Natural Start reached out to members to learn how nature preschools are prioritizing equity and diversity through their enrollment process. We heard back from programs employing a variety of strategies for attracting and enrolling racially and economically diverse families, including administrative policies, marketing and outreach, community partnerships, accessing state pre-K funding, and more.
This webinar draws from the extensive research of Dr. Deja Jones, Founder of Honeypot Montessori, and the hands-on expertise of Ashley Causey-Golden, co-founder of Gather Forest School. This webinar focused on the collaborative creation of outdoor play areas tailored for Black children between the ages of 3 and 6 and explore the practical implementation of research in this domain.
The right gear is essential for outdoor learning, but many families and schools view gear as a barrier. We’ve asked four leaders from four different programs to share how they acquire and manage gear in ways that are equitable and accessible.
Natural Start invited Sarah Heller, co-founder and former director of Fiddleheads Forest School, to share the process she developed at Fiddleheads to enroll families with equity in mind. Sarah has spent the last two years learning about enrollment practices and asking questions with the goal of learning how to build more equitable systems and reduce barriers to accessing nature-based education.
How do we develop programs that are welcoming and inclusive to all members of our communities? What does it mean to be culturally relevant? This forum will explore how parents and educators in one community approach these questions. We heard stories from a public school educator, a parent, and a nature-based preschool founder in Minneapolis, MN, as they shared their different paths to nature and what culturally relevant teaching means to them.
Willamette Partnership’s Oregon Health & Outdoors Initiative partnered with outdoor early childhood experts across the country to develop the "Outdoor Preschool Policy Action Framework." The framework helps advocates — from parents, teachers, and administrators to elected officials — find a pathway to make outdoor preschool available to all. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this work, so this resource identifies many potential options you can use to start moving your state along the pathway to make outdoor preschools available to everyone!
The Natural Start Alliance partnered with the National Farm to School Network for the webinar, “Aligning Outdoor Learning & Farm to ECE.” Explore resources for connecting Farm to Early Care and Education and outdoor learning.
In this interactive webinar, presenters provided strategies to facilitate students' interaction with nature, particularly with students who live in areas where substantial inequities exist between children and their lack of access to a clean and healthy environment.
In this webinar, the Natural Start Alliance, National Wildlife Federation's Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO), and members of the Seven November team (a strategic communications firm) share the findings from a comprehensive messaging analysis initiative around early childhood education.
Nature Niños is dedicated to providing youth across the state with opportunities to connect with nature, build confidence, and foster a deep sense of environmental stewardship.
