We have much more to do and your continued support is needed now more than ever.
Bringing Nature within Reach through Community Partnerships
Littleton Museum staff and “Designer for a Day” camp junior designers enjoying a site walk. Credit: David Lynn Photography
When community-based, mission-aligned organizations come together to create innovative opportunities for young children and their families to get outdoors and into nature, wonderous things happen! With the support of a generous funder, the National Wildlife Federation’s Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO) initiative embarked on three-year journey in Littleton, Colorado, to connect with partners and bring ‘Nature Within Reach’ for local residents.
ECHO’s first goal was to build relationships with community organizations that manage and influence the use of outdoor spaces in the city through broad and deep community listening, mapping, engagement, and collaboration.
Twenty-four Littleton-based organizations contributed to initial listening sessions and each shared unique perspectives, goals and visions for the future of nature-based play and learning in the community. Though representing diverse interests, each came to the same conclusion–Littleton families and young children need greater access to nearby, high-quality opportunities to spend time in nature.
To help determine where this work would have the greatest impact, ECHO developed a series of maps to visualize a variety of community characteristics.
“It was a unique opportunity for us to have the time to build the relationships necessary for a strong project foundation–it’s not always easy to find a funder who will invest in the upfront work in that way. The project’s success was a direct result of our ability to engage deeply with local partners, gather community input in a deliberate way, and use it authentically to inform and shape the final outcomes.”
Jessica Yuill, ECHO Education and Engagement Manager
This community-based research informed ECHO’s strategy which included:
- Developing demonstration projects in Littleton to meet immediate needs and showcase nature-based play and learning;
- Working with partners to expand awareness and access more broadly through community-wide events;
- Offering trainings and seed funding to help foster nature connection in early childhood settings
Several of the resulting collaborations are highlighted here:
The Littleton Museum
The Littleton Museum, scenically situated on 40 acres adjacent to Ketring Lake, provides more than just a link to the past, its grounds consist of three exhibition galleries, a research center, and two 19th century living history farm sites. Located in the heart of the community adjacent to the public library, the Museum offers culture and connection to nature at no cost to visitors. As a popular community hub for history buffs, nature explorers, and anyone seeking to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of daily life, the Museum is well positioned to serve as a demonstration site for outdoor play and learning.
On a fun-filled day in October, the Museum’s popular annual Harvest Festival provided a fantastic opportunity for ECHO to engage with members of the community. The team facilitated interactive activities that were focused on giving voice to the community’s vision for the types of nature play elements they would like to see implemented at the Museum.
Opportunities for the public to provide input continued after the Harvest Festival as ECHO staff placed interactive engagement boards in the Museum lobby to gather additional ideas for how to activate the outdoor area.
As a final step, Museum and ECHO staff co-hosted a “Designer for a Day” camp in Fall 2023, through which a group of local 7-12 year-olds took part in site investigations and analysis, generated ideas through artmaking and storytelling, learned about the design process through model-building, and presented ideas for potential nature play elements to their peers.
The feedback that ECHO received through each of these community engagement events informed a set of design recommendations that were prepared for the Museum to use as a guide as they develop nature-based play and learning spaces.
The High Line Canal Conservancy
The 71-mile long High Line Canal stands as one of the longest urban trails in the country, with over 350,000 residents residing within one mile of the Canal. In the partner visioning process, the Canal was identified as a significant opportunity to introduce casual, nature play connections for families actively using the trail. Staff from the High Line Canal Conservancy were interested in exploring ways to increase nature play opportunities while preserving the passive natural experience that many trail-users value.
ECHO worked with the Conservancy to do exactly that, introducing “Nature Play Days” on the High Line Canal to connect and teach young children and their families how nature play can be fun, easy, and accessible. Together, the Conservancy and ECHO staff hosted two “Nature Play Days” filled with simple activities like natural loose parts play, nature art, and nature obstacle courses that families could recreate in their back yards.
The Village for Early Childhood Education
The Village for Early Childhood Education, Littleton Public School District’s largest preschool program, serves over 300 children aged 3-5. ECHO selected The Village as a partner in the co-creation of a demonstration site because of the deep connection the center has with local families and its innate value as a high-quality program for early care and education.
The educators who make up the staff of The Village are passionate about providing developmentally supportive experiences for young children and were crucial partners in modeling what outdoor learning could look like for early care and education programs in the community.
ECHO partnered with The Village to incorporate family engagement, a design workshop, and a three-part training series into the visioning process. These components created a foundation for the demonstration site to successfully integrate nature play into their center with the support of their family, staff, and leadership.
The amazing staff at The Village are working hard to bring the ECHO schematic plan to life, and thanks to the help of community members like the students at the Explorative Pathways for Innovative Careers Campus, there have been significant enhancements to their outdoor space in a short time. Through this applied learning program, high school students who are considering careers in plant sciences worked in collaboration with ECHO and The Village to design and install sensory gardens.
It is the hope of the ECHO team and partners that this project sets the stage for widespread adoption and activation of nature-based outdoor settings that, with ongoing support, will eventually lead to self-sustaining, community-driven transformation–and bring more “Nature Within Reach” to more children in Littleton and beyond.
