Children and Nature Initiative
Goal: Reconnect children to nature for health benefits.
NEEF’s Children and Nature Initiative addresses two important issues—preventing serious health conditions like obesity and diabetes and reconnecting children to nature. Research indicates that unstructured outdoor activities may improve children’s health by increasing physical activity, reducing stress, and serving as a support mechanism for attention disorders. Learn more.
The Children and Nature Initiative educates pediatric health care providers about prescribing outdoor activities to children. The program also connects health care providers with local nature sites, so that they can refer families to safe and easily accessible outdoor areas.
This Initiative employs NEEF’s highly successful Faculty Champions model, which has trained thousands of health care providers on environmental health issues to date. NEEF is holding a series of “train-the-trainer” workshops to prepare pediatric health care providers to serve as Nature Champions in their communities. These Champions build capacity among other pediatric health care providers to be leaders in prescribing nature. NEEF provides pediatric health care providers with technical support, tools and resources, including a PowerPoint presentation created by medical experts, Children's Health and Nature Fact Sheet, Children & Nature infographic, prescription pads (English and Spanish), patient brochures (en Español) and Pediatric Environmental History Screening Form (en Español).
To download these materials, please visit our resources page.
Through the Children and Nature Initiative, health care providers, parents, outdoor organizations, schools, federal, state and local agencies, community groups and other institutions can work together to encourage children to spend more time outdoors and teach them how to protect their health and the environment.
For more information, please contact health@neefusa.org.
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Dr. Robert Zarr talks about the children and nature initiative.
National Kids to Parks Day, is on May 19, 2012. This day is an opportunity for every family in America to get active outdoors. 
Let's G.O.! is a youth-inspired and youth-led celebration held
throughout the month of April to bring awareness to the importance of
outdoor activity to healthy childhood development.