Ruth Kitchen works with students on building bird feeders.

By Ruth Kitchen, GYF Education Director

After an intense summer of overwhelming heat, we are experiencing the glorious days of fall, with its friendly temperatures, smells and sights. It is a time to take long walks amongst the fiery and vibrant falling leaves, to investigate, compute, explore, learn, grow and discover. Outside!

But instead, where do we find our children during this glorious time of the year?  Within four walls, behind a desk, quiet, in a straight line, and yearning to return home to play a favorite Xbox game. According to Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” “We need people who have both ways of knowing the world… Is education moving in that direction? Some schools are, but too many are putting all their eggs on one computer chip.”

Greening Youth Foundation’s C.L.E.A.N. (Children Living Energetically Advancing Nature) Program is off to a good start in our Atlanta Partner locations. Springdale Park Elementary, Centennial Park Elementary, M. Agnes Jones Elementary, Cook Elementary, Warren Holyfield Boys and Girls Club, in addition to several schools in Ghana, are embracing becoming Environmental Detectives by exploring the 3R’s, composting, tree discovery, and energy and water conservation through hands-on outdoor activities. Students enjoy taking reusable materials to make beautiful planters and birdfeeders. They meander under the canopy of different types of trees on their own school campus to incorporate literature, measurement, calculation, art, science, history, and music to freely make discoveries on their own.

Building bird feeders

Eco-Force Clubs are tending their school gardens and planting fall produce.

Grady High School students will be host to a bee keeper in the GYF Green Speaker Series in October and take a field trip to Chattahoochee Nature Center in November.

As Louv says, “Want your kids to get into Harvard? Tell ‘em to go outside.”

Greening Youth Foundation leads the way in encouraging outdoor learning through C.L.E.A.N. and Eco-Force programming at our partner locations in the Atlanta area and also abroad in Ghana.

Please consider supporting these efforts by contributing to our Public School Initiative Fund (click here to donate).

With generous support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Corps Network has released a new publication that illustrates how to prepare young people for jobs, postsecondary education, and careers in a growing green economy titled, A Green Career Pathways Framework: Postsecondary and Employment Success for Low-Income, Disconnected Youth.

click here to download report: A Green Career Pathways Framework

The paper explores the extent to which this emerging green economy can offer a pathway out of poverty for low-income young people, many of whom have disengaged from school and are struggling to find a way into the economic mainstream. These disconnected youth — some six million strong — represent an untapped resource. Despite the fact that they have experienced difficulties in their personal lives or communities and may not have completed high school, many seek a second chance, returning to programs such as Service and Conservation Corps or other education and work initiatives in their local communities.

Given the right supports, these young people can be valuable assets for new green industries seeking to grow a skilled workforce and to the communities in which they reside. Further, youth involved in Corps and other work and service oriented programs can learn and practice skills that give them a “leg up” in terms of entering green industries or providing environmental or conservation assistance to a range of local institutions.

What these young people need to fulfill their promise and meet their life goals is an effective on-ramp to emerging green pathways. This paper offers guidance to youth programs, and those who work with and support those programs, about how to learn more about and access industry-driven green credentialing and career pathways development work within local communities or regions. It then discusses how, with this knowledge in hand, youth programs can work with employers and postsecondary partners to build on-ramps to postsecondary technical training programs and entry to green careers. The paper offers a multi-step Framework that outlines strategies for connecting to career pathway efforts and delineates a three-phase model design to inform the construction of on-ramp programming.

The Corps Network and several principal partners — Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Green For All, The Academy for Educational Development, Workforce Strategy Center and Living Cities — guided the development of the paper with additional support from numerous stakeholders.

GYF crew member uses McLeod tool

This past summer, GYF had a crew of 8 diverse youth undertake a trail maintenance and creation project at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Sandy Springs, GA. The project, a YIP Program (Youth Internship Program), was part of the services GYF offers to public land owners under its cooperative agreement with the National Park Service to introduce diverse youth to conservation careers in the form of internships, service crews and energy conservation projects.

