attack, which include immigrants, formerly incarcerated residents, people with disabilities, low-income residents, and LGBTQ community members.

Radical Monarchs saw the need for self-determined solutions to the barriers girls of color overwhelmingly experience and knew the tactics used to slay these barriers must be rooted in girls being able to name and shape what they need to thrive in a world that rarely centers their brilliance, their voice, and their power. This need is addressed through its Radical Badge Curriculum. Learning about and engaging with nature is a foundational part of its programming, with a deep connection to nature through its Radical Badges like PachaMama Justice and Radical Healing. Indigenous healing and resilience practices are also foundational pieces of the Radical Monarch Movement, and it has been engaging with these practices since its inception. In addition to the organizing toolkit, Radical Monarchs also teaches the girls how to advocate for themselves and their communities.

Solar Youth

Solar Youth

Too often, youth have an abundance of unsupervised time, which may result in finding a sense of value and identity through negative behaviors, beginning at an early age. Solar Youth targets two of New Haven, Connecticut’s neighborhoods with high percentages of children living in poverty, where few resources promoting positive youth development exist, despite the tremendous need. Solar Youth is a consistent presence in its target neighborhoods. It has built trust as a provider of high-quality youth development programs that promote physical and emotional health. Families rely on Solar Youth to help build community, connect youth to the environment, and foster the social cohesion needed.

Solar Youth’s Steward Program serves children, ages 5-12, as well as teens interns who help lead program. By engaging in its programs, especially over time, youth gain important skills and developmental assets needed for overall physical and mental health, which help set them up for long-term success. More than 50% of Solar Youth programming takes place outdoors—a blend of recreation, physical activity, connection to nature and connection to community. In 2023, Solar Youth is increasing exploration and adventure trips that get youth out of their neighborhoods to enjoy new and exciting experiences.

Sicangu Community Development Corporation

Sicangu Community Development Corporation

Intergenerational trauma and colonization have led to some of the worst health outcomes in the United States for Lakota people. Per capita, Lakota people suffer from high rates of endemic, preventable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Disconnection from their Lakota identity has led to high rates of drug use, alcoholism, and suicide attempts, particularly among youth. The Sicangu Community Development Corporation’s Wotakuye Youth Camp addresses both the physical and spiritual health disparities the community faces. The camp provide fun, social, enriching and culturally empowering outdoor activities that promote wicozani (“the good way of life” and wotakuye (kinship) for Sicangu youth living on the Rosebud Reservation. Each of the day camps feature a variety of outdoor activities (such as tipi building, lacrosse, harvesting and utilizing wild foods and traditional crafts like leather working) that support physical activity, healthy eating and social-emotional health. The youth, ranging from 6 to 17 years of age, attend the camps to reconnect with nature, themselves, and their community.

West Point Association of Graduates

West Point Association of Graduates

After school programming for 3-8 grade students in the Highland Falls Intermediate School was identified as a need from within the community. Out-of-school learning opportunities are widely acknowledged for positively impacting students’ academic, mental, social, and emotional development. While the benefits of out-of-school learning are clear, access to such programming is a challenge. Led by the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG), CONNECT After School Program addresses this community need by offering free after school programming to more than half the student population, where 56% of students are economically disadvantaged and 5% are homeless. 

CONNECT’s Nature Program significantly enhances CONNECT’s curriculum by providing students with new and engaging outdoor educational experiences that increase students’ physical activity and outdoor time. CONNECT provides students with daily recreational and outdoor activities which often incorporate West Point’s Division I athletic teams and cadet clubs as well as other West Point resources. WPAOG is working to increase the number of outdoor educational offerings, because it recognizes the value and impact of such experiences on students’ social, mental, and emotional development. The Nature Program offers students a series of new, outdoor field trips that connect them to their local environment and increase opportunities for physical activity in partnership with the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum. Field trip topics include Maple Sugar Tours, Incredible Insects, World of Frogs, Forest Ecology Ramble, Hudson River Study, Paleontology, Habitats on the Hudson, Symbols of New York, Pond Ecology, and Hudson River Ecology. These field trips promote student learning through discovery and experimentation while contributing to students’ personal growth and development.

Watersmith Guild

The Watersmith Guild

Pennsylvania’s waterways provide a perfect canvas to engage youth in outdoor recreation and conservation. Lack of access, however, has limited BIPOC and underserved communities from benefitting from these resources. Moreover, watersheds in these communities have suffered disparate levels of pollution and the effects of climate change resulting in reduced quality of life for residents. Finally, these Environmental Justice areas are disproportionately impacted by childhood obesity, sedentary behavior, and the risk of drug and alcohol use. The Watersmith Guild’s origins are with the foundation of First Waves, a first-of-its-kind program that combined standup paddleboarding, river surfing, and the art of filmmaking as a catalyst to inspire conservation of local waterways and mentorship for these youth. In 2014, the inaugural project included transformative elements of outdoor adventure, environmental education, and conservation actions that fostered love and appreciation for the outdoors and improved the lives of students in areas with limited opportunities and access. Youth participants learned to become proficient paddlers, spearheaded river cleanups, and created documentary films to inspire others. Through paddleboarding and outdoor recreation, First Waves provides a blueprint for low-impact and widely available forms of exercise that can be practiced over a lifetime and inspires love and appreciation for the outdoors. Furthermore, the programs empower youth with education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.

SailMaine

SailMaine

SailMaine will address the lack of access to outdoor recreation for youth in the greater Portland area. The primary goal of SailMaine’s City Sailors Program is to use sailing as a tool to build confidence, leadership skills, and a connection to nature. The organization also aims to provide kids from different socio-economic backgrounds a space to interact, play, and learn from each other.

NRF’s funding helps the City Sailors Program cover the cost of instructors, transportation, gear, food, and mentorship to families and kids that might not be familiar with sailing. City Sailors will have access to sailboats, instructors, the SailMaine facility, transportation to and from the program, food during the program, sailing gear, and potential access to additional programming through scholarships. The participants will also benefit because they will learn a new skill, challenge themselves, meet new people, and interact with the ocean in a unique way.

Laru Beya Collective

Laru Beya Collective

The Laru Beya Collective is a grassroots organization committed to addressing racial disparities in drownings, particularly among Black children, ages 5-19, who are 5.5 times more likely to drown than their white peers (CDC, 2014). It is dedicated to empowering the historically excluded youth of Far Rockaway and New York City. The two main vehicles Laru Beya has built to drive change are its Water Safety Coalition and its healing justice work through surf therapy. Laru Beya provides body-positive, diversity-embracing spaces for surf therapy and innovative wellness programming. Its weekly offerings include surf therapy, rock climbing, beach cleanups, art projects, mentorship, and mindfulness sessions, for girls, boys, and gender-expansive youth. These activities are alternatives to passive entertainment and foster psychologically adaptive habits and skills essential for long-term mental well-being. Laru Beya uses surfing and its natural connection to the ocean as a community space for people to come together and build its base of support for the Water Safety Campaign. It provide transportation, food, equipment, instruction, extracurricular mentorship, and a pathway to sustained community engagement.

SailMaine

SailMaine

SailMaine addresses the lack of access to outdoor recreation for youth in the greater Portland area. The primary goal of SailMaine’s City Sailors Program is to use sailing as a tool to build confidence, leadership skills, and a connection to nature. The organization also aims to provide kids from different socio-economic backgrounds a space to interact, play, and learn from each other.

SailMaine’s City Sailors Program covers the cost of instructors, transportation, gear, food, and mentorship to families and kids that might not be familiar with sailing. City Sailors have access to sailboats, instructors, the SailMaine facility, transportation to and from the program, food during the program, sailing gear, and potential access to additional programming through scholarships. The participants also benefit because they learn a new skill, challenge themselves, meet new people, and interact with the ocean in a unique way.

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones' mission is to increase independence, improve lives and promote inclusion for children and adults with disabilities. Its Summer Day Camp serves young people (ages 5-22) with intellectual and developmental disabilities from around the Greater Cincinnati area at its Given Road location in Hamilton County. Disabilities include autism/sensory needs, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, seizure disorders, and others. This 5-day a week accessible summer camp strives to make a host of recreational activities accessible to its campers, understanding that everyone deserves to experience hobbies, explore nature, and find community connection with friends regardless of normative ability.

Urban Adventure Squad

The demand for free and low-cost outdoor programming is high in Washington, D.C., particularly as schools and communities deal with a youth mental health crisis, the effects of trauma on students, and the long-term effects of virtual learning on academic achievement. Urban Adventure Squad supports schools and school communities in every D.C. ward with equitable outdoor education programs. At C.W. Harris Elementary School, Urban Adventure Squad works to develop, build, and sustain an outdoor learning culture that supports students (grades 1-5) and teachers by leveraging the school's existing resources (garden, greenspaces, and bioretention areas) to dramatically increase the school population's outdoor time; support teachers in aligning outdoor time to classroom lessons; and engage the broader community in supporting outdoor learning. Hands-on activities take place during recess, as part of classes, after school, and through school-wide community events. The project purposefully blurs the lines the public education system has created which messages to students, educators, and families that indoors is for learning and outdoors is for play. C.W. Harris is a demonstration model for building an outdoor learning culture that connects students to nature and the neighborhood in a historically under resourced, urban public school district.

