Nature for All - Outdoor Education for Underserved Youth

Green space, park access, and trees

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Over the past century that Woodcraft Rangers has provided inclusive, nature-based youth programs, Los Angeles has become heavily urbanized and segregated, with underinvested communities lacking access to green space, including front and back yards, safe parks, and tree canopies that wealthier neighborhoods enjoy. Schools offer limited green space and restricted access and public parks face issues of proximity, safety, and funding for safe, quality youth programming.
Today's youth spend less time outdoors than any generation in history with over 7½ hours spent daily in front of screens. 42% of low-income California parents say their children have never participated in outdoor activities like camping. This coincides with rising rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, anxiety and depression which are all skyrocketing at alarming rates and a catastrophic climate crisis with the same youth experiencing disproportionate negative health impacts, physical and mental from environmental policy.

Support from LA2050 will support 400 middle and high school youth from across Los Angeles to attend Woodcraft Rangers EcoWarriors retreats. Eco Warriors is an environmental justice youth leadership retreat held over 3 days and 2 nights for middle and high school youth from communities most negatively impacted by environmental policy. In an immersive natural environment, youth develop an appreciation for pristine nature through classic camp activities, such as archery and rock climbing, lessons about local flora and fauna and learning about restorative ecology based on Indigenous practices. Participants also participate in curriculum where they identify environmental challenges, discuss innovative solutions to caring for our planet, shape their environmental values, and receive advocacy and civic engagement training to empower them to make change in their own communities. Retreats include all meals, lodging, activities and transportation from Los Angeles.

EcoWarriors is an environmental justice program focused on building youth power to remedy historic damage from discriminatory policy to create healthier neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. By hosting youth in Woodcraft's beautiful outdoor education center, participants develop an understanding of what pristine nature offers, its holistic health benefits and by comparison, what urban environments lack and the repercussions that result. The understanding of this disparity will fuel passion for change to bring greater access to nature, especially for communities of color, in the short term and policy and infrastructure changes to ensure healthy air, water and built environments for all families in the long term. By advocating to their local, county and state officials with solutions they identify, young people take control to advance health outcomes, both physical and mental, for themselves and their families, bringing long overdue quality of life and justice to their own communities.

EcoWarriors will launch in Fall 2024. Short-term outcomes include access to an immersive natural setting (likely the first for most participants), becoming comfortable in and learning about local natural resources, gaining knowledge of local flora and fauna, and learn about climate change, its disproportionate impacts on communities of color, and tools for awareness and advocacy.
Intermediate outcomes include changes in behavior such as increases in outdoor activity, awareness around important environmental issues affecting the natural environment, student dialogue about climate and environmental justice, and public awareness campaigns at the participants’ school communities.
Long-term outcomes further demonstrate participants’ commitment to environmental justice through individual and collective action, including effective awareness campaigns or programs that remedy issues such as lack of greenspace in their communities, and engagement in public policy at the local and state levels.