From June 27 to August 5, the GYF crew—made up of two Team Leaders and six Team Members and managed by Park Volunteer Coordinator Dave Thomas—were involved in training in CPR/First Aid, Safe Hand Tool Use, Invasive Plant Identification and Removal, use of specialized trail building equipment such as the Clinometer, and tools such as the Pulaski and McLeod. They learned about sustainable trail design and building, including trail gradients, cross-slopes, vertical camouflaging, and stone dressage. Armed with this knowledge, the crew ended up restoring and building different portions of visitor trails that needed repair or needed to be re-routed.

Though the project included a great deal of education, there was also some fun mixed in. Through seminars on environmental education given by Park Education Specialists, river rafting and cleanup trips, field trips to neighboring NPS sites such as the MLK Jr. National Historic Site, and a day at the park helping hundreds of visitors launch and retrieve their boats and rafts at the annual Summer Splash, the crew had a well-rounded experience over the six weeks.

Courtney and Amadi at Chattahoochee

The following testimonials are from interns who served on the GYF crew:

Morrese “Mo” Green

My experience working for Greening Youth Program this summer was wonderful. While working I learned important tips that will help me through out life.  The main one being that if you take care of your surrounding environment it will take care of you. Another reason why working for GYF was fascinating is because I plan on being an engineer and the sole purpose of an engineer is to use innovative solutions and ideas that will benefit the surrounding environment. Working for GYF has taught me so much and as a result I look forward to working for Greening Youth in the near future.

Courtney Scott

Working at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area was an amazing experience. Not only did I experience new things, but I was able to figure out so many of my strengths and weaknesses. Working on those trails was the most manual labor I have ever done in my life and I loved it! Every time I see a trail I am reminded of my summer with GYF and how vital trails can be for protecting natural environments. I also learned all the ways people can destroy the environment; I feel educated enough to pass on that knowledge and even become an advocate for it. I have always wanted to go into an environmental career, but I never knew how much there is to offer. I don’t even know what I want to do now, but I do know I want to help the environment and I hope I can be as impactful as the staff at GYF. It’s experiences like these that prepare me to make the right decisions for myself in the future. I would recommend this internship to anyone who loves being outdoors.

Amadi Ozier

My experience at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area vastly increased my awareness of our collective effect on our volatile environment. By working on existing trails within the park, I met dozens of hikers, joggers, and bikers who incorporate nature into their daily routines by persistently visiting the park. As they passed, they often shared words of gratitude and encouragement, vocalizing their appreciation of our attempts to maintain the state of the natural world. These encounters reminded me that, when I am picking up trash or removing exotic plant life or clearing new trails, I am doing it for every single one of the park’s thousands of annual visitors. I knew I was making a difference.

Miles Carrington
I had a great experience this summer working as an intern for GYF. I enjoyed the responsibilities that were given to me. This experience has opened my eyes to being green in all aspects of my life. I pay more attention to natural and how our slightest contact can have an immense effect in time to come. This experience has motivated me to minor in the Parks and recreation major at Clemson University. This small time in the summer has changed my outlook on national parks and encouraged me to bring others out to feel what the National parks experience is like.

Greening Youth Foundation had the opportunity this summer to partner with Camp Scene to sponsor 10 GYF students, who experienced a summer day camp like no other. These youth, ranging from ages 6-13, were exposed to exciting outdoor activities not typically available to them in an urban setting.

GYF’s participation in Camp Scene was made possible by the U.S. Forest Service’s “More Kids in the Woods” grant, which is intended to provide local community children more opportunities to experience the great outdoors, learn about nature, and build a lasting commitment to conservation and land stewardship.

At Camp Scene, each of its six week-long sessions focused on a different environmental theme. During two of the weeks, GYF and the U.S. Forest Service met with the campers bright and early to set the stage for their daily adventure.  Some pre-start activities included handling fossil remains, playing recycle relay, making a wetland, observing acid rain destruction, and singing sweet songs about nature.