Wilderness Inquiry

Wilderness Inquiry

Outdoor education and recreation are more important than ever in supporting academic, physical, mental, and social-emotional learning outcomes. However, access to outdoor spaces and activities is not equitably available. Many individuals, including those who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, having a disability, or experiencing financial inequity face barriers to equitably participating in the outdoors. Wilderness Inquiry’s mission is to connect people of all ages, backgrounds, identities, and abilities through shared outdoor adventures so that all people can equitably experience the benefits of time spent in nature. Through its core values of paddling together, finding a way, seeking the exceptional, and nurturing inclusion, Wilderness Inquiry promotes the outdoors as a place where everyone belongs.

Wilderness Inquiry’s Canoemobile program breaks down barriers to the outdoors by introducing youth and families from underserved and underrepresented communities across the United States to education and recreation on their local waterways and public lands. Canoemobile offers opportunities to canoe and participate in experiential land-based activities that build outdoor skills, increase confidence, and promote connections to community and nature. Wilderness Inquiry supplies gear and equipment, adaptive supports, and highly trained outdoor leaders. 

WellFit Girls

Wellfit Girls

The need for empowering programs for middle school girls has never been more critical. During this formative adolescence period, girls grapple with issues related to self-esteem, identity formation, and social dynamics, which can significantly impact their academic performance, mental health, and overall well-being. Research indicates that girls face barriers to leadership and self-empowerment, including societal expectations, gender stereotypes, and limited access to supportive resources and role models. Wellfit Girls’ mission is to inspire, challenge and empower teen girls to climb high in all areas of life through transformational leadership programs. Its Wellfit Adventure Camp (WAC) program aims to address the pressing societal issue of adolescent mental health and well-being by providing a supportive and inclusive environment where girls explore their potential, build essential life skills, and develop a strong sense of self-confidence and resilience through experiential learning, mentorship, and outdoor exploration. WAC benefits individuals and contributes to broader societal goals of promoting gender equity, fostering diversity, and cultivating the next generation of change makers. By engaging in outdoor adventures, team-building activities, and meaningful discussions, participants benefit from enhanced self-esteem, improved emotional regulation, and strengthened social connections. Ultimately, the goal is to equip young girls with the tools and skills they need to navigate adolescence with resilience and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

Soul River

Soul River, Inc

Soul River Inc. connects Portland, Ore., inner-city youth and veteran mentors to public lands, wild rivers and beyond. Soul River believes that access to green spaces is of the utmost importance to all people and through its work, the organization breaks down the geographic, financial, and social barriers to the outdoors. SRI’s Environmental Deployment Program is cost-free to veterans and youth.

NRF funding support SRI’s Environmental Deployment Program, which identifies environmental issues centered around threatened wildlife and rivers, that are then built into a field curriculum that is balanced with outdoor leadership skills training, fly fishing, science, congressional presentations, Indigenous relations, and advocacy. United States veterans teach urban youth in fragile natural spaces, guiding them toward leadership roles and career paths as tomorrow’s future leaders. In turn, the youth give purpose to the veterans. SRI youth and veterans form relationships evolving into a support system of a tribe where both take on paths greater than themselves in life. SRI’s classrooms are amphibious-based on some of the world’s wildest and most awe-inspiring locations, ranging from places as close to home as the Willamette River in Oregon and as far as the Arctic and Florida Everglades.

Latinos Progresando

Latinos Progresando

Latinos Progresando (LP) is hyper-focused on the east side of Chicago’s South Lawndale community, historically known as Marshall Square and home to predominantly Mexican families. Its Marshall Square Monarch Project is centered on the monarch butterfly, a meaningful symbol for migration and immigration in Mexican culture. The project strengthens connection to the outdoors, promotes mental health, provides out-of-school enrichment opportunities, and increases social connection, while protecting and preserving an endangered species.

Through LP’s train-the-trainer style social and emotional learning (SEL) programming, parents in four neighborhood elementary schools learn skills to manage stress and communicate emotions, heal from trauma, nurture healthy relationships and home environments, and support the development of those skills in their children. LP is launching the next phase of programming, which includes expansion of the curriculum to incorporate gardening with native plants that support the monarch population, horticultural therapy, and career pathways. This programming is supported through LP’s annual summer camp and includes nature-based learning, conservation activities, and SEL, arts, sports, and STEM programs. The monarch-focused curriculum is incorporated into the summer camp. Youth also join parents and siblings in nature-based activities on school campuses, around the neighborhood, in home gardens, as well as in forest preserves, prairie areas and botanical gardens.

Saved By Nature

Saved by Nature

Saved by Nature takes youth from marginalized communities hiking and camping and creates partnerships with Youth Alliance, Santa Clara County Parks, California State Parks, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority and REI to make an impact. The organization hopes to address the social barriers to nature that underrepresented communities face such as language, transportation, lack of knowledge of local parks, financial constraints to purchase footwear, backpacks, and tents as well as low confidence being in the outdoors.

Saved by Nature calls Spanish speaking parents individually to ensure participation, and provides transportation and access to its Saved By Nature REI Gear Library, all at no cost. This library has all the camping gear necessary, so kids have a positive, engaging, first-time, life changing hike and camp outing. Saved by Nature’s Alive Outside Adventure Series involves taking Hispanic at-promise-youth, ages 14-18, on an orientation hike among the redwoods at Mt. Madonna County Park, a preparation hike at Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve, and a one-night backpacking adventure at Henry Coe State Park. These youth experience rare, free access to professional guided hikes and backpacking trip and outdoor leadership through hands-on activities. They foster an understanding of nature as a vehicle to healing and a guide to manage stress and anxiety.

Urban Word

Urban Word

Urban World champions, centers, and elevates young, marginalized voices as leaders at the intersection of the arts and civic engagement. Through the transformative power of the written and spoken word, Urban Word provides young, creative voices, the tools, training, and platforms to rewrite the narratives that shape their lives and their communities.

Urban Word’s new Movement of Body & Pen workshop series combines creative writing and mindfulness practices to provide the tools for self-expression and wellness for youth. This workshop series seeks to support young people with finding healthy ways to heal their mind, body, and soul through creative writing expression, yoga, movement, meditative practices, and nature walks to provide tools to support their mental wellness. Movement of Body & Pen hosts a series of workshops throughout the year, leading up to a 4-Week Summer Session. Each workshop addresses a different theme and opens with a wellness activity (yoga, meditation, etc.) with a creative writing activity to have the participants generate thoughts that arise from the theme of class. By the end of the program, participants will have a basic understanding of how to continue a wellness practice using what they learned as tools for self-awareness, healing, and stress-management.

WNPA

Western National Parks Association / Parks in Focus

  • Website: wnpa.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

All youth should have access and opportunities to visit, explore, and learn in nature and in our nation’s public lands. Despite boasting a vibrant public lands scene, recreational sites and opportunities in and around Tucson, Arizona, have not always been accessible or welcoming to everyone. Parks in Focus® (PIF) believes that all youth should have access and opportunities to visit, explore, and learn in nature and in our nation’s public lands. Since 1999, PIF has been partnering with schools and youth organizations to put cameras in the hands of Tucson youth and provide them with educational and recreational experiences in nearby public land sites. Photography serves as a relevant and engaging tool for youth to observe, document, and learn about the natural and cultural resources of the sites they visit and explore. It also provides a powerful outlet for youth to express their creativity, connect with each other, and to share stories about their recreational experiences.

In recent years, Parks in Focus® has provided approximately 400 hours of on-the-ground programming each year, reaching about 400 Tucson youth. There are, however, more schools and youth serving organizations interested in partnering with PIF than can be accommodated. NRF funding allows PIF to expand and serve new youth-serving partners, providing an additional hours of programming and reaching more Tucson youth.

Wilderness Youth Project

Wilderness Youth Project

  • Website: wyp.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Despite the perception that Santa Barbara is an enclave for the wealthy, it currently ranks third among California's 58 counties in its poverty rate, with 23 percent of residents falling below the poverty threshold, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. That’s why Wilderness Youth Project is offering its Bridge to Nature programs at no cost in partnership with the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

Wilderness Youth Project's school-day programs at Adams Elementary School connects students with access to nature and mentorship. It guides youth through self-directed exploration, games, awareness practices, naturalist skills, inquiry-based learning, and storytelling to ensure that participating students–many of whom have never even visited the beach before–have a positive and meaningful experience.

