June 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 41

ers are driving their local efforts to
create equitable nature connection
through initiatives, such as Cities
Connecting Children to Nature
(CCCN), the 10-Minute Walk
Campaign and Mayors for Parks,
to ensure that a robust relationship
with nature can be enjoyed by all.

Conservation Corps
One of the strategies cities can employ to connect young people to
nature provides unique opportunities for extended time in nature,
outdoor mentorship and conservation skill-building. Cities are following in the footsteps of counties
and states to partner with youth
corps and engage teens in nature
experiences and hands-on service
that promote personal and environmental health.
In the city of Pittsburgh, leaders
partnered with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and the
city/county workforce investment
board, Partner4Work, to offer local
teenagers six weeks of paid work
on local conservation projects. In
some cases, young corps members
entered their neighborhood and
city parks - like Frick, Riverview
and South Side - for the very first
time. Participants enter the corps
program with little prior exposure
to conservation, environmental education or outdoor recreation and
leave the program gaining all three,
demonstrating stronger conservation values and increasing their
self-identification as conservation
leaders. AmaRece Davis served as
an SCA Community Crew corps
member for two summers and one
school year in high school, and the
experiences compelled him to pursue community college, internships
and return home " to be a beacon

for young people...I'm living the
dream now as one of the first African-American park rangers for the
city of Pittsburgh. "

Thinking " Outside the Park "
To expand the benefits to young
people and the environment, citycorps partners can look past the
park boundaries. Even nature at
the scale of native tree boxes along
streets can produce positive health
benefits for people, better social
outcomes for communities, a critical habitat for birds and insects
and reduction of heat islands. The
LA Conservation Corps Clean &
Green program engages roughly
500 middle and high school students annually. Without even stepping foot in a park, these young
people attend to their immediate
surroundings - the sidewalks and
transit corridors they use daily -
to plant trees and establish a canopy. Green City Force in New York
City works within Housing Authority properties to build and operate six urban farms in its outdoor
spaces, engaging corps members in
the most intimate relationship we
share with nature, nourishing crops
that, in turn, nourish their own
bodies and communities.
Park agencies in cities, like
Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Austin, Texas, partner with school districts to implement green schoolyards - multifunctional school
grounds designed for and by the
school community that offer places
for play, learning, exploration and
growth. A natural and unrealized
symbiosis between green schoolyards and corps might exist if, over
the summer, cities enlist young
corps members to install and maintain the green infrastructure and

stormwater management features,
native plantings, pollinator gardens, young trees and urban agriculture beds that benefit children
and neighborhoods throughout the
school year. The CCCN City-Corps
Partnership Guide (https://tinyurl.
com/y4u685mu) assists cities in
building partnerships that reflect
value for both the human and environmental transformations that occur through engaging young people
in conservation.

Emergence of Future
Stewards
Cities exist within and on land and
water systems whose health and
vitality are intertwined with that
of their residents. Protecting those
systems, and the associated health
and social benefits on which thriving societies depend, can only be
sustained through the ability and
commitment of future generations.
Children and teens need not stray
far from their urban neighborhoods
to develop awareness, wonder and
care for nature or to find outdoor
mentors and guides. Equitable, citywide strategies to advance nature
connection sow a seed in the heart
of each young person impacted.
Through the recognition and
taste of a first serviceberry, the
thrill and importance of wielding
a weighty hand tool, the sight of
pollinators returning to restored
habitat, and/or the feeling of
agency and interdependence that
results from diversifying and promoting life in a neighborhood,
budding conservationists will
emerge in our cities.
Priya Cook is Program Manager of the Cities Connecting
Children to Nature initiative at the National League of Cities
@priya_cook (cook@nlc.org). #CityKids2Nature

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Parks & Recreation

June 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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