Engage in Planning

The early phase of Nature Everywhere Communities involves a planning phase to “map the landscape” of the local systems both literally and figuratively. This planning process helps teams analyze assets, gaps, opportunities, and barriers. This resources provides a high-level view of what to consider when doing landscape scans for stakeholders, programs and experiences, and policies and funding in a community.

This resource aims to guide you to meaningfully engage community members to inform a Nature Everywhere vision and action plan.

“Worm. Rabbit. Fox.” A ball of string is tossed around. “Tree. Squirrel. Owl.” On and on it goes, as 5th graders name animals or plants in a habitat and toss the string. The ball of string keeps traveling until every child is linked in an entangled web. Years ago when I was an outdoor educator, I led this activity weekly. I would announce that the fox had a good hunting day, which was unfortunate for the rabbit.

In addition to its proximity to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, New York, is best known for its epic snow storms. These storms drop as much as eight feet of snow at a time, sometimes requiring the National Guard to help the city dig out its streets.

The Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) initiative increased its focus on systems-level change and adopted a systems change framework. This brief discussion paper describes examples of structural change observed from 2015 to 2020 with CCCN cities. The paper was used to lead internal discussions among CCCN cities at a gathering in 2020.

Wintermission Leadville is led locally by the City of Leadville, Get Outdoors Leadville!, and Lake County Recreation Department, with key support from many local partner organizations and community members.

Insights from the Cities Connecting Children to Nature initiative guiding city leaders on strategies for equitable access to nature for children.

Planning tools to map city systems for asset/gap assessments and to identify strategies for equitable nature access.

Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board uses equity-driven metrics to evaluate regional parks and trails, and ensure that investments are equitably targeted and support the MPRB’s Comprehensive Plan.

This guidebook outlines benefits, planning process and types of green storm water infrastructure on school grounds.

An Arkansas state tax on tobacco funds partnerships that promote physical activity in schools.

This report describes Y-PLAN methodology, which builds the capacity of young people to contribute their own data and insights to the planning and policymaking process.

Prevent vandalism on your schoolyard with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), used by architects, city planners, landscape and interior designers, and law enforcement to create a safer community.