WAWA

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance

The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) is dedicated to growing a cleaner, greener, healthier, and more sustainable West Atlanta. Its mission is to improve the quality of life within the West Atlanta Watershed by protecting, preserving, and restoring the community’s natural resources. By providing a continuum of opportunities throughout the year, WAWA address the lack of outdoor-based learning programs for youth and families from African/Black, Latinx, and low-income communities. WAWA’s increases exposure to environmental-based learning activities that are also fun and accessible through four priority areas: 1) building camping skills and experiences for community members, 2) diversifying leadership in the kayaking community, 3) building systems for youth to Thrive Outside, and 4) fortifying its annual programs. In partnership with Atlanta Public Schools, the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Trust for Public Land, WAWA has also developed systemic priorities to increase access to the outdoors. During programming, WAWA youth and families gain knowledge about Leave No Trace Ethics, identification of local flora and fauna, tracking, and observation of local environmental conditions and impacts, team building, conflict resolution, and positive social interaction. 

Street2feet 2020

Street2Feet

In Bexar County, Texas, 108,000 children live below the poverty line. These youth can experience a higher rate of health problems and chronic conditions. Street2Feet responds by removing barriers to wellness and self-sufficiency through programming that delivers self-sustaining access to exercise and fitness education in outdoor spaces to build community and empower more than 340 participants annually to develop a healthy life, regardless of income, zip code, or socioeconomic status.

S2F’s 5K training model provides accessible tools and experiences. Science supports the premise that exercise serves as medicine for a multitude of health issues, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, and addiction. NRF funding supports S2F’s new program in partnership with SA Youth, a local non-profit that provides youth development programs centered on academic achievement, character development, and healthy lifestyles. Through this partnership, S2F will bring its core 5K walk/run training program, increased outdoor activity, exposure to parks and green space, and community integration and service that fosters healthy habits to the SA Youth Out-of-School Time Program.

WAMoA

Walter Anderson Museum of Art

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, is just blocks away from the Mississippi Sound. It is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of artist-philosopher Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), whose paintings, drawings, murals, block prints, sculptures, and writings of coastal plants, animals, landscapes, and people have placed him among the most compelling and singular artists of the 20th century. The Museum is guided by Anderson's belief that "in order to realize the beauty of humanity, we must realize our relation to nature."

The Museum’s Waveland Public Art Enterprise leverages artmaking and the environment to meet the need for increased outdoor education and recreation in public schools, as well as to address the challenges of brain drain and STEM workforce development. Participants explore and investigate surrounding environments to source inspiration for a culminating sculpture. Over the course of the 12-month program, students from nearby Bay High School work with professional artists to design, fabricate, and install a large-scale steel sculpture in Waveland on the same site designated as ground zero for Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 landfall. Students will find inspiration through excursions into coastal environments, conduct community-engaged design work to solicit public input, collaborate with professional artists to engineer the steel structure, and hone skills of welding and fabrication to bring the artwork to life. The sculpture’s location, selected in partnership with the City of Waveland, will serve as an anchor for the expansion of public green space and park amenities, a landmark to direct visitors to the city’s recreational infrastructure, and a vehicle for STEM skill acquisition and student discovery that supports homegrown workforce development and overall student health in Coastal Mississippi.

LOOP NOLA

LOOP NOLA

LOOP NOLA is focused on making the outdoors more equitably accessible for youth so that everyone can experience the physical and mental health benefits of outdoor recreation along with the joy and awe generated in natural spaces. By providing equitable access to the mental and health benefits of the outdoors, the overall well-being of youth increases, no matter socioeconomic background. This positively impacts youth’s ability to be engaged at school, work, and in their community. LOOP NOLA’s Partner Programs offers age-appropriate school day programming in local parks. Most first-time participants have little experience with structured outdoor recreation activities and have little understanding of the ecology of southeast Louisiana. The activities offered include canoeing, low and high ropes, and environmental education experiences. 

SHAPE Community Center

SHAPE Community Center

Children in Houston’s Third Ward are in continual need of positive activities during their out-of-school time.  SHAPE (Self Help for African (All) People through Education) Community Center helps provide youth with a safe space and motivation to help themselves, their families and community. Its Youth Enrichment Program serves youth ages 5-15 and provides activities that help increase academic performance, provide alternatives to online activity, decrease risky behavior, provide cultural safety, promote family involvement, and form community partnerships. SHAPE's curriculum includes meditation, Spanish, Swahili, photography, physical relays, storytelling, African dance, gardening, life-skills, field trips and more. The children benefit from increased self-esteem, connecting to nature, and decreased learning loss during their breaks.

By connecting with mentors from its Elders’ Institute of Wisdom and local community and business leaders, the children are embraced by a well-formed Circle of Interdependence where they develop life skills, tools, and connections that help them overcome many of the challenges of their “at-risk” environments. Many of its former students still live and work within the community and provide mentoring for the youth program.

Wild Diversity

Wild Diversity

Happy childhood memories in the outdoors must be experienced by a wider and more diverse population. Creating a sense of belonging in the outdoors for youth of color is the first step to creating comfort in outdoor activities and to building up future stewards. Portland, Oregon-based Wild Diversity provides youth of color (particularly those whose families identify as low-income) safe and equitable access to nature through educational outdoor activities and adventures. It offers a variety of programs that help youth find their love language in the outdoors and build their knowledge, skills, and confidence by exploring and experiencing the healing nature can provide.

NRF funding supports Wild Diversity’s efforts to evolve and expand its suite of youth programming, including increasing the number of days a week Summer Camp is offered and the number of youth served; actively partnering with other youth of color serving organizations; developing multigenerational youth and family workshops; and engaging youth in the use of videos and multi-media to share stories and experiences in the outdoors.

WEWS

Wild Earth Wilderness School

At the intersection of nature connection and mentoring, Wild Earth strives to help New York’s Ulster County youth understand that nature is not a concept separate and distant, but instead part of their everyday world. Through this understanding, Wild Earth instills a sense of awe and nurtures a sense of belonging to and stewardship for communities small and large. Since 2015, Wild Earth has held its Nature Connection & Experiential Education (NCEE) project in partnership with the Kingston City School District (KCSD). Led by Wild Earth’s culturally diverse staff, the NCEE project strives to meet young people where they are developmentally, building relationships through long-term mentoring and nurturing social-emotional growth through connection to the natural world and its rhythms. Over the past eight years, this partnership has grown to support K-12 students in five district schools, providing guided recess activities, afterschool programming, immersive field trips for incoming middle schoolers, and a paid eight-month internship for high school students. Based on the success of its work in KCSD, Wild Earth is expanding to serve youth in Ellenville Central School District's elementary and middle schools through access to inspiring mentors leading experiential activities in the natural world, and fostering deeper exploration, inquisitiveness, self-empowerment, and connection to community.

TheGifted Arts

TheGifted Arts, Inc.

Research shows that after-school programs have numerous benefits, including offering a safe environment for children, reduced juvenile activity and an increase in potential economic mobility for youth. It also shows that low-income students highly engaged in the arts are two times as likely to graduate from college as their peers with no arts education. TheGifted Arts uses the performing arts (such as dance, music, drama, and fashion) to help youth strengthen their character, confidence, and leadership skills. The organization’s students primarily reside and/or attend school in Garner and Southeast Raleigh, NC.

TheGifted Arts had to pivot to focus on its existing GiftedAcademy program to respond to and support its communities during the pandemic. NRF funding is supporting GA's tranisition to programming that uses small in-person and virtual opportunities to provide physical activity (like performing arts and fitness sessions); alleviate stress and meter mental health; nurture relationships to support an academic year that is relying heavily on virtual accommodations; and to continue cultivating skills, character and confidence that will help its artists in all areas of their lives and future endeavors.

Mountain Dreamers

Mountain Dreamers

Mountain Dreamers' (MD) Oso Snowboard program focuses on serving BIPOC and immigrant youth in rural Summit County, CO, addressing the accessibility of snowsports like skiing and snowboarding. Despite a BIPOC student population of 44% in the Summit School District, only 5.6% of skier visits are from Latino individuals, reflecting broader trends in the U.S. where BIPOC communities represent only 12.9% of ski visits. This is especially disturbing since Summit County is home to four world class ski resorts. Skiing and snowboarding are vital for social life in the area, but increasing participation means dismantling the social, cultural, and financial barriers that BIPOC youth face. Oso nurtures youth outdoor leaders, advocates for policy changes, and designs sustainable programs. Its goal is to integrate local youth and families into outdoor environments like Colorado mountain ski resorts, ensuring sustained access beyond program durations by breaking down the cultural, financial and gear barriers. At no cost, Oso provides a series of beginner group lessons to local young people (18-24) and adults who have never been able to access this opportunity. This initiative equips the youth with tangible skills, bolstering confidence and leadership abilities and resulting in positive ripple effects on their families and social environments.

Solar Youth

Solar Youth

Solar Youth targets two New Haven, Connecticut neighborhoods, with high percentages of children living in poverty, where few resources promoting positive youth development exist despite the tremendous need. These urban youth face enormous daily challenges such as high family unemployment, substance abuse, crime, and violence. Parents/guardians, while loving, may lack the skills and/or time and energy (e.g., single mothers who work multiple jobs) to provide the support and attention their children need. Too often, youth have an abundance of unsupervised time and find a sense of value and identity through negative behaviors, beginning at an early age. Solar Youth addresses these issues by being a consistent presence in its target neighborhoods. It has built trust as a provider of high-quality youth development programs that promote physical and emotional health. Families rely on Solar Youth to help build community, connect youth to the environment, and foster the social cohesion they need.

