Health & Wellbeing
81 Resources
This Research Digest explores how backcountry and wilderness adventures can support physical, psychological, social-emotional and spiritual well-being.
Our April Peer Learning Network event session explores practical strategies for securing leadership buy-in, whether you’re seeking a pledge of support, advancing policy actions or strengthening coalition partnerships.
This Research Digest considers how nature and art can be integrated to support children’s mental health and well-being, connection to nature and environmental literacy.
During our February Peer Learning Network event, speakers from Great Outdoors Colorado’s (GOCO) Generation Wild Coalition shared how they have expanded equitable access to nature by dedicating positions in youth summer employment programs to expanding nature connections; and expanding summer and after-school nature connection programs with a focus on equity, ensuring access to nature programs for children of color and children experiencing poverty or other barriers.
This Digest highlights research that has examined the interactions between screen time, green time, and children’s health and development. Based on these understandings, a set of research-based practical recommendations are offered to guide families and communities in helping youth establish healthy relationships with screen devices through a variety of approaches aimed at boosting green time.
This Digest explores the developmental and restorative potential of nature for refugee children and others experiencing severe trauma.
Mapping your community’s landscape can further your efforts by better understanding the local resources, assets, gaps and barriers to connect children to nature. Our presenters share strategies to help you build a clearer picture of where you can make the most impact by conducting a landscape scan of stakeholders, programs and experiences, and policies and funding in a community.
In the final Research Digest of 2024, Research Director and Digest editor Cathy Jordan shares exciting developments for the year ahead and offers a look back at the Digests from 2024.
The Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership is a collaboration of leading national organizations working across sectors to ensure that all children have access to high-quality outdoor experiences and environmental education. Every year, we publish an Annual Trend Report that shares innovative policies to encourage legislators, advocates, communities and youth to replicate, rethink and collaborate to build equitable youth outdoor opportunities. Together, we'll explore the latest state-level policy updates from 2024, winning coalition-building strategies, and exciting advocacy strategies for 2025 with a panel of youth outdoor policy leaders.
Watch the October 4, 2024, recording of the National League of Cities and Children & Nature Network in-depth look at the new report “How Green Schoolyards Create Economic Value.” The conversation, moderated by NLC’s Dr. Robert Blaine, primarily featured report author Rob Grunewald, with additional insights and perspective from Jordan Twardy from the City of Dearborn and Priya Cook from C&NN.
This slide deck on the economic benefits of green schoolyards can be used to support your own case-making efforts. Kindly credit them to Rob Grunewald in your presentations.
This Research Digest explores biophilic design – the intentional design of indoor and outdoor spaces to integrate natural elements and patterns into the built environment, with the aim of enhancing well-being. Biophilic design can be applied in a range of settings. In this Digest we focus on schools, libraries, childcare and urban settings where children learn and play.
An informal session to discuss how your community can become a Nature Everywhere Community as a Fall 2024 Accelerator Community. The 2024 Fall Accelerator Community application process is by invite only. This session will provide an introductory overview of the criteria that communities should meet in order to be invited to apply to the Accelerator cohort.
Watch the recording of our Vitamin N: Inspiration & Innovative Strategies from Brazil / Vitamina N: Inspiração e Estratégias Inovadoras do Brasil event featuring Ana Carol Thomé, Founder of Ser Criança é Natural who will share innovative strategies she has developed to provide opportunities for all children in Brazil to connect with the natural world. And Laís Fleury, Head of Partnerships and Nature Portfolio at the Alana Foundation. Their conversation will leave you excited to incorporate new approaches and resources into your outdoor activities.
An informal session to discuss how a community can become a Nature Everywhere Community through the Action Challenge. Nature Everywhere staff give an overview of the Action Challenge process and answer questions. This session provides an introductory overview of how a community can be recognized for advancing children and nature strategies.
In this video, join Children & Nature Network’s Director of Research, Dr. Cathy Jordan, for an introduction to the benefits of nature. Dr. Jordan provides an overview of nature’s benefits to children. She also discusses the “equigenic effect,” the term used to describe nature’s outsized benefits for children negatively impacted by economic disadvantage.
This Digest focuses on nature as a promoter of resilience in vulnerable children and youth
Watch the recording of our Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers in Nature event featuring Alexis Burroughs, Jessica Carrillo Alatorre, and Gabriel Pickus. They discuss benefits of nature engagement for young children, tips on how to prepare for the elements, tangible tools for nature play, whole-child centered learning with nature as the teacher and more!
