our impact
We fulfill our mission to close the nature access gap by running a diverse set of youth programs on and offsite. All of our programs provide high-quality, enriching nature experiences for children from low income communities.
As nature lovers ourselves, we want to share the joy, inspiration, and peace we experience walking in the woods, planting a seed and watching it grow, and breathing deeply in the shade of a tree in a city park. We want all the youth who attend our programs to feel more curious, joyful, connected, and empowered to engage with nature.
We work with Elementary Age youth in two ways:
During the school year, our staff teach at afterschool programs in Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett. Each hour-long lesson typically takes place in a nearby, walkable park, and is themed with something appropriate for the season, like fall seed dispersion, winter hibernation, or spring soil. Kids make art, play games, and do hands-on exploration. Because our staff return to the same group week to week, often for years in a row, we are able to build deep connections with the kids and the entire afterschool community.
Over the summer and during school vacation days, our field trips give hundreds of elementary school kids a memorable day of fun and adventure on our 75 acres of woodlands in Lincoln. We take them hiking, do scavenger hunts, make nature art, and introduce them to our resident farm animals. The experience is unique and memorable for the children who visit and we often see them go from feeling initially apprehensive about the experience to saying it was their favorite field trip ever.
We also serve Middle School students with our middle school program, which serves a cohort of 10-13 youth who meet weekly with our staff for 9-17 sessions and get to experience many enriching and educational field trips. Students have fun and expand their comfort zones with activities like rock climbing and baby goat yoga, and they also learn about environmental justice through experiences such as invasive plant removal at Middlesex Fells.
Finally, we have a year long teen leadership program in which we work to help a cohort of teens build outdoor leadership skills and hone their professional skills and confidence under the mentorship of our adult staff. Eventually, they help us run our summer field trips, becoming mentors themselves to younger kids. The teens also get to expand their own repertoire of experiences in nature: hiking, swimming in a lake, ice skating, and more.