Solar Youth’s “Cycle of Stewardship" is designed to help youth ages 5-18+ connect to their environment, community, and each other in a variety of ways. By engaging in the programs, especially over time, youth gain important skills and developmental assets needed for overall physical and mental health, which helps set them up for long-term success. Spending time outdoors—enjoying open spaces, learning in “nature’s classroom,” and stewarding the environment—has always been a significant aspect of the Solar Youth experience.

We've Got Friends

We’ve Got Friends

Due to the social challenges teens with special needs experience, they frequently have feelings of disconnection and isolation, which impacts their social and emotional health. Montclair, New Jersey-based We’ve Got Friends’ (WGF) Social Network for Teens with Special Needs provides social groups where teens with special needs can connect with peers in their local community, developing their social and communication skills. Mastering these skills is key to increased self-confidence and community engagement. The next step in achieving these goals is to generalize these skills to a broader peer group. Providing developmentally appropriate recreation activities with peers on a regional level will allow the teens to generalize their skills, develop additional friendship connections beyond their local social group, as well as expand their knowledge of recreational activities available to them.

Wildseed Gear Library

Wildseed Gear Library

A fiscally sponsored project of The Fly Girl Network

Through its Natural Families Learning Community, Wildseed Gear Library works to encourage and increase the ability of all families (especially urban families of color) to go camping and hiking together and to develop a closer relationship away from the distractions of city life in Baltimore. The pilot program supports a cohort of families who encourage each other by creating opportunities for their children to learn and explore natural settings. The organization’s gear library removes the barriers associated with acquiring camping and hiking gear and creates a safe space for families to try on and ask questions about the equipment that they are borrowing. Wildseed Gear Library helps reframe cultural norms about relationships to nature, exercise, and family recreation, in hopes that many families begin to see themselves reflected in both the history and the future of these landscapes. 

Youth Enrichment Services

  • Massachusetts
  • Website: yeskids.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Youth of color and lower income families do not have equal access to nature and the same opportunity for impactful experiences in the outdoors as other children. These youth miss out on the physical, emotional, and psychological benefits that come from being active in the outdoors. With a mission to inspire young people through outdoor experiences and leadership opportunities that build confidence and prepare them to summit life’s challenges, many Boston families rely on Youth Enrichment Services (YES) to provide low-cost and free outdoor programs to their children and teens that offer year-round outdoor youth development and physical activity programs. YES closes the nature gap for these youth, with a priority focus on engaging youth, ages 7-18, from the high-need neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan, in outdoor- and sports-based positive youth development programming. Without YES, youth would not have the opportunities and access to nature. With YES, youth engage in a wide range of sports-based programming in the outdoors, from paddle sports to skiing, rock climbing, snowboarding, and more. All YES programs are no/low fee, with fees waived for youth from the lowest income families. In addition to increasing their physical activity and skills, YES helps youth set the foundation for active and healthy lifestyles. Youth also develop life skills, including the confidence to face a challenge, form relationships with supportive adults and peers, and develop a positive connection to the outdoors.

West End Neighborhood Association

West End Neighborhood Association

  • Grant amount: $24,242

The West End Neighborhood Association aims to address the ongoing battle against childhood obesity for youth in its Jonesboro, Ark., community by offering neighbors the exposure to physical activity which educates them and addresses their well-being. Arkansas has the ninth highest rate of youth obesity in the United States, with nearly 34% of 10-17 year-olds considered obese. The state also has the most obese high school students in the country, with nearly 22% considered obese. Exercise can break down barriers, increase empathy, and give youth the building blocks for important life and social skills.

With NRF support, the West End Neighborhood Association is enhancing the park, which is centrally located in the neighborhood, by providing an exercise program geared towards the families and youth living there. This will be accomplished by providing four stations of exercise equipment, an educational youth fitness camp program during the summer, ongoing family weekend programs on the walking trail, and yoga classes under the pavilion.

Movement Education Outdoors

Movement Education Outdoors

A fiscally sponsored project of New Urban Arts

Though Rhode Island is called the “Ocean State,” redlining, gentrification, and environmental racism exclude communities of color from waterways suitable for fishing, swimming, and recreation. In these communities, waterways often are seen as hazards rather than safe recreational resources. Movement Education Outdoors inspires youth to connect to the land they live on and the communities they live in. Its MOBILE Fellowship program empowers BIPOC high school students as environmental justice changemakers through shared reclamation of ancestral knowledge and practices. The fellows experience Rhode Island’s coast by land and water and explore the intersections between marine science, Black and Indigenous history, and food and environmental justice in their communities. The fellows participate in hands-on projects to monitor water quality and to promote oyster restoration. After the completion of their projects, the fellows develop materials to educate others about these practices and share what they’ve learned in a culminating intergenerational hike and oyster cookout.

Soul River

Soul River, Inc

Soul River Inc. interrupts the separation between historically disenfranchised communities (BIPOC, LGBTQ and marginalized communities) in the outdoors by connecting Portland, Oregon, inner-city youth and veteran mentors to public lands, wild rivers, and beyond. SRI’s Environmental Deployment Program is cost-free to veterans and youth, which allows the organization to address the financial barriers that exist for many outdoor activities. SRI believes that access to green spaces is of the utmost importance to all people and through its work, the organization breaks down the geographic, financial, and social barriers to the outdoors.

SRI’s Environmental Deployment Program, identifies environmental issues centered around wildlife and rivers. Then the organization creates a curriculum where U.S veterans teach urban youth in natural spaces. Living and learning by our rivers in untouched places will teach students responsibility, bring healing to veterans, and give them a purpose through mentorship. The goal is to learn, uplift and strengthen communities by connecting youth and veterans to the outdoors, harnessing incredible opportunities and powerful experiences that forge strong connections between them, their communities, and the natural world. Veterans serve urban youth and become life coaches, and in turn the youth give purpose to the veterans. SRI expects offers environmental deployments five to six times per season.

Wilderness Youth Project

Wilderness Youth Project

  • Website: wyp.org
  • Grant amount: $30,000

Many kids face barriers to accessing the outdoors and, on average, youth only spend seven minutes a day outdoors. According to the THRIVE initiative, “two of three children enter school in Santa Barbara County with one or more risk factors that may impact lifelong achievement.” Wilderness Youth Project (WYP) addresses these issues and works to grow smarter, healthier, happier community members by connecting youth from all backgrounds to nature. Its nature connection and mentoring programs run throughout the school year and summer to ensure that youth find improved quality of life, health, and social well-being through meaningful experiences outdoors.

Yellow Bird Life Ways

Nearly 60% of the Northern Cheyenne population in Montana is under the age of 18. Poverty, compounded with historical trauma, lack of access to resources like healthcare, and severance from culture, language, identity, and spirituality, causes a myriad of problems. Northern Cheyenne Nations faces disproportionately high rates of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, school dropouts, sexual assaults and domestic violence. Yellow Bird Life Ways addresses these generational impacts by reconnecting its community of 6,000 to Indigenous Life Ways (language, culture, ceremony, holistic living and wellness, and spiritual family) and by empowering them to take collective action.

NRF funding supports Yellow Bird Life Ways’ Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run. Each year, youth run 400 miles from Crawford, Nebraska to their homelands in Busby, Montana, marking the journey their ancestors made 143 years ago. The run is about reconnecting the youth to the strength and resilience of their ancestors and remembering their history so they can connect to self. Over five days, the participants learn the importance of running as a pathway to connecting to breath and, through breath, connecting to ancestors. The physical act of running is wellness in itself, but to also carry story and prayer opens their hearts to long-term spiritual wellness. This program creates multi-dimensional change, resonating from the spirit outward to the physical body, external relationships, and the greater community.

Yellow Bird Life Ways

Yellow Bird Life Ways

Yellow Bird Life Ways works at the intersections of intergenerational trauma and healing through cultural reconnection and preservation. Its work revolves around the circular connection between youth and elders, transmitting knowledge of land, language, culture, and identity to the next generation. Yellow Bird Life Way’s programming, addresses historical and present-day trauma through reconnecting youth with Spirit and way of life. Yellow Bird Life Way’s summer Journey to the Center and its winter Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run are the primary impact areas. These trips span between 5-8 days and are immersive experiences. During Journey to the Center, youth spend almost 100% of their time in nature—hiking, swimming, and being in ceremony. They learn skills in camping such as leaving no trace, setting up and taking down a campsite and Tipi, and how to be a good relative to the plants, animals, and other beings on the land. The Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run begins on a sacred site in Bear Butte in Sturgis, South Dakota. The youth run 400 miles and are challenged emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Running in the coldest time of winter gives them a strong connection to the land. They are taught Cheyenne teachings, traditions, songs, language, and ceremony every step of the way. Elders and spiritual leaders accompany the youth. Through this intergenerational connection, the circle completes itself, and holistic community wellness and deep spiritual connection emerge.