This document is intended to provide guidance to City of Austin Parks & Recreation staff, contractors and vendors hired through the City of Austin, and other Partners (Austin ISD and other schools, Non-Profits, etc.) in the design, installation, maintenance, and management of nature play spaces. This document is intended to provide guidance to City of Austin Parks & Recreation staff, contractors and vendors hired through the City of Austin, and other Partners (Austin ISD and other schools, Non-Profits, etc.) in the design, installation, maintenance, and management of nature play spaces.
This Digest provides practice-relevant recommendations for integrating technology and nature to enhance health, well-being, academic succession, and connection to nature.
This Digest presents the numerous benefits of risk-taking in natural environments, while also calling attention to a marked reduction in risky outdoor play opportunities over the past decade.
Watch the recording of our November 29 Member Appreciation event moderated by Jesús Aguirre, Board Chair of the Children & Nature Network, and CEO of the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy with panelists Sarah Milligan-Toffler, C&NN President and CEO, Dylan McDowell, Executive Director for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators and Amanda O’Rourke, Executive Director of 8 80 Cities. They discuss trends and approaches to health and well-being that might influence, impact or present opportunities for children and nature leaders in the coming year.
At the end of 2023, the Children & Nature Network Founders’ Council – a cross-sector group of experts that includes the organization’s co-founders – finalized a report highlighting some of the most compelling challenges and opportunities facing the children and nature movement today.
This digest presents recommendations for addressing adolescent mental health through nature engagement
Watch the recording of our July 10 event with author and Children & Nature Network co-founder Richard Louv.
In this Digest, we feature neurobiological assessments and biomarker studies that investigate how nature impacts the brain and nervous system.
Inclusive nature play spaces and gardens offer opportunities for children with disabilities and their families to engage with the natural world and feel valued in their communities. This toolkit offers research, resources and recommended readings that address the benefits and design of outdoor play and gardening environments that meet the unique needs of children of all abilities.
This Digest offers evidence-based suggestions for using nature to promote the mental health and resilience of children impacted by adversity.
Watch the February 8 recording of our first Families Together in Nature event — Self-Care in Nature, featuring Nicole Jackson, Kari Kleven MSW, LICSW, Sonny LaForm, LSWAIC, MSW and Renā Trujillo.
This infographic highlights 4 ways that children, caregivers and families can practice self-care in nature.
We’ve focused this Digest on lessons learned from green schoolyard projects around the world, including studies from 10 different countries. A dozen evidence-based recommendations for designing and using green schoolyards are offered.
Anthill Creations is a not-for-profit based in Bangalore, India, committed to making play accessible to all children by using industrial waste to build safe, sustainable playscapes. This case study from India is part of the Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning project, a joint initiative.
Based in Perú, the Asociación para la Niñez y su Ambiente (ANIA) develops Tierra de Niños (TiNis), or Children’s Lands, as a way of greening school grounds that are replicable, child-led, sustainable and educational. This case study is part of the Global Lessons on Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning project, a joint initiative.
Les Cours OASIS is a program of the city of Paris that supports greening school grounds with an emphasis on climate resilience, policy and community. This case study from France is part of the Global Lessons on Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning project, a joint initiative.
The Município de Jundiaí in Brazil is one of the first entities in the country to adopt a series of recommendations on greening school ground and getting children outside through the Desemparedamento da Infância (“unwalled childhoods'') project. This case study from Brazil is part of the Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning project, a joint initiative.
This Digest highlights research relating to inequities in opportunities for children’s engagement with nature. Included are studies that (1) raise awareness of inequities, (2) demonstrate the potential of increased nature engagement in narrowing disparities in health and well-being, and (3) provide examples of specific initiatives designed to address inequities in children’s access to nature.
Studies in this Digest focus on the negative impact of climate change awareness on children’s mental health and possible interventions for addressing this concern. Related issues and specific intervention activities are also discussed.
Need some inspiration for the Vitamin N Challenge? Watch this recorded conversation with author and Children & Nature Network co-founder Richard Louv. Richard will discuss what he learned about creating a nature-filled life while writing his book, “Vitamin N,” and offer tips for completing your Vitamin N Challenge.
Family-based nature engagement – when children and their parents or caregivers experience a nature-based activity together – can take place everywhere from the backyard to parks and wilderness and even in women’s shelters and prisons. As this Research Digest shows, spending time in nature as a family is good for the whole family.
