 I'm Cara Sklar, Deputy Director of New America's Early and Elementary Education Policy team. We're so glad you've joined us for Children's Drive Outside, a new day for outdoor play and childcare. I'd like to acknowledge the National Wildlife Federation's Early Childhood Health Outdoors Program and thank them for being our partners in today's event. Have you ever asked a room full of pre-kindergarteners who's ready to go outside and seeing their hands shoot into the air and their little feet start hopping back and forth with the anticipation eager to measure the progress of the class tomato plant? Have you ever heard a more joyful sound than the unbridled squeal as a toddler jumps into a puddle, feels the water, and washes with amazement at the splash? We know children learn best when they are actively engaged, when the content is meaningful and interesting, when it's socially interactive and fun. We must facilitate those experiences for our youngest learners. Access to nature play in every childcare classroom, home, headstart, and elementary school enriches children's learning so they can thrive. And the time to do so is right now. Our early learning system is in a moment of tremendous need exacerbated by the pandemic and tremendous opportunity created by unprecedented federal investment in early learning. At New America and in coalition with the early childhood community, we're dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals. It's with this mission driving us that we invite you to join us to seize the moment to build a bold, post-pandemic agenda for a strong early care and education system that prioritizes equity, embraces a whole child approach, and supports family well-being. Today, we'll focus on outdoor learning as a critical component of that bold strategy. We have a wonderful agenda with great speakers. We'll hear from leaders about environmental justice. We'll learn research supporting outdoor play. We'll hear from two panels. Practitioners will share their bright spots and policy makers who scaled great ideas. And we'll close with a call to action helping each of us find our role to support this important work. We hope you'll join the conversation by asking your questions or leaving your comments in the chat or by going on Twitter and using the hashtag thrive outside. Please see the link in the chat for a detailed agenda and speaker biographies. And a recording of this event will be on the website after the event concludes. With those details stated, it's my pleasure to kick things off. Next, you'll hear from Kathleen Daufermeyer, Senior Program Officer at the George B. Storer Foundation. We're very grateful to Kathleen and the Storer Foundation for their leadership in outdoor education and for making today's event possible. Kathleen, over to you. Thank you so much, Kara. I've been an admirer of New America's work for many years and I'm really grateful to partner with you and your team on this important issue. So thank you for having us and thank you for everyone who joined today. I'm going to say that the nature preschool world really shows up to learn about this stuff. So it's cool to have you guys. I know that I'm in the company of hundreds of teachers, administrators, agency leaders, and elected officials who spent the last year trying to balance children's health and joy, learning growth, wonder, and safety during a deadly pandemic. I honestly got a little emotional thinking about all the kids that we have collectively served as a group during this scary time. You guys are real heroes. Thank you. I also want to name that a lot of this work would not be possible without the significant contributions from my grantees and especially Nilda Kosko, Robin Moore, and Alan Cooper who are also here with us today. I'm Kathleen Belk-Doffermire, the senior program officer at the George V store foundation. I'm speaking from Jackson, Wyoming, which is part of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem on the unceded land of the northern Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, and Eastern Shoshone people. I'm also speaking as a parent who's a little tired this morning of two toddlers, not of my toddlers but just from parenting, who are currently enrolled in child care with reduced hours and capacity thanks to the pandemic. For those of you in similar circumstances, congrats on making it through the past year or just getting out the door this morning. It's a really hard time to be a caregiver, but brighter days are ahead. The store foundation has spent the past decade working to help activate outdoor learning environments in child care settings. Too often these playgrounds are designed with a giant plastic place structure and a fall zone around it. I'll be the first to admit that my kids love these structures for the first few visits, but eventually it becomes boring and leads to some like kind of dangerous play that seems to reward the strongest and biggest kids in the group. They're important resource for many neighborhoods, but I think that they offer an incomplete learning and play experience for kids. I've also had the chance to spend time in some absolutely mind-blowing outdoor learning environments in a variety of climates and geographies. I'll never ever forget what it felt like or more importantly felt like to step through the gate of an outdoor learning environment like Kim Shaw's outdoor classroom and she'll be speaking with you in a few minutes. It was a transfer transition from scarcity to abundance. It was lush and green with a looping pathway for bikes and wheeled toys, a stage for performances and a huge vegetable garden that fed students and their families with fresh produce and well-worn paths through the bushes where children had clearly created their own imaginary worlds. It supported every type of play for every kind of kid. The only thing more beautiful than the setting was just seeing kids stream through the gate and use their space so joyfully. In that moment it was clear that children are just wired to thrive in this sort of environment and that the SOAR Foundation needed to make this kind of learning environment available to every kid. And now that I'm a mom, I intimately understand that nature matters to kids especially young children who need space to physically process their big feelings, find peace, take healthy risks and connect with their friends in their environment. It feels a little like nostalgia but I promise that it's rooted in biology and supported by data. Research shows that these settings promote improved physical health and enhance social-emotional development. The children interact more with each other and with their teachers. They engage in exploration, safe risk taking. They build confidence in these sites, inspire creativity, imagination and their cognitive skills and they help children grow and taste new foods and increase their affinity for the outdoors. All of these can last a lifetime. They can also help produce myopia, diabetes and obesity. The earlier children experience these benefits the better their developmental trajectory and the greater the benefits to society. As my friend and my friend and hero of Roommat from outdoor Afro would say, nature is the ultimate equalizer. The birds are going to sing no matter how much money is in my bank account and the flowers are going to bloom no matter what color my skin is. And while nature is an equalizer, access to nature is not equal. I would argue that it's our job to pursue equitable daily access for every child to spend time in these settings regardless of their zip code or the circumstances of their birth. And the past year has really laid bare the inequalities and inequities to access to these outdoor spaces. As another one of my heroes, Kim Moore Bailey at Youth Outside would say, the outside is safer for the pandemic and viral transmission but it is not safe for all communities, mostly due to racism. So how do we address that? I'd