New Treks

New Treks

Research demonstrates that access to nature and outdoor learning is linked to positive impacts on physical and mental health. This includes reducing stress and anxiety, while increasing creativity, self-sufficiency, and resiliency. One of the ways that Denver-based New Treks increases access to the outdoors for youth is through hosting an outdoor elective course at Title 1 schools. The students earn course credits as they learn about and participate in hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, and paddling programs. Programming enables the youth to build a positive relationship with the outdoors and have opportunities to regularly experience the outdoors and nature.

New Treks is growing rapidly and annually increasing the numbers of schools at which it offers the outdoor elective course. Over the summer, New Treks also works with youth service organizations and transitional housing facilities to provide outdoor experiences for additional youth. Outdoor education goes hand-in-hand with developing the social-emotional skills needed to communicate better, manage emotions, and work with others. These skills are reinforced when students work together to try new outdoor activities outside of their comfort zone.

YouthSeen

Youth Seen works to foster and empower the social and emotional well-being of LGBTQ+ youth of color and their families. Its CampSeen summer camp was developed to address the current voids within the community around Black and Brown queer spaces. Its CampSeen’s programming offers creative and artistic spaces, outdoor connection, and wellness. Nestled in the foothills in the Rocky Mountains, for seven days, LGBTQ+ youth (ages 10-18) experience a safe, supportive environment filled with opportunities to connect with and learn from current activists and elders in the community. Participants also learn about the importance of conservation and their impact on the outdoors. The knowledge and experience garnered by these youth build support for natural resource protection, stewardship, and conservation upon which outdoor recreation depends. Youth Seen maintains contact with campers and their families throughout the year, which provides youth opportunities for continued connection with supportive LGBTQ+ adults and opportunities to develop their mentorship skills by learning about transformative healing and community accountability

Together We Rise

Together We Rise

Wake County, North Carolina, currently has 500 foster youth. Within this foster youth population, Black children are consistently overrepresented, making up 23% of the total population, but hold an estimated 44% of the spaces in foster care; 100% of youth have experienced childhood trauma or abuse; 100% are economically-disadvantaged; 25% show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder; and 2/3 lack access to transportation. Foster youth are significantly more likely to have barriers to the outdoors, less likely to own personal items, and lack adequate transportation. A bicycle will provide a safe way to play outdoors, pride in ownership, and a reliable way to go to and from school or work.

Together We Rise’s Bike Build addresses the lack of physically active recreation and transportation opportunities for youth in the foster care system by providing access and ownership of bicycles. Bicycle ownership for foster youth will also provide a platform for healthy emotional, physical, and social development. With access to regular recreation, foster youth become more active and gain life skills, contributing to an overall healthier community. This program also improves community awareness of the foster care system, recreational barriers, and impacts on local youth. Together We Rise works with existing partners to source bicycle materials, assemble through a team-building event, and distribute bicycles directly to local agencies.

YMGAGD

YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit

Only 13% of youth in Southeast Michigan are active for one hour a day, and barely half of all children participate in sports even once a year. The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit is working to change those statistics and remove barriers youth face to access sports and free play in various low and non-resourced communities in Detroit, Wayne County, and pockets of under-resourced communities in Macomb and Oakland county. NRF funding supports expansion of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit’s SportPort program. As part of the national Project Play Agenda, SportPort was developed in partnership with the Community Foundation, The Ralph C Wilson Jr. Foundation, and a host of local community partners across southeast Michigan as a component of Project Play Southeast Michigan. The YMCA operates as the mobile partner of Project Play Southeast Michigan-SportPort. The mobile program provides a 90-120 minute experience for youth 5-13 years of age that allows them to play different sports with the proper equipment and guidance in their own communities, while encouraging free play and exploration with sports. These opportunities are further extended through partnerships with stationary partners (community organizations) that lend out equipment at no cost for youth/families to continue their education/experience and for the pure fun of playing a sport. During the Y sessions, which are provided in an array of locations that include green spaces, libraries, schools, churches, and community organizations, youth are provided hydration stations and healthy snacks to keep them energized. The program is year-round and averages 1-3 times per week at each location.

YMCAGS

YMCA BOLD & GOLD

Youth in the United States are experiencing unprecedented upheaval and anxiety. Instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the myriad of existential crises youth face, including climate change, digitization of everyday life, lack of physical exercise, and societal inequities. Now more than ever, these young people need experiences that offer ways to build resilience, develop tools to deal with anxiety, release stress, and learn to trust others. YMCA of Greater Seattle is the home base for the BOLD & GOLD National Team. The BOLD & GOLD program offers young people a place of respite and a connection to nature—where they can build resilience and positive identity in a wilderness setting. Systemic racism, fear of the unknown, and limited access to the outdoors often prevent youth from BIPOC communities from reaping the proven physical and mental health benefits of nature. BOLD & GOLD provides that access to young people while offering mental wellness tools, exposure to new activities, and an opportunity to thrive. BOLD & GOLD’s wilderness-based program provides the space and support for participants to develop their individual leadership style, increase self-confidence, and build a strong community across a wide variety of differences.

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

When a child catches their first trout, sees an eagle take flight, or explores a backcountry trail, they light up, they learn something new, they connect. But it's not always easy to get outside. Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project (NTCP) was created with the sole purpose of connecting New Mexico youth to the places they might not otherwise see—public lands, urban green spaces, mountains, deserts, and rivers. Nature Niños (NN) is an entry point to the outdoors for communities who experience "nature nerves"  from a lack of exposure. NTCP and NN partnered to create Nuestro Futuro, a program that advances equity, access, and representation in the outdoors for all New Mexico youth through empowerment and engagement in outdoor recreation and education. Nuestro Futuro is expanding learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. Its Albuquerque program directly serves Title 1 schools in South Valley with school-time outdoor experiences, which are tailored to the needs of each individual school partner to ensure that the students are having their needs and interests met in ways that are culturally responsive. Project opportunities vary from six-week long fishing and sustainable eating experiences to public land hikes that work to educate the youth on regional flora and fauna. A main component of all programming is the use of nature journaling, which fosters a deeper connection with the natural world and enhances various aspects of youth well-being.

Walltown Children's Theatre

Walltown Children’s Theatre

Walltown Children’s Theatre (WCT) inspires positive social change by empowering and reconnecting young people from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, creating a new expression of community, and enriching their lives and those of their families and communities, through exemplary performing arts instruction and youth development programming. WCT’s Peer Leadership through the Arts for Youth (PLAY) program is focused on equipping students with the tools that are needed to be agents of change for themselves and their peers.

PLAY emphasizes youth development as an integral part of the arts instruction process. The Walltown PLAYers uses practice labs and performance to engage each other and their peers in constructive conversations about issues challenging today’s youth. PLAYers directly involves high school students and summer campers and engages countless other youth and their families through interactive presentations and artistically facilitated constructive conversations.

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

  • Website: zyep.org
  • Grant amount: $10,000

Of its 10,000 tribal members, nearly half the Zuni population is under the age of 25. Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) is the only non-school organization that is focused on serving these youth. Its programs are designed to help Zuni youth grow into strong and healthy adults. ZYEP conducted a survey of 4th and 5th graders in 2021 to help assess community needs. The students demonstrated concerning rates of disengagement and depression. Nearly half of the students reported not having a safe space available to play. Serving Zuni youth, the ZYEP Summer Camp harnesses the energy the kids have for their culture. For five weeks, summer camp provides a safe space for Zuni youth, ages 6-12, to participate in activities based in Zuni values, language and culture and to participate in fun activities that promote health and wellness. Summer camp programming engages youth in a wide variety of physical activities (such as hiking and biking), art, dance, gardening, nutrition, cultural and environmental education. Youth are nurtured by caring mentors and staff, building a long-lasting network of support. ZYEP’s Camp Counselor Program provides opportunities for young adults , ages 15-24, to serve in important mentor roles for campers and develop into leaders. This combination of fun and educational activities, outdoor engagement, rootedness in Zuni culture, and the building of supportive relationships builds resilience for Zuni youth and supports them to celebrate the incredible talents they possess.

ZIA

ZIA Youth Center

ZIA Youth Center’s mission is to empower youth and strengthen its Raton community. The center is a hub for ZIA youth, ages 9-17, to gather daily and participate in activities that include musical instruments, a green house, arts and crafts, board games, puzzles, ping pong, air hockey and more. The center also hosts daily walks to the park, which are a highlight and help to alleviate the pent-up energy that many of the youth have. ZIA has created a new outdoor recreation program that allows the kids to experience the wonders the region has to offer. Activities include weekly trips where youth would have the opportunity to explore many of the local outdoor recreation spaces, such as Sugarite Canyon State Park, Capulin Volcano, Cimarron Canyon State Park, and Climax Canyon hiking trail. ZIA also launched a Bike Swap in Raton, as a means of getting more bicycles into the hands of youth. Volunteer bike enthusiasts are on hand with the necessary tools and kits to help fix the bikes in need of repair. 

