City dwellers tend to live longer if they are in leafy neighborhoods, according to a study published on Wednesday that linked green areas to lower rates of premature death. The research, which pulled data from nine other studies involving more than eight million people in seven countries from China to Canada, was the largest ever conducted on the subject.
The city of San Diego is moving ahead with an $8 million overhaul of Children’s Park. The renovation effort, which is expected to be finished in the summer of 2021, will replace an urban forest area which has been used primarily by homeless people with a number of family-friendly amenities intended to activate the entire space. The project will include amenities such as forest-themed playground equipment, space for vendors and a dog park.
The newly launched Youth Outdoor Policy Playbook is a tool to help legislators and community leaders advance state policies to get kids outside. Highlighting existing and promising policy solutions, the website provides a platform for sharing and advancing new ideas, and connects cross-sector leaders working on statewide policy initiatives. Partners involved in the development of the Playbook include the Children & Nature Network, National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, North American Association for Environmental Education, Outdoors Alliance for Kids, and Meridian Institute.
The Growing Green Schoolyards Executive Summary is a a new resource featuring initial research findings from a national survey and best practice design principles to continue momentum in the green schoolyards movement. The resource was produced out of a collaborative partnership PlayCore and the Children & Nature Network, which joined forces to raise awareness and help scale the implementation of green schoolyards.
A team of researchers in Australia looked at the mental health benefits of being in nature, placing a dollar figure on the mental health benefits. They did so by calculating what they call “quality-adjusted life years,” which measured a person’s ability to carry out the activities of daily life free from pain and mental disturbance. The team of ecologists, psychologists, and economists say that protected areas such as national parks around the world provide $6 trillion in benefits.
Kids from Low-income Families Suffer as Designated Play Spaces Remain Scarce and Streets Unsafe in India
Forty percent of schools in India do not have a playground, with the number rising as high as 70 percent in some states, according to surveys by the government. The lack of outdoor play spaces appears to have a harmful effect on children’s health. A recent survey of 85 cities across India revealed that 40 percent of children do not have a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI). Most caregivers surveyed hope for safe places for their children to play near their homes rather than a single park, a 20-minute walk away.
Washington State now offers the first licensed full-day, outdoor preschool in the nation. Kaleidoscope Forest Preschool on Orcas is a preschool that takes place entirely outdoors in all weather conditions. In 2017, the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families launched a 4-year pilot program to develop official requirements that all licensed outdoor preschools must follow. Until now, no outdoor preschools in the United States were licensed, which meant there were no industry standards, and they couldn’t offer full-day programs, an important factor for many working families. Unlicensed outdoor preschools also can’t offer state financial assistance to families.
UNICEF Canada has launched a new campaign, The Right to a Childhood, that advocates for children’s rights and challenges Canadians to support its global efforts to ensure every child grows up in a safe and supportive environment. The campaign highlights many of the rights and freedoms that allow children to be children as are outlined in The Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among those rights is the right to play outside without fear.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a new wave of projects combining outdoor classrooms and green spaces in neighborhoods that lack park access are underway across the city. Working with city government and other agencies, Grand Rapids Public Schools is working to strategically enhance school parks and playgrounds in parts of the city that lack sufficient green spaces. C&NN’s Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) team (an initiative co-led with the National League of Cities) extended technical assistance to the effort, supporting cities in raising the visibility of city-school partnerships for green schoolyards as a means of creating equitable access to nature. Similar efforts are underway in Austin, Texas where a construction bond passed in 2017 set up a requirement for outdoor learning space anytime a new school is built or an existing building is renovated.