We protect what we love.
Let's give our kids a chance to fall in love with nature.
Salvar nuestro planeta comienza aquí. Saving our planet starts here. These are the first words you will see on the home page of nwfamilydaycation.com. And what’s the first image you will see? Families having fun outdoors. That is Northwest Family Daycation in a nutshell—meeting historically marginalized communities, as well as families with young children of all backgrounds, at the intersection of NATURE and FUN!
If you’ve heard of Daycation before, it may have been as a mobile app. Technology is still a component (though shifted to a mobile website), but now Daycation encompasses so much more. Daycation was launched through a unique partnership between The Intertwine Alliance and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2017. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service continues to evolve and support the thriving program.
Here are some highlights for the path ahead:
Expanded family content: Northwest Family Daycation is responding to community needs by strengthening online content with bilingual media, nature guides, educational videos, themed webinars with community organizations like People of Color Outdoors and Hike It Baby, and an ever-growing library of curated excursions (a.k.a. Daycations) throughout the Portland-Vancouver region.
Health and nature connection: Mauricio Valadrian, co-developer of Daycation and talented community connector, is reaching out to Latino health professionals to offer Daycation—and its “Big Red Tent”— as part of their suite of equitable health solutions.
Direct connections to Portland-Vancouver National Wildlife Refuges: A new Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge Daycation will welcome visitors from new communities to the re-opened refuge in May 2022. The team is also incubating the idea of quarterly refuge visits—that can include all four local refuges—coordinated with culturally specific community organizations and providing basic needs like transportation and food.
Where it all started
In 2017, with generous funding from Waste Management, The Intertwine Alliance and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service worked with ROSE Community Development on a youth engagement program to launch version 1 of a Daycation mobile app designed by a tech team called OuterSpatial. Teams of local youth created and marketed their own Daycations, sharing the neighborhood places they love and know best.
Teams came from the following organizations:
- Momentum Alliance
- The Blueprint Foundation
- Lents Youth Initiative
- Urban Nature Partners PDX
- OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon
- Boys & Girls Club
"These places, and the memories attached to them, are very close to my heart," said Brian Flores Garcia of Lents Youth Initiative. "Daycation is the place to share them, so others can discover hidden gems they might not have known about otherwise." Please see the blog section below for more from Brian about the 2017 youth kick-off at the Oregon Zoo and what he loves about the Daycation concept.
Working with Metro and Frank Creative, the youth provided feedback on development of the Daycation app and the website and social media campaign, while gaining exposure to marketing, conservation, tech development and more.
Many partners of The Intertwine Alliance also submitted Daycations showcasing the parks, trails and natural areas they steward.
CURRENT PARTNERS
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Access Recreation
Hike it Baby
I'm Hooked, Inc.
PDX People of Color Outdoors