West End Neighborhood Association

West End Neighborhood Association

  • Grant amount: $25,365

Arkansas has the ninth highest rate of youth obesity in the United States, with nearly 34% of 10-17 year-olds considered obese. The state also has the most obese high school students in the country, with nearly 22% considered obese. The West End Neighborhood Association aims to address the ongoing battle against childhood obesity for youth in its Jonesboro community by offering them exposure to physical activity, which educates and addresses their well-being. Exercise can break down barriers, increase empathy, and give youth the building blocks for important life and social skills.

The West End Neighborhood Association is enhancing the neighborhood park experience by providing an exercise program geared towards the families and youth living in the neighborhood. The Association installed exercise equipment on its walking trail and it offers educational youth fitness camp programs during the summer, ongoing family weekend programs on the walking trail, and yoga classes under the pavilion.

Outdoor Inclusion Coalition

Outdoor Inclusion Coalition

A fiscally sponsored project of New Sun Rising

The Outdoor Inclusion Coalition (OIC), based out of Millvale, PA, addresses representation in the outdoors and works to break down barriers associated with winter sports (including the costs of a quality experience at a resort, transportation, gear, and lessons). Its Ski & Snowboard Program introduces first-time skiers and snowboard students, ages 7-23, to the winter sports industry through a seven-week, on-snow education curriculum led by instructors that facilitate skill progression through mentorship and confidence building. The no-cost program covers all expenses related to a quality experience including gear, rentals, transportation, and education. OIC’s program supports sport and individual growth through a cultivated space that celebrates underrepresented expression. Participants experience life skills development through social-emotional learning, gain a greater understanding of self, and experience a greater connection to community and mentors through positive interactions. 

ZYEP

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

  • New Mexico
  • Website: zyep.org
  • Grant amount: $10,000

Strong familial, cultural, and natural resources can make the Pueblo of Zuni in northern New Mexico a special place to grow up, but many youth face the harsh realities of socioeconomic, educational, and health disparities as they transition into adulthood. The Zuni community knows that connection to its culture is a strong protective factor for its youth. Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) works to build that powerful connection through its flagship summer camp. At camp, Zuni youth build healthy habits, leadership development, positive intergenerational relationships, and connection to culture and community that are all needed to foster a happy and healthy future. ZYEP addresses systemic challenges and health disparities that stem from colonization and Zuni's struggle of trying to preserve its traditional ways of life and beliefs through camp activities. The youth experience activities that include physical activity, traditional dance, art, food sovereignty, and connection to land. These activities are led by positive role models that build intergenerational relationships with the youth that strengthen their connection to the Zuni community. These role models include young adults, ages 15-24, who are paid summer camp counselors. This opportunity helps develop the next generation of young leaders.

 

Outdoor Outreach

Outdoor Outreach

Outdoor Outreach reaches youth, ages 9-24, from communities characterized as “under-parked” (having less than three acres of parkland per 1,000 people and a median household income below $45,000). Seventy-five percent of Outdoor Outreach’s youth participants report that they lack transportation to outdoor spaces; 44% are not aware of green spaces near their home; and 13% report that gangs or crime make close-to-home green spaces unsafe. Outdoor Outreach provides adventure-based outdoor programs for young people through adventure-based youth development programs. With multiple opportunities to surf, bike, kayak, or climb each year, youth gain more than access to outdoor recreation—they share new experiences and tap into their strengths, while building a support system of peers and mentors who believe in them and show them they matter. To accomplish this, Outdoor Outreach partners with 50+ Title I schools and social service agencies. It serves San Diego County youth (from low-income communities and other groups, including Native youth, medical and juvenile justice-involved youth, LGBTQIA+ youth, youth from military families, and those from immigrant families, who experience disproportionate levels of mental health challenges in comparison to the general population by directly removing barriers) by providing outdoors-based programs and all necessary equipment, transportation, instruction, meals and snacks to participants at no cost.

We've Got Friends

We’ve Got Friends

Due to the social challenges teens with special needs experience, they frequently have feelings of disconnection and isolation, which impacts their social and emotional health. Montclair, New Jersey-based We’ve Got Friends (WGF) provides an engaging and social environment where teens with special needs can develop connections through mutual interests. Being outside and active with peers is beneficial for their physical and emotional health, particularly after this last year of limited social interaction and connection. WGF’s Project Play provides more opportunities for teens with special needs to experience age-appropriate outdoor or indoor recreational activities with their peers, developing connections and a sense of belonging.

Through exposure to a variety of structured outdoor activities, teens with special needs are exposed to new opportunities, learn new skills, and develop new interests the same way as their typically developing peers. The sense of inclusion and belonging to a community of their peers doing activities they are interested improves their social and emotional health. WGF social hangouts helps these teens develop their own social group through music, meals, movement, crafts, and dance. WGF hangouts also incorporate outdoor activities, such as dog therapy, sports, art, parachute play, ice cream sundae socials, gardening, and drumming activities. 

Oyate Teca Project

Oyate Teca Project

Oyate Teca Project (OTP), centrally located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in Kyle, SD, works to promote the well-being of children and families through education, health, culture, and recreational programs and activities. Recognizing the community need for more usable outdoor recreation spaces, OTP started hosting lake day activities, such as kayaking, paddle boarding, peddle boating and fishing at a local dam. The new lake program provides OTP's youth and families an opportunity to learn new skills and recreate outdoors.

Red Cloud Renewable

Red Cloud Renewable

Pine Ridge Reservation rests on a relatively barren landscape, with limited water and extreme climate events. Over the years, wildfires have destroyed large sections of the pine forests that have historically dotted the land. The federal government, who is responsible for managing the land, has never led a reforestation initiative at Pine Ridge, and, as a result, tree cover has declined substantially. Tribal residents often live in outdated government-issued trailers, spending upwards of $400 per month on utility bills in winter and suffering from lack of air conditioning in the extreme heat of summer. Red Cloud Renewable (RCR) works to bring workforce development and energy independence to tribal communities with renewable solar energy and safe, affordable, and efficient homes.

With a focus on youth development and teaching youth to be responsible caretakers of their ancestral lands, RCR has gathered Native youth who want to increase biodiversity and see their lands protected and restored for the next seven generations. Youth crews participate in RCR’s efforts to reforest the surrounding hills of Pine Ridge. RCR is focused on planting 22,000 trees in shelter belts around individual tribal residents’ homes, making them more energy efficient and resilient against harsh climate extremes. These reforestation efforts result in improved land resilience, habitat quality, watershed protection, and are a means to contribute in a practical way towards climate change solutions. In addition, RCR is planting traditional fruit bearing trees, such as choke cherry, buffalo berry, and American plum, as well as larger shade trees like cottonwood and ponderosa pine. The fruit trees will provide tribal residents with access to ingredients for traditional and ceremonial Lakota dishes, and the shade trees will help reduce interior air temperature increases.

River Newe

River Newe

River Newe works to overcome Shoshone-Bannock disconnection to traditional knowledge due to limited access to homelands and learning experiences on land. River Newe supports Shoshone-Bannock youth through experiential, river-based programming on traditional and historic tribal lands. Students participate in cultural and river-based activities to exercise treaty rights, impact confidence and identity, and build skills through river-based learning. Through a Newe-centered approach, this program increases representation and creates spaces of equity through learning experiences on homelands with Shoshone-Bannocks, Indigenous, and minoritized communities on and off river landscapes.

Saved By Nature

Saved By Nature

California-based Saved By Nature’s programming intentionally is designed to address barriers to accessing nature and public lands and to connect underrepresented communities to nearby natural surroundings. Its Alive Outside Adventure Series provides Hispanic youth (ages 13-18) free access to professional guided hikes and backpacking trips and outdoor leadership opportunities through hands-on activities. The adventure series includes an orientation hike among the redwoods at Mt. Madonna County Park; a preparation hike at Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve; and a two-day/one-night backpacking adventure at Henry Coe State Park. Saved By Nature calls Spanish-speaking parents individually to invite, encourage, and increase participation, provides transportation, and opens access to its REI Gear Library. This library has all the camping gear necessary for these hiking and camping outings. The Alive Outside Adventure Series fosters an understanding of nature as a vehicle to healing and provides a guide to manage stress and anxiety. 

SheJumps

SheJumps

For girls, fears of rejection, labels, stereotypes, failure, being spoken over, and being told how they should act hold them back. Girls from refugee and immigrant communities face additional barriers to participating in outdoor activities, such as prohibitive costs, lack of equipment, and belief that they don’t belong. SheJumps works to ensure a future where all girls and women–regardless of background, race, ethnicity, or identity–have the confidence and skills to enjoy, appreciate, and steward the great outdoors.

SheJumps is expanding its Into the Canyon Outdoor Recreation program for immigrant and refugee girls in Salt Lake County, UT. This series provides no-cost, accessible opportunities for participants to experience the outdoors with guidance and mentorship from supportive women role models. SheJumps is collaborating with Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families (HC4YF) to get Salt Lake County’s marginalized populations involved in active out-of-school time programming. Having this positive outlet has proven to keep youth focused on their education and away from crime, drugs, and gangs. SheJumps also is working to develop a model that can be replicated at other SheJumps program sites across the United States to further multiply its impact.

