Program on the Environment

Short Summary of the Project:

Our region is one challenged by growing environmental problems. Empowering communities to engage in stewardship will be vital in hindering further degradation of our local environments. During my internship with Young Women Empowered (Y-WE), I sought to determine what impact community-oriented outdoor experiences have on increasing environmental awareness, solidarity across diverse groups of residents, and stewardship motivation. Results demonstrated that after a backpacking trip, participants had an increased connection to the environment and stated intention to take stewardship action. Overall, the empowerment of communities and the facilitation of experiences they can enjoy outdoors serves to enhance environmental stewardship action.

WHY I DID IT:

I wanted to engage in this project because of my own outdoor experiences as a young person and to reveal information that can help my own communities. Based on the impact my outdoor experience trips in elementary school had on my own desire to protect the environment, I thought this would be a great opportunity to explore how youth in this region are impacted and how a program like Y-WE Nature Connections specifically might execute these experiences. With environmental issues seeming even more urgent than they did when I was younger, and as our understanding of environmental injustice grows, I hoped that my capstone project might help overcome some of the barriers to environmental stewardship. In a society that often undervalues the ideas and agency of our young people, especially youth of color or queer youth, it was important to me that I center their voices in my project.

HOW I DID IT: 

For my capstone project, I helped my site supervisor at Y-WE Nature Connections plan and carry out an outdoor experience (a 4-day backpacking trip to the Olympic Peninsula) with King and Pierce County youth and their program mentors. On this trip, we conducted a photo activity and survey with the trip participants to gain more insight into their attitudes toward stewardship and community and how these are impacted by outdoor experiences. For the photo activity, participants were given a prompt and had the chance to respond with a photograph. The survey covered similar topics as the photo activity and allowed participants to reflect on their experience before and after the backpacking trip. In compiling a report on the trip for Y-WE, I analyzed the responses from both activities. 

WHAT I DISCOVERED: 

Through my engagement in a community-oriented outdoor experience with King and Pierce county youth, along with the results of my research, I found that outdoor experiences have a profound impact on participants. Overall, participants stated that the experience increased personal connection to the environment, fostered intention to engage in environmental stewardship, and led them to consider community empowerment as a way of overcoming the barriers to stewardship. Organizations like Y-WE empowers communities to collaborate toward solutions in their shared environments, which may be a vital step in creating sustainable and lasting facilitation of environmental solutions in our region. Because of the success of programs such as these, the expansion of Y-WE Nature Connections or other programs that enhance community empowerment and environmental stewardship through outdoor experiences must be considered. 

WHAT I LEARNED: 

• To plan and carry out an outdoor experience 

• To work with youth ages 12-19 in a community-oriented setting
• To write outdoor curriculum focusing on place-based knowledge, storytelling, stewardship, and environmental injustice 
• To prepare for situations where I might use CPR, First Aid, and best practices for handling food
• To understand the funding and operations of a small non-profit organization
• To seek out resources with the government and other non-profits to make outdoor experiences like this one possible
• To analyze and synthesize key takeaways into a report for my organization

The Big Picture:

Programs like Y-WE Nature Connections, which simultaneously empower communities, enhance stewardship, and facilitate outdoor experiences, can be instrumental in fostering local stewardship efforts. With further community research, investment in new programs, and expansion of efforts like Nature Connections, we can work toward sustainable environmental solutions in our region.