Context
Spending time in nature is incredibly beneficial to the mental, physical, and emotional health of children. Exposing youth to natural spaces can reduce stress levels and anxiety, increase physical activity, encourage exploration, promote healing, and create an appreciation and desire to protect the future of our environment.
In Baltimore, we have incredible natural spaces encompassing local parks, trails, forests, farms, gardens, streams, waterfronts, and more (click here for a map of our amazing city parks and recreational assets). Baltimore is also home to Gwynns Falls Leakin Park, the third largest urban forested park in the United States (and home to Carrie Murray Nature Center)
Despite these and many other resources (check out a list here), too many of our children have little to no access to nature and the outdoors. The city of Baltimore is undertaking a multi-sector, cross-agency, and partner-powered alliance to eliminate these access barriers and connect our children to nature.
Baltimore Connecting Children to Nature
In 2018, Baltimore joined a cohort of 18 cities participating in the Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) initiative with support from the National League of Cities and the Children & Nature Network. This national initiative is focused on increasing equitable access to nature for all children, and aims to create systems-level change by activating City leadership and leveraging interagency and cross-sector partnerships.
Baltimore Connecting Children to Nature (BCCN) developed out of this effort, and is informed by a core team representing local agencies and partners, and staffed by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability. BCCN is focused on 2 key strategies to promote equitable nature access for children:
Strategy 1: Strengthen partnerships between the health, early childhood, education, and environmental communities, including by —
- Establishing the Baltimore Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.
- Increasing trauma-informed care practices among the environmental community and increasing nature-based experiences among the childcare community (i.e. healthcare, early childhood, education, and out of school time).
- Creating a comprehensive plan to engage cross-sector partners to create and expand green schoolyards in Baltimore City Public Schools.
Strategy 2: Green Career Exploration to connect youth to jobs and nature.
We aim to increase green job opportunities and green career development for Baltimore youth through expanding the number of outdoor and nature-based partners for programs such as YouthWorks, as well as compiling and disseminating information on local green jobs training opportunities.
BCCN Core Team
Carlos Camacho (Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Department)
Kimberly Grove and Mark Cameron (Baltimore City Department of Public Works)
Amy Gilder-Busatti (Baltimore Office of Sustainability)
Joanna Pi-Sunyer (Baltimore City Public Schools)
Amber Doherty (The National Aquarium in Baltimore)
Laurel Ady (Natural Leaders Network)
Gabriel Pickus (InDiGo: Inward Discovery Grows Outdoors)
Partnerships
A wide variety of other public entities, private partners, and individuals support this work, including the Baltimore City Health Department, Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success, Great Kids Farm, Black Mental Health Alliance, Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition, BLISS Meadows and many other amazing community leaders, growers, and educators.
The BCCN team is always looking to expand our network of partners! If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@baltimorecity.gov.