From belonging to stewardship
This week, Program Manager Sam Glew and I are in San Diego at the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) Conference, where professionals from across the country gather to advance their skills and careers in outdoor learning. As we connect with colleagues and share ideas, we’re reflecting on what research and our own experience continue to affirm: When young people feel a genuine sense of belonging in nature, they also feel more connected to it – and motivated to care for it. When they feel safe, included and seen outdoors, they begin to recognize the environment as part of themselves.
This truth of belonging has come through powerfully in our Explorer program surveys so far this fall. The most common reflections from Crew teens—whether describing what they enjoyed most or what they’ll remember—weren’t about a single challenge or destination. They were about people. As NaRaya from Taft High School shared, her most memorable moment was the joy of “my friend’s first Adventure Crew.” Lucas from Walnut Hills reflected that his favorite part was “the people who said interesting things to me.” And time after time, students wrote simply, “making a new friend.”
From that sense of belonging grows care and responsibility. Monet from Hartwell Middle School captured it perfectly when she wrote about the most memorable element for her: “taking care of the environment and picking up trash and making the world a better place.”
Gabriela from SCPA, a member of our Youth Research Team, shared, “Being part of the research team helped me build friendships with other people that I was familiar with, but not very close to… In one of the [YRT] meetings, we talked about how beneficial nature is for our mental health and how being connected to it helps us. I think that helped me understand better how we have to take care of nature because nature takes care of us.”
As Adventure Crew continues to grow, we’re collaborating with our partners at Cardinal Land Conservancy, the Civic Garden Center and our new Youth Leadership Team to shape the character and qualities of our new home at the Green Cincinnati Hub—a tangible and far-reaching reflection of this same balance of belonging and stewardship. Together with Cardinal and future partners, this 7+ acre campus will become a space where restoration, community voice and connection meet—where our city’s young people help define what it means to belong, and in shaping what inspires them to lead and to care for the world that sustains us all.
As we head into this season of gratitude, you can help nurture that sense of belonging by volunteering with an upcoming Crew adventure or by making a gift to sustain these experiences all year long.
See you outside!
Libby