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.

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.