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By Michael Casaus, Sierra Club Staff
From Rio Grande Sierran, Nov./Dec. 2007
Most of us can recall fond memories of growing up in the great outdoors. Climbing trees. Riding your bike through the desert sand. Playing hide-and-go-seek in the backyard. Hiking in the forest. Regrettably, though, children today are staying inside, watching more television, playing more video games, and eating more junk food than ever before. This change in our relationship with nature has profound implications for the mental, physical, and spiritual health of future generations.
In an effort to counter these trends and increase exposure of New Mexico’s youth to the outdoors, the Sierra Club has launched a statewide Building Bridges to the Outdoors (BBtO) program, which is committed to ensuring that local communities are empowered to connect their children with nature. The goal of the BBtO program is to ensure that every New Mexico youth is provided an outdoor experience. BBtO is moving towards this goal through a combination of several organizing strategies:
Public Education: Promoting the positive benefits of outdoor experiences on children’s health and academic achievement, especially in science and math. In 2005 the Sierra Club funded a study administered by the California Department of Education that looked at how a week-long, outdoor education experience affected children’s test scores and self esteem. The results were astounding: Students raised their science test scores by 27%, improved their conflict resolution and problem-solving skills, and they experienced better self-esteem and motivation to learn.
Movement Building: Working with a diverse set of coalition partners including educators, health organizations, organized labor, community-based organizations, faith-based groups, Latino and Native American advocacy groups, and outdoor recreation groups to showcase how outdoor experiences are critical in helping children acquire leadership skills, gain respect for themselves and the environment, and develop positive relationships with their peers and community members.
Legislative Advocacy: Engaging public officials to provide funding for outdoor education and recreation programs. Earlier this year, for example, BBtO was instrumental in getting the New Mexico State Legislature to pass the Outdoor Classroom Initiative (OCI). The OCI is a collaboration between the Public Education Department and the New Mexico State Parks. It has four components: teacher training institutes and curriculum development, transportation grants, educational materials for students, and service learning. Our goal at the legislature in 2008 is to reauthorize the OCI and to establish a sustainable funding mechanism that would support outdoor education and recreation programs across the state.
Leadership Development: Providing young people with leadership and campaign skills through summer Environmental Leadership Trainings with the Sierra Student Coalition, in order to go back to their communities and create positive social change.
Targeted Grant Making: Thus far in 2007 the BBtO program has provided over $170,000 in funding to support a wide range of programs that utilize outdoor education and recreation as a vehicle for ensuring excellence in education, making education relevant to learners, developing a workforce capable of meeting the challenges of the future, and improving the quality of life for communities throughout New Mexico. An additional 4,000 New Mexico children will be able to attend these programs free of charge thanks to the funding by the Sierra Club.
So what can you do? Organize a family outdoor outing! Take a walk through a local park! Enjoy a backyard picnic! Contact a decision-maker in your community and let them know that getting kids outside is an important issue to you. Get an organization you are involved with, your city council, and your county commission to endorse the “Resolution Supporting Leaving No New Mexico Child Inside.”
Connecting children with nature is a community investment for all of us. New Mexico can, and should, lead the way to a different future with programs and legislation that reconnect children with the outdoors. By working together we will leave no child inside. To learn more or subscribe to our listserv, contact me, Michael Casaus.
