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Best Practice Name: Project Get Outdoors
It's all the hype; kids are disconnected from nature. I too read Richard Louv's book a year ago when it was hot off the press. Parents are too busy to take their kids fishing, kids are too busy with extra-curricular activities to get outdoors, there is a lack of access to nature in the design of modern neighborhoods, there is rampant fear that has been exaggerated by the media that the outdoors are not safe with West Nile Virus and Lyme Disease, not to mention the stranger-danger. So how do we re-connect kids to nature?
Project Get Outdoors is not environmental education but rather it is recreation education; kids learn to love the earth by experiencing and exploring our natural resources through outdoor recreation activities.
Project Get Outdoors is a grassroots coalition of parents, teachers, environmental educators, natural resource specialists, health professionals and youth. The coalition is currently working to teamup with an already established non-profit organization that shares a similar mission of getting kids and families excited about outdoor recreation in order to develop healthy kids and increase environmental awareness.
The goal of Project Get Outdoors is to create small Project GO clubs within the communities of Minnesota. These clubs will work with after school/out of school groups such as daycare centers, YMCA's, churches, community education, Boys and Girls Clubs to facilitate outdoor recreation experiences. Project Get Outdoors Clubs will be open to all youth, but will target the underserved youth within Minnesota communities (low-income and minority sectors).
A pilot project in Plainview, MN has been underway since September 2005. A Project Get Outdoors Club was formed by partnering with 4-H. Kids in that club have utilized Whitewater State Park throughout the year, participating in activities such as hawk watching, fossil hunting, hiking a bluff prairie and animal tracking. Over half of the participants in the Plainview club are Latino and 99% of participants are low-income.
Research shows that five factors most influence youth development; caring and nurturing relationships, engaging activities, high expectations, continuity over time, and opportunities for contribution. Project Get Outdoors Clubs will provide these factors by bringing together caring adults who are passionate about the outdoors to guide youth through outdoor recreation activities that allow participants oppotutnities for self-directed exploration of our natural resources. Programs will be offered year-round and will allow youth opportunities to develop and participate in resource service projects that make a difference in their communities.
The long-term objective of Project Get Outdoors is to foster environmental awareness in order to create a society that is equipped with the knowledge and compassion to conserve and protect our natural resources.
As David Sobel, Director of Teacher Certification programs at the Antioch New England Graduate School states in his book "Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education;" "What's important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it before being asked to heal it's wounds. If we want children to flourish, to really feel empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it."
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