Research studies included in this annotated bibliography support the understanding that connecting children with nature promotes their mental health and well-being and that this can be especially helpful for children who need to cope with stressful adverse conditions and the emotional responses that their life situations evoke.
This infographic illustrates how nature-based interventions can help children and families recover from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). It includes evidence-based therapeutic strategies and outcomes that support children’s health and well-being.
This infographic presents 5 key outcomes of nature-based interventions for children and families encountering Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).
Interest in children’s spirituality has increased in the past decade, yet definitions and descriptions remain somewhat nebulous. Related research also remains scarce. What is known, however, is that engagement with nature promotes aspects of child development generally considered to be elements of their spirituality. We’ve sampled those studies for this Research Digest. We hope this Digest offers a moment for you to reflect on your own connection to nature as a pathway to, or an expression of, your own spirituality.
The Children & Nature Network has launched a new Health & Nature Fellowship program, designed to tap into the power of local partnerships and knowledge to "make more progress, more quickly."
Studies highlighted in this Digest focus on the use of nature to achieve therapeutic goals. Different approaches and different populations served are addressed.
This Digest focuses on ways in which technology can be a helpful or limiting factor for engaging children with nature.
This Digest focuses on climate change resilience and ecological restoration in relation to the benefits for both people and the planet.
Integrating nature and art in culturally relevant ways can promote children’s nature connectedness and mental health.
This Digest focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of people around the world. Social distancing restrictions and limited access to natural environments have contributed to the mental health concerns.
Three themes are addressed in this digest, which features 2020 studies not appearing in another Digest: Connectedness to nature, Implications for design, and Social-emotional and play considerations.
The #NatureForAll Forest Bathing Approach explains why it is so important to experience nature in cities for our own health.
This special issue focuses on the physical health benefits of both passive and active forms of nature engagement. Also discussed are several ideas about how health-care professionals are tapping into the health-promoting powers of nature engagement.
October-November 2020 | This Digest showcases recent findings regarding the impact of nature contact on mental health and emotional well-being, an area that has been extensively studied by researchers.
Comprehensive design intervention focused on promoting healthy outdoor environments at child care centers.
This project is an evolving work. So far, it includes the views and opinions of more than 100 contributors, which do not necessarily reflect the official position of any individual or organization. It is now ready to evolve with your input.
A comprehensive self-study to assess physical environment, interactions, programming, materials and teacher’s roles at early education sites.
A guide with real-life examples, best practices and practical steps to help agencies implement a wellness policy and create sustainable site changes.
This thorough guide helps make the case that green infrastructure supports human health.
This action-oriented guide supports local, state, and federal officials in planning for health at all levels to address determinants of chronic disease.
This policy outlines Providence Public School District’s goals and expectations relative to wellness for the entire school community.
A look at how health equity can a local lever for green schoolyard program development.
Case studies of green schoolyards as public places with the potential to improve public health for individuals and the community as a whole.
Infographic illustrating the research on academic benefits of children’s nature connection.
Infographic illustrating the research on the wide range of health benefits of children’s nature connection.
Why do children need green school grounds? This short, compelling video can help you make your case.
Examples of how Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) can reduce violence on school campuses.
Based on a decade of data, this website documents the benefits associated with participation in and public support for afterschool programs.
Case studies from six cities distill important factors for success, including partnerships, funding, policies and documented impact that wins support.
Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can encourage and offer a variety of options for beneficial play.
Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can increase children’s physical activity.
Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can enhance children’s mental health, social emotional learning, and well-being.
A call to action from leaders in the field to place the nature-health connection at the center of research, design, and decision-making.
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model coordinates policy, process and practice to improve learning and health.
This guide provides information, examples and considerations for working with public agencies and developing partnerships with public schools to develop school gardens.
How-to guide for using the Bridging the Gap Park Observation Form for Understanding Community Obesity Measures.
The Bridging the Gap Community Obesity Measures Project aims to improve understanding of policies and environmental factors that likely determine healthy diet, physical activity, and obesity in youth.
This compendium of surveys helps organizations delivering nutrition education in California measure changes in fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, food security and other related factors.
The D.C. Healthy Schools Act supports healthy school meals, locally-grown food, local wellness policies, healthy vending, physical activity, health education and more.
Issue brief about how green schoolyards can maximize social, economic and ecological benefits in America’s capitol.
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