Breaking Bread with Nature

Green space, park access, and trees

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Community Nature Connection (CNC) has been conducting youth environmental education, access to nature, and leadership development programming in the Northeast Los Angeles (NELA) area for the past three years. However, our programming typically focuses on 7th through 12th grade aged youth. Community members and families have regularly expressed a desire for similar experiential environmental programming for primary age youth than what we currently provide. In addition, access to nature, specifically to different types of environments is challenging. Most natural parks are inaccessible by public transportation, most NELA schools are located 25 miles away from the coast, and opportunities for facilitated curiosity and mental health practices are not regularly highlighted as environmental benefits. Understanding the benefits of being in nature and connect with her is a lost practice. The cost, time, and knowledge on how to access nature can be a barrier for youth and their families.

The "Breaking Bread with Nature" program will provide a facilitated educational entertaining experience about natural resources of the Santa Monica Mountains and the ocean through field trips and in-classroom presentations. The field trip portion of the program provides free transportation to two nature sites, lunch, and interpretive activities. This iteration of the Sensing Nature program is comprised of three elements: Two 1-hour in the classroom presentation to 4th-6th graders, focused on the interconnectedness of the humans to nature with a focus being on 1) plants and land, and 2) the ocean. Presentations will include applicable California State Content Standards on ecological principles and concepts. These presentations will inspire their curiosity and wonder about the forthcoming field trips.
Two field trips to outdoor spaces, which included the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Pedro Bay. The field trips have a fixed itinerary for the youth that includes curiosity station rotations, a lunch break, reflection, and free play. The field trip will generally last approximately 6- hours (two-hours for travel and 4 hours of engagement). Such stations will be a mix of interpretive and curiosity building programs; creative play; and reflection journaling.
An evaluative component that uses a combination of evaluation and assessment tools to determine the effectiveness of our program, which can include: photovoice; teach backs; and pre- and post- surveys.

With the ‘Sensing Nature’, CNC is creating a placed-based primary school-aged program that is intended to complement our two other school-aged programs (Emerging Naturalist and Outdoor Coastal Access and Leadership Institute), thereby providing Northeast Los Angeles youth an ability to matriculate from elementary school all the way through high school by having continued opportunities to engage in nature and outdoor spaces. CNC has found that this type of facilitated environmental education programming supports 1) greater curiosity and interest in STEAM related fields tied to the environment, 2) increased connectivity to nature and a sense of personal belonging, and 3) inspiring a care for the natural environment. By providing transformative outdoor experiences youth, CNC hopes to inspire and foster their sense of wonder, discovery, and interest in the natural environment so that they become the next generation of dreamers, leaders, storytellers, and agents of change.

CNC generally uses a combination of evaluation and assessment tools to determine the effectiveness or success of our programs. These tools often include: photovoice; teach backs; call and response; and pre- and post- surveys. Photovoice is an evaluative technique that has participants capture their program experiences and write or caption a story about their photos. Teach backs or 'call and response' activities where participants are asked questions about concepts presented in the program and answer in group settings so that group members can hear it. Finally, CNC uses pre-and post- surveys for each of our programs to measure differences in individual program goals and objectives. Success for CNC will be measured by 1) the number of teachers who request the program again, 2) the number of youth who participate in other CNC youth programs, 3) new inquires by other teachers in the same school, and 4) our evaluation efforts can demonstrate a difference in before and after attitudes.