SHRED Foundation

The SHRED Foundation identifies a critical need within the communities of Newburgh and Albany where BIPOC youth face significant barriers to recreational sports participation, notably snowboarding. Economic constraints, limited access to suitable facilities, and a lack of representation within the sport create a divide between potential young enthusiasts and the enriching experiences snowboarding can offer. These challenges prevent youth from engaging in a sport that promotes physical health, mental well-being, and social connections. Further, this hinders the development of future talent and diversity within the snowboarding community and industry. SHRED's comprehensive approach aims to dismantle economic and social barriers, enabling participants to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of snowboarding and gain valuable leadership and teaching skills through the instructor training program. This foster a sustainable, inclusive environment within the snowboarding community, encouraging participants to become mentors and role models for future generations. SHRED provides comprehensive support, including access to gear, mentorship, and career opportunities in snowboarding to ensure that the transformative benefits of this sport (including improved mental health, enhanced decision-making, and increased confidence) are accessible to all—fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment for personal and community growth, and significantly impacting the lives of the youth SHRED serves. Ultimately, this contributes to a more diverse and equitable snowboarding culture.

Siċaŋġu Community Development Corporation

Sicangu Community Development Corporation

Siċaŋġu Community Development Corporation’s (Siċaŋġu Co) works to improve the well-being of the Siċaŋġu Lakota Oyate. Siċaŋġu Co is guided by the 7Gen Vision, which imagines the type of world people would want to see their ancestors living in 175 years from now. Grounded in cultural wisdom, Siċaŋġu Co works towards Wicozani (the good way of life) for the Siċaŋġu Oyate, focusing on holistic health, economic self-sufficiency, cultural revitalization, sustainable housing, food sovereignty, climate resilience, and shared, lasting prosperity.

Siċaŋġu Co’s Wotakuye Youth Camp is offered to Siċaŋġu youth living on the Rosebud Reservation. The camps are held at the Wolakota Buffalo Range and other recreation areas on the reservation, and the programming addresses the physical and spiritual health disparities that Siċaŋġu youth face. Wotakuye Youth Camps focus on encouraging physical activities in a positive, outdoor environment to help reverse the negative health outcomes for Siċaŋġu youth.

Sierra Nevada Journeys

Sierra Nevada Journeys

Sierra Nevada Journeys’ (SNJ) mission is to deliver innovative outdoor, science-based education programs for youth to develop critical thinking skills and to inspire natural resource stewardship. At the heart of its programs is the desire to create top-tiered opportunities for all children to learn science and fall in love with the natural world,  regardless of their socio-economic background or where they live.

SNJ’s works to promote the ethics of service learning, environmental stewardship, and social-emotional development with California and Nevada youth through its immersive Overnight Outdoor Learning camp experience. Camp programming includes interactive team-building activities and extensive exposure to the natural world to inspire a connection with the land and to help build the foundation of a successful future. The camp setting enables participants to escape the complexities of their communities and engage with nature, which research indicates can reduce stress, aid healing, enhance focus, and positively influence attitudes toward the environment. SNJ also serve students in an urban setting, connecting youth to local nature sites through Classrooms Unleashed, which explicitly targets children historically excluded from outdoor spaces to bridge the gap.

Soul Trak Outdoors

Soul Trak Outdoors

Soul Trak Outdoors’ mission is to connect local communities of color, help minorities reclaim their relationship with the outdoors, and facilitate outdoor skills training and environmental education. Its activities run the gamut of outdoor adventure. While recreation is worthwhile, environmental stewardship is just as salient to its purpose. Soul Trak also leads several local conservation efforts, including park cleanups, trail maintenance, and tree plantings.

In marginalized communities, notably Washington, D.C.'s Wards 7 and 8, barriers aren't solely physical but also financial. Soul Trak's Youth Adventure Cohort actively works to dismantle these barriers. The cohort welcomes students aged 12-16 into its program during two 8-week sessions each year with the intent to introduce youth to the wonders of the outdoors and to inspire the adults in their lives, including parents and guardians, to join them in this journey. The program includes a diverse array of activities, from day trips to overnight adventures, including hiking, rock climbing, canoeing, biking, camping, and service trips. To equip participants for these experiences, Soul Trak offers training workshops that enhance outdoor technical skills and environmental knowledge. Through this holistic approach, the program not only connects youth with the great outdoors but also prioritizes representative leadership and instruction. Soul Trak believes that if youth see themselves in their facilitators, it fosters a sense of belonging and encourages them to envision themselves as future leaders in the outdoor community.

Diamond Willow Ministries/Tokata Youth Center

Tokata Youth Center

The Tokata Youth Center (TYC) assists the youth of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in overcoming daily obstacles so they can become the next generation of people leading the community towards a better and brighter future.

TYC recently constructed a new youth center, which tripled the number of youth that can be served on a daily basis. The center’s outdoor physical activity and nutrition space includes more than 100 feet of garden beds, an outdoor patio, wheelchair ramp, and multipurpose sports field. TYC is providing increased opportunities for recreation and physical activity so that the youth have even more space to be active and outdoors. Phase two of the youth center includes a baseball diamond (used for baseball, t-ball, and kickball), volleyball area, and gaga ball pit. The new recreation areas will be used on a daily basis, allowing the youth to spend more time outdoors.

Urban Adventure Squad

Urban Adventure Squad

The demand for free and low-cost outdoor programming is high in Washington, D.C., particularly as schools and communities deal with a youth mental health crisis, the effects of trauma on students, and the long-term effects of virtual learning on academic achievement. Urban Adventure Squad supports schools and school communities in every D.C. ward with equitable outdoor education programs. At C.W. Harris Elementary School, Urban Adventure Squad works to develop, build, and sustain an outdoor learning culture that supports students (grades 1-5) and teachers by leveraging the school's existing resources (garden, greenspaces, and bioretention areas) to dramatically increase the school population's outdoor time; support teachers in aligning outdoor time to classroom lessons; and engage the broader community in supporting outdoor learning. Hands-on activities take place during recess, as part of classes, after school, and through school-wide community events. The project purposefully blurs the lines the public education system has created which messages to students, educators, and families that indoors is for learning and outdoors is for play. C.W. Harris is a demonstration model for building an outdoor learning culture that connects students to nature and the neighborhood in a historically under resourced, urban public school district.

ViVe Wellness

ViVe Wellness

ViVe Wellness’ mission is to address health equity in Denver’s underserved communities through movement, wellness, and education. As a community-led organization, ViVe is committed to addressing needs identified by community members. As a result of the community’s voice and input, ViVe’s programming has continued to expand each year.

ViVe’s swim classes build water safety skills and confidence and serve as an entryway to additional outdoor recreation activities (such as kayaking, rafting and paddle boarding, mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and camping). ViVe integrates educational components into its outdoor programming and includes skill development and workforce pathway programs. ViVe’s Youth Pathway Program supports youth who would like to be certified as lifeguards, swim instructors, outdoor recreation leaders, and after school physical activity assistants. The Pathway Program helps participants develop job skills, as well as skills related to leadership, communication and teamwork, responsibility, critical thinking, and time management. The participants work closely with ViVe staff who serve as mentors, providing guidance, instruction, and skill development across multiple wellness areas. This program contributes to the development of a culturally responsive workforce and could create a pipeline for a bilingual health and wellness workforce that can serve the city of Denver and surrounding communities.

Wasatch Mountain Institute

Wastach Mountain Institute

Wasatch Mountain Institute (WMI) began by working in collaboration with Utah State Parks to revitalize the Rock Cliff Recreation Area at Jordanelle State Park, which transformed a underutilized state-run public facility into an active campus for outdoor science education which includes a nature center, boardwalk trails through wetlands, and six campsites along the Provo River. Today, WMI is dedicated to improving experiential learning for K-8 students while also increasing awareness, care, and stewardship of the Wasatch Mountains. 

WMI’s programs—Field Ecology in the fall and spring and SnowSchool in the winter—are led by a team of trained field instructors and supported by school teachers/chaperones. WMI integrates State of Utah curriculum standards, social-emotional learning opportunities, reflective journaling, art, and recreation into the programming. All students are outfitted with clothing and equipment from WMI’s Gear Library, ensuring equitable access to a safe and comfortable outdoor learning experience. WMI serves youth from Salt Lake (all 12 Title 1 schools) and Park City (all five elementary schools) school districts. Both districts have many families who live adjacent to world-class recreation but lack access to the time, training, and equipment to engage in the activities that bring visitors from all over the world to the Wasatch Mountains.

In addition to hosting year-round student field trips, Rock Cliff Nature Center is also open to the public Wednesday-Sunday during the summer and on Saturdays and Sundays during the school year. Working with State Parks staff, WMI presents free, guided programs on a weekly basis in the summer and winter on topics such as stargazing, birdwatching, and hydrology.

