Date
Climate Impact Forum—August 10, 2026
Registration for this event is closed.
For nature-based preschools and childcare programs operating outdoors, summer increasingly means climate-related environmental challenges, from wildfires and tornadoes to extreme heat and flooding, impacting how programs approach nature-based curriculum and ensure young children's safety and well-being outdoors.
Yet, despite the frequency with which programs encounter climate impacts, few resources or frameworks exist that directly address the unique considerations for outdoor and nature-based practice, or the grief and uncertainty that can accompany working with young children outdoors through a time of climate crisis. As a result, many outdoor early learning providers must rapidly adapt policies, practices, and routines, often without external support.
To help meet this moment, Natural Start hosted a Climate Impact Forum on Monday, August 10. Facilitated by Claire Underwood of the University of Minnesota Duluth, and Kit Harrington, Deputy Director of Early learning Policy for Natural Start, this open space-style discussion was designed to bring together early educators, administrators, and others working in outdoor and nature-based settings to promote the identification and development of climate-responsive practices and policy frameworks, and to support the field in processing the emotional complexity of this moment.
Participants learned about existing resources to support informed decision-making, and were encouraged to share challenges, resources, and ideas in the spirit of possibility and collective resilience.
Questions? Contact [email protected].