L-R: Susan Donaldson, Zoe Chafe, Audrey Miles, Patricia Weber & Andrea Brewer (with Minerva the dog) represented the many partners of the Emeryville team at a Nature Everywhere Vision Lab in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in October.

Emeryville Selected as ‘Nature Everywhere Community’ to help Increase Child Access to Nature

January 18, 2025
2 mins read

Emeryville has been selected to participate in a coveted Nature Everywhere Communities accelerator program. The national initiative is aimed at increasing equitable access to nature where children live, learn, and play.

The accolade was achieved through the local efforts of Emeryville Children & Nature which is a recently-formed nonprofit who have been fronting a series of nature pop-ups at local parks throughout the city.

The initiative brings together local stakeholders including the City of Emeryville’s Youth Services, Emeryville Child Development Center, the Emery Unified School District, and the YMCA Head Start program.

The nature pop-ups have featured opportunities for children to freely explore, play and create with variou natural materials. The Emeryville Nature Everywhere Team vision includes everyday access to nature exploration at parks, schools, and early childhood centers.

This collaborative team will advocate for resources and policies to improve children’s access to nature and promote climate resilience city-wide.

This program is a collaboration between the Children & Nature Network, the National League of Cities, and KABOOM! (an org tackling “playspace inequity”). It supports over 70 communities across the U.S. with resources to enhance early childhood development and address climate resiliency.

“Emeryville has a clear vision of how they can help increase nature access for early childhood through multiple lenses to improve early childhood development,” said Sarah Milligan-Toffler, President and CEO of the Children & Nature Network. “The Emeryville team understands the importance of collaboration across the city, school district and early childhood programs.”

“The Emeryville team understands the importance of collaboration across the city, school district and early childhood programs.”

Sarah Milligan-Toffler, Children & Nature Network President & CEO

Research has shown that time in nature improves children’s physical and mental health, academic performance, and social-emotional learning.

“Our goal is to embed child-friendly natural areas throughout our city parks, including bayfront parks, and early childhood centers to improve equitable access and engagement with nature for all of our children,” said Patricia Perasso Weber, Director of Emeryville Children & Nature. “These natural areas will improve climate resilience, with shade trees to combat heat island effect, green infrastructure to manage stormwater, and native, climate adaptive and drought tolerant planting to conserve water, create habitat value, and support pollinators.”

The local community has shown interest in nature exploration for kids as demonstrated by the many attendees at this October nature pop-up that featured East Bay Regional Park District Naturalists.

“The organizations represented on our Nature Everywhere team are fully committed to launching a comprehensive children and nature strategy. There is momentum and enthusiasm for this effort, focused on early childhood connections to nature, including greening our parks and schoolyards, and climate resilience,” said Susan Donaldson, Emeryville’s Team Lead and EUSD School Board Trustee “All our Nature Everywhere team members share the view that creating connections with nature holds benefits for our entire community. We are excited to get to work.”

The Emeryville team recently participated in a Nature Everywhere Vision Lab in Milwaukee where they explored strategies for connecting children with nature.

Over the next year, their objectives are to:

  • Engage youth & community in creating a vision for increasing equitable access to nature
  • Map community stakeholders, assets and gaps
  • Conduct funding and policy scans
  • Build and deepen regional partnerships
  • Develop and begin implementing an early childhood and climate resiliency action plan

Emeryville will also gain access to a national peer network, technical assistance, planning tools, and up to $40,000 in seed grants, with opportunities for larger grants in the future. The Nature Everywhere partners will help track progress and share Emeryville’s successes nationally.

For more information about the Emeryville Nature Everywhere initiative, and for upcoming Emeryville Children & Nature pop-up dates, go to ebchildrenandnature.org.

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