The Watersmith Guild

The Watersmith Guild

Pennsylvania’s waterways provide a perfect canvas to engage youth in outdoor recreation and conservation. Lack of access, however, has limited BIPOC and underserved communities from benefitting from these resources. Moreover, watersheds in these communities have suffered disparate levels of pollution and the effects of climate change resulting in reduced quality of life for residents. Finally, these Environmental Justice areas are disproportionately impacted by childhood obesity, sedentary behavior, and the risk of drug and alcohol use. The Watersmith Guild’s origins are with the foundation of First Waves, a first-of-its-kind program that combined standup paddleboarding, river surfing, and the art of filmmaking as a catalyst to inspire conservation of local waterways and mentorship for these youth. In 2014, the inaugural project included transformative elements of outdoor adventure, environmental education, and conservation actions that fostered love and appreciation for the outdoors and improved the lives of students in areas with limited opportunities and access. Youth participants learned to become proficient paddlers, spearheaded river cleanups, and created documentary films to inspire others. Through paddleboarding and outdoor recreation, First Waves provides a blueprint for low-impact and widely available forms of exercise that can be practiced over a lifetime and inspires love and appreciation for the outdoors. Furthermore, the programs empower youth with education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.

Wellfit Girls

Wellfit Girls

The need for empowering programs for middle school girls has never been more critical. During this formative adolescence period, girls grapple with issues related to self-esteem, identity formation, and social dynamics, which can significantly impact their academic performance, mental health, and overall well-being. Research indicates that girls face barriers to leadership and self-empowerment, including societal expectations, gender stereotypes, and limited access to supportive resources and role models. Wellfit Girls’ mission is to inspire, challenge and empower teen girls to climb high in all areas of life through transformational leadership programs. Its Wellfit Adventure Camp (WAC) program aims to address the pressing societal issue of adolescent mental health and well-being by providing a supportive and inclusive environment where girls explore their potential, build essential life skills, and develop a strong sense of self-confidence and resilience through experiential learning, mentorship, and outdoor exploration. WAC benefits individuals and contributes to broader societal goals of promoting gender equity, fostering diversity, and cultivating the next generation of change makers. By engaging in outdoor adventures, team-building activities, and meaningful discussions, participants benefit from enhanced self-esteem, improved emotional regulation, and strengthened social connections. Ultimately, the goal is to equip young girls with the tools and skills they need to navigate adolescence with resilience and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance

The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) is dedicated to growing a cleaner, greener, healthier, and more sustainable West Atlanta. Its mission is to improve the quality of life within the West Atlanta Watershed by protecting, preserving, and restoring the community’s natural resources. By providing a continuum of opportunities to entire families throughout the year, WAWA boosts healthy development for youth and families and addresses the gap in access to nature.

WAWA’s works to address the lack of outdoor-based learning programs for youth and families in the watersheds it serves (Utoy, Sandy, and Proctor Creeks), and it aims to support youth and families through outdoor programming and activities that include hands-on lessons, exploration of nature, and youth exposure to outdoor and leadership skills. The youth and families gain knowledge about Leave No Trace ethics, identification of local flora and fauna, tracking, observation of local environmental conditions and impacts, team building, conflict resolution, and positive social interaction.

Wild Earth Wilderness School

Wild Earth Wilderness School

At the intersection of nature connection and mentoring, Wild Earth strives to help New York’s Ulster County youth understand that nature is not a concept separate and distant, but instead part of their everyday world. Through this understanding, Wild Earth instills a sense of awe and nurtures a sense of belonging to and stewardship for communities small and large. Since 2015, Wild Earth has held its Nature Connection & Experiential Education (NCEE) project in partnership with the Kingston City School District (KCSD). Led by Wild Earth’s culturally diverse staff, the NCEE project strives to meet young people where they are developmentally, building relationships through long-term mentoring and nurturing social-emotional growth through connection to the natural world and its rhythms. Over the past eight years, this partnership has grown to support K-12 students in five district schools, providing guided recess activities, afterschool programming, immersive field trips for incoming middle schoolers, and a paid eight-month internship for high school students. Based on the success of its work in KCSD, Wild Earth is expanding to serve youth in Ellenville Central School District's elementary and middle schools through access to inspiring mentors leading experiential activities in the natural world, and fostering deeper exploration, inquisitiveness, self-empowerment, and connection to community.

Wildseed Gear Library

Wildseed Gear Library

A fiscally sponsored project of The Fly Girl Network

Through its Natural Families Learning Community, Wildseed Gear Library works to encourage and increase the ability of all families (especially urban families of color) to go camping and hiking together and to develop a closer relationship away from the distractions of city life in Baltimore. The pilot program supports a cohort of families who encourage each other by creating opportunities for their children to learn and explore natural settings. The organization’s gear library removes the barriers associated with acquiring camping and hiking gear and creates a safe space for families to try on and ask questions about the equipment that they are borrowing. Wildseed Gear Library helps reframe cultural norms about relationships to nature, exercise, and family recreation, in hopes that many families begin to see themselves reflected in both the history and the future of these landscapes. 

Yellow Bird Life Ways

Yellow Bird Life Ways

Nearly 60% of Northern Cheyenne population is 18 or younger. The large youth population and substantial socioeconomic, educational, and overall health disparities led Yellow Bird Life Ways founders to establish youth programming that addresses these issues at a grassroots level and breaks the cycle of trauma through youth and community empowerment. Its programming revolves around the circular connection between youth and elders, transmitting knowledge of land, language, culture, and identity to the next generation.

Yellow Bird Life Way’s programming for Youth Empowerment and Experiences, including its summer Journey to the Center and winter Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run. These trips span between 5-8 days and are immersive experiences that bring youth into direct relationship with Elders, Spiritual leaders, and the land, moving them into a space of ceremony and reverence.

Youth Enrichment Services

Youth Enrichment Services

Youth of color and lower income families do not have equal access to nature and the same opportunity for impactful experiences in the outdoors as other children. These youth miss out on the physical, emotional, and psychological benefits that come from being active in the outdoors. With a mission to inspire young people through outdoor experiences and leadership opportunities that build confidence and prepare them to summit life’s challenges, many Boston families rely on Youth Enrichment Services (YES) to provide low-cost and free outdoor programs to their children and teens that offer year-round outdoor youth development and physical activity programs. YES closes the nature gap for these youth, with a priority focus on engaging youth, ages 7-18, from the high-need neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan, in outdoor- and sports-based positive youth development programming. Without YES, youth would not have the opportunities and access to nature. With YES, youth engage in a wide range of sports-based programming in the outdoors, from paddle sports to skiing, rock climbing, snowboarding, and more. All YES programs are no/low fee, with fees waived for youth from the lowest income families. In addition to increasing their physical activity and skills, YES helps youth set the foundation for active and healthy lifestyles. Youth also develop life skills, including the confidence to face a challenge, form relationships with supportive adults and peers, and develop a positive connection to the outdoors.

Youth Seen

Youth Seen (YS) was founded to change the opportunities for QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous People of Color) youth and their families. CampSeen was developed and is run by LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPoC community members to address the current voids within the community around Black and Brown queer spaces in nature. It exists because too often LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPoC people (youth in particular) are not afforded opportunities to access outdoor spaces, let alone outdoor spaces that support their mental health and well-being. CampSeen is a 7-day summer camp nestled in the foothills in the Rocky Mountains where QTBIPoC and other LGBTQ youth (10-18) have an opportunity to meet youth like themselves in a safe, sober environment, free of judgments and expectations. YS maintains contact with campers and their families throughout the year, giving youth a chance for continued connection with supportive LGBTQ adults to develop their mentorship skills through learning about transformative healing and community accountability. Along with providing LGBTQIA + BIPOC youth the opportunity for recreation, healing, and social connection, Youth Seen also educates campers about the importance of conservation and their impact on the outdoors. The knowledge and experience garnered by these youth build support for natural resource protection, stewardship, and conservation upon which outdoor recreation depends. ​Providing the opportunity to develop ethical outdoor behavior by demonstrating respect for land, water, and wildlife in their formative years, creates future stewards of these resources. This experience also allows these young people to see themselves working in the outdoors, conservation, or other environmental fields.

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

  • Website: zyep.org
  • Grant amount: $10,000

Forty percent of Zuni’s 6,302 residents are under 25, making youth the tribe’s largest subpopulation. Strong familial, cultural, and natural resources can make Zuni a special place to grow up, but many face the harsh realities of socioeconomic, educational, and health disparities as they transition into adulthood. The Zuni community knows that connection to its culture is a strong protective factor for its youth. Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) works to build that powerful connection through its flagship program, a five-week culturally enriching summer camp that serves youth, ages 6-12.

At camp, cultural bearers teach Zuni language, history, and traditions through fun and meaningful gardening, nutrition, sport, dance, art, and connection to land activities. The camp is proven to promote youth participants' learning and health, while deepening their connection to their culture and community. The success of summer camp hinges on ZYEP’s youth mentor program. ZYEP hires adolescent/young adult mentors, ages 16-24, to build positive relationships and guide campers through culturally enriching activities. As part of their professional development, the youth mentors participate in a four-day outdoor retreat to a culturally significant site where they will bond as a team, set intentions for mentoring the next generation, and learn about the significance of the cultural site. ZYEP’s summer camp experience is life-changing because of the connections its young people develop with themselves, peers, intergenerational role models, their food, the natural environment, and culture.