You might know that for many years, teens and young adults from urban Greater Boston have spent summers working at Farrington, leading nature-based programming for youth. But did you know that this year, we've turning things up a notch? We are currently piloting an expanded version of our long-time teen employment and leadership program, called "Extend," with the goals of engaging teens in leadership development and nature connection year-round.

Before summer even began, our group completed a community-building hike at the Middlesex Fells Reservation. During the summer, each day our teens delivered high-quality activity leadership to visiting youth, while simultaneously engaging in ongoing learning of their own. Our exploration focused primarily on personal and career development combined with environmental justice (EJ), encouraging teens to seek answers to questions like, "What is EJ?," "Why are communities that have lower incomes and a majority people of color disproportionately affected by toxins and other EJ issues?," and "What can we do to change these problems?" A highly informative "Toxic Tour" in Roxbury's Dudley Square neighborhood helped us develop a baseline understanding of such questions.

By August, we had researched and developed activities intended to teach younger youth about five EJ issues. To close out the summer, we celebrated with an overnight Teen Retreat, which brought many new experiences including falling asleep in tents to the far-off sound of coyotes howling in the woods. In September, after a few weeks back at school, our group gathered back together for a kayaking trip down the Mystic River out of Somerville. Then, in October, we debuted our new EJ activities at our teen-planned, first-ever Nature Festival at Cambridge in collaboration with the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School's after school program. We'll be closing out our pilot year with gatherings in November and December. Stay tuned to hear what these rising leaders are up to next!