Blueprint Foundation students practice fish dissection with local U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service professionals.
Without a clear, intentional effort to engage youth with nature we are in danger of developing future generations that are not positioned to be stewards of our natural assets. In addition, there have been communities of youth that we have not engaged for a range of reasons and are not part of this movement. We need to create opportunities for youth to participate and engage with our sectors work in meaningful ways.
To achieve this there need to be focused efforts to connect youth to employment opportunities, the creation of career development pathways, and development of networking events with peers from a range of environmental programs. We need to engage organizations to build a collaborative support network; to offer professional development; to build capacity in providing services for youth; to promote and support an equity mindset among organizations who want to bring on diverse young adults; and to be accountable to the youth of color we serve while including them in our process.
--language developed by the Youth Mentoring Collaborative
Outcome: Youth from all racial and geographic communities are engaged in structured and unstructured play in nature and are accessing green jobs.