Then they were off in the Camp Scene van to a day of true adventure. Whether it was hiking, rock climbing, river kayaking, white water rafting, scuba diving, tubing or swimming, they not only had the time of their lives but they also learned so much about their surroundings and the importance of being good stewards.

The following report was written by Mari Chiles, one of the GYF participants at Camp Scene:

I have been to cooking, science, soccer and writing camps throughout my summers, and a lot of them have been some pretty interesting experiences for me. But one camp that I will never forget is Camp Scene.

Camp Scene is an environmental camp that teaches kids how to care for and love the environment. Each summer, Camp Scene hosts six weeks of camps, each week with a different theme. Thanks to the Greening Youth Foundation, I was able to attend the camp week that focused on water ecology. But we didn’t just sit in a room and read or write about water. We did some things that I’ve never done before and would never dream of doing at camp!

Each day of the week I was there was an adventure. We kayaked six miles, went rock climbing, scuba diving and fishing for organisms in a stream and played at the beach. My favorite activity was white water rafting. My mom was afraid that all of these things would be unsafe for kids, but Camp Scene made sure we had fun and that we were safe.

One of my favorite activities of the week was rock climbing. I was nervous the whole ride to the rock-climbing center because I am very afraid of heights. Walking into the building and seeing the humungous wall with points jutting out of it and curves everywhere didn’t really make my stomach feel any better. But I faced my fear. Before anyone could climb the big wall, we had to go upstairs and try a smaller wall so that Camp Scene founder Scott Seitz could see how well we were at climbing. Not to my surprise, I was upstairs almost the whole entire time. It took me so long to finish that wall. I was amazed at some of those people who, like me, had never climbed before, but managed to get to the top the first time they tried. But little by little, I got higher and higher up the wall. Sometimes I would be scared out of my wits screaming to come down while my counselor would be telling me to go up a little bit higher. Rock climbing is a serious workout on your arms! But I pushed myself and got to the top of the wall. They even took a picture of me smiling down from the top. I was so triumphant! I was high-fiving everyone and I couldn’t wait to tell my mom and dad.

Mari (left) prepares to scuba dive

Another cool activity I got to do at Camp Scene was scuba diving. We went to a big building with a swimming pool and a bunch of gear and suits hanging up on the wall. Everyone had to jump into the freezing cold water so our instructor would be able to make sure we could swim. He made us practice breathing with the apparatus in our mouths so that we could feel what it was like to breath underwater. After that, we put on the vests and tanks and swam around. I was able to stay underwater for minutes at a time.

Remember when I said that white water rafting was my favorite activity of the whole week? Well, I am not exaggerating! It was probably one of the coolest experiences of my whole life! We white water rafted on the Chatooga River in north Georgia, almost in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain Range. There are a lot of safety precautions when it comes to rafting so we had to take a whole lesson before we even got geared up. Afterwards, the 12 campers, two counselors, and Scott divided into three different raft groups and hiked off to the river with all our gear.

Rafting is pretty easy when everyone is in sync. The five campers are up at the front while our guide is at the back steering. Our guide told us many cool things about the different rapids—how to go through them and how many times to paddle. The craziest rapid on the river was Bull Loose, named that because it is a small channel of water that runs really fast and whips and kicks you like a bull! I was terrified to go on it because the other campers on my raft were telling me how scary it was. Our instructor even gave us special instructions to prevent anyone from falling out of the raft in one specific part of our rafting journey: when she yelled a specific command, we had to hunch down in between the seats. When we got to the tricky part of the river where we had to hunch down, everyone was totally under water for about four seconds! Water was running past my face and ears and I almost let go of my paddle! It was a very exhilarating experience.

White water rafting, rock climbing, scuba diving and studying and playing in nature made me appreciate the environment even more. For anyone who is a nature lover like me or loves trying new things and being adventurous, I would definitely recommend Camp Scene.

—Mari Chiles