We achieved various goals through the Outdoor Program. Families, seniors, and youth learned about and were exposed to different environmental topics. They made connections to the natural environment and wildlife by going on Nature Area Trips, like to Muir Woods, Monterey Bay, Filoli House and Garden, and Angel Island. During those trips, they learned about marine life, the nature and landscape of the region, and the history of immigration at San Francisco's Angel Island. Locally, they learned about how to support a healthy lifestyle, and about local community gardens like Sisterhood Garden. An example of combining a trip to connect participants to nature and providing environmental education was when we invited a guide for the Lotus camping trip to talk about the history of Lotus and how the stream affects residents’ lives, the wildlife, and habitat. In addition, our Level 2 interns conducted workshops for participants using fun and interactive activities during the bus rides to natural area trips then leading the participants in explorations of various parks and natural places.

Increasing Access to Outdoor Spaces and to increase access to outdoor recreation for underserved communities, particularly those who face barriers such as transportation, affordability, or lack of outdoor programming and provide participants with opportunities to engage in outdoor activities, learn outdoor skills, and understand the importance of outdoor experiences for mental and physical health. We accomplished this by tracking the number of individuals from targeted communities who access outdoor spaces through OEG and monitoring the consistency of participation in outdoor activities, such as the number of visits or sessions attended. We supported in Building Outdoor Skills and Knowledge by having open conversations with participants to assess what knowledge or skills they have gained.Participant Self-Reports: Using self-reporting tools to learn participants’ confidence in outdoor skills before and after the program.

We have been partnering up with Brightline Defense on providing environmental education to our youth internship program. Lessons and workshops content were engaging and thought provoking. The youth enjoyed learning the materials including environmental justice mapping, land use policy and parks, and air quality. Additionally, Brightline Defense has partnered with AirGuardian for the air quality workshop. The youth built a LEGO air quality sensor to further deepen their knowledge and awareness of air quality.

We developed a new partnership with Community Nature Connection (CNC), a non profit organization dedicated to bringing unjustly oppressed communities into communion with the outdoors and nature. Legacy LA has collaborated with CNC as a part of their Transit to Trails program, where our youth got to visit spaces within the closest National Park to us, the Santa Monica Mountains. We are now collaborating with CNC to take our youth to Yosemite National Park, a much larger undertaking. Their staff has incredibly in-depth experience with National Parks, and can help guide and facilitate the planning of this undertaking. We look forward to helping our youth experience the wonders of the state they live in through this partnership. Similarly, we are looking forward to partnering with CNC to accomplish our much-anticipated Owens Valley trip.  

Some tips and lessons-learned include:

• Planning field trips in advance in order to allow for unexpected and sudden changes and smooth adjustments.
• Collaborating and dividing tasks with coworkers for smoother execution.
• Allowing more time for the research about the educational aspects of each field trip.

One unforeseen challenge was finding appropriate restaurants that could accommodate a large group of participants. Luckily, through a team collaboration and brainstorming session, we were able to find restaurants or lunch places that could accommodate all of our participants. For instance, finding a restaurant that could accommodate 53 people during the field trip in Santa Cruz was hard. Some restaurants could fit our group, but it required a minimum spending of $2,000, which would exceed our budget. At the end, one coworker suggested to visit UC Santa Cruz’s dining hall where we could fit our group with affordable spending.

One of the biggest lessons learned we had within this process is that t takes a full year to plan a Yosemite Trip. If we miss the planning period this puts us behind in meeting our grant deliverables. However, we wanted to ensure we build up the capacity of our staff and youth to ensure we have a safe Yosemite Trip. A lesson learned for us would have been to possibly reduce the amount of Yosemite trips we included and add additional trips that are easier to plan year round.