say that we should start by rethinking the places where people have daily access and spend most of their time. We know that many children like mine spend the majority of their waking hours in an early childhood license care facility. This is the space where we're going to have a huge impact with modest investment. We found that we have what it takes to quickly scale this up at a systems level, especially with Washington state's new outdoor preschool law and Head Start's new ARPA spending guidelines, which we'll discuss later. I saw one beautiful outdoor learning environment that was literally installed in the middle of a parking lot that was one of the biggest I've ever seen. It just proved to me that with topsoil, some creativity and a little help, we can do this literally anywhere. And it doesn't fix everything in the early childhood world by a lot, but this is a durable and more importantly doable investment that can easily be baked into our new vision of the early childhood system. So I think now is the time to be bold. We have an unprecedented opportunity before us. Let's carry forward the lessons that we have learned during the COVID-19 crisis. Let's use our collective power and influence to ensure that equitable access to nature exists in every community and every child care setting. We can support health and well-being of our youngest citizens and we can build the resiliency of the people in the planet. And the next speaker will discuss just how to do this. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, the Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. Thank you. Thank you, Kathleen, and thank you to the Stora Foundation. Thank you also to New America and, of course, thank you to my NWF family for helping to pull all this together. Then I'd be remiss if I didn't also thank Brian, Kara, and Angela who made sure that I made it here today. And thank each and every one of you for allowing me to share space with you. You know, as we begin this journey together, these sets of conversations, we should also make sure that we are honoring our Indigenous brothers and sisters. I'm blessed to be currently residing on the land of the Pamunkey and the Matapanai and a number of other nations and tribes. And I raise that also because our Indigenous brothers and sisters have given us a paradigm to operate from. You know, they've shared with us and the work that I do in the environmental justice space and the climate justice space and a few of the others, that we should be focused on honoring Mother Earth. That is the first principle of the environmental justice movement. Imagine how different our work would be if we actually honored Mother Earth. Imagine how different our work would be and the laws would be and the statutes and where we place our resources if we actually embrace that first principle of the environmental justice movement. Because the difference would be also in the way that we honor each other and the way that we honor our children. And our Indigenous brothers and sisters have also shared with us instead of being short-sighted, which far too many policies sometimes are, far too many grant cycles are. And you know, instead of focusing on the moment or even just one generation, we should be focusing seven generations in the work that we do and how we approach the issues and also in understanding the positive or negative impacts that can come out of that. We should, in this moment, this transformational moment that we find ourselves in also make sure that we are operating underneath of a healthy environment and healthy kids' paradigm. And in the environmental justice movement, for those of you who may not be as well-versed in the way that we approach many of these issues that are impacting both our young people and elders and others, our environmental justice paradigm speaks to our environment is where we live, work, play, pray, and go to school. All of these things sort of incorporate making sure that we're having a healthy ecosystem, making sure that our children have the opportunity to be in spaces that allow them to thrive, that allow them to become stronger, to allow them to be anchored to the positivity that outdoor spaces can provide if there is real accessibility and there's real equity and justice that's built into that process. Folks will often say, well, can you show me examples of how success is happening in a space? And each and every one of you can name numerous examples of positive actions that are going on and also point out where the gaps still reside. In the NWF family, we have our EcoSchools program, an award-winning program that partners with many of you to make positive change happen. And then a program that I've spent a lot of time with our Earth Tomorrow program, which is transformational. And those should be the paradigms that we're operating from in this moment, knowing the challenges that the climate crisis brings, knowing the challenges that environmental injustice brings, knowing the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has bring, that we need to be focusing on transformational sets of opportunities and projects. And the Earth Tomorrow project is just one of those. That program has brought together in a multi-racial way, kids who might not normally get an opportunity to not only build life skills, but also to get in touch with nature and to understand their connection that exists inside of that space. And yes, there are other programs across the country that are doing very similar work. And we should be uplifting those and helping folks to understand that when we make these investments, positive change can and will happen. I will also just call out real quickly for folks that in this transformational moment, we now have a First Lady. Our First Lady, Mrs. Biden, Dr. Biden, of course has a love for kids, understands the value of the investments that need to happen in that space. And then of course, I know folks will unpack for you. Many of these additional federal resources that have been announced and additional ones that are coming. Whether we're talking about the infrastructure bills or we're talking about the American Family Plan, we have to expand the paradigm. We have to make sure that people understand that there are sometimes nontraditional ways that we should be making investments that will grow exponentially and benefiting our children and our children's children and our children's children children. And that's why we have to get engaged in these processes to help people to understand the new sets and existing sets of opportunities that are literally right at our fingertips. Each and every one of you have often said, and I know I have been, a person has done this also, if I just had a few additional dollars, I could do so much more good. I could reach so many more kids. I could take this a bit deeper to help to make it real change happen and help to infuse it into our learning sets of opportunities. If we could just make sure that there was these additional outdoor spaces, whether in the urban or the rural context, how much more change we could actually push forward. But I would be remiss if I didn't also share with you that if we are not focused on the environmental injustices that have been weaved into our system, whether on the educational level or the environmental level or the infrastructure level, then we will miss the fullness of this opportunity. The reality of the situation is that in our country today, we've got 28 million kids who are dealing with unhealthy air. I want each and every one of you just to take just a second and join me. I would like for you to take a deep breath and just hold on to it for one second because in our country right now we've got far too many locations where folks can't take a breath of clean air. Please let it out. I don't need anybody passing out. I want you to think about that as we are building and redesigning and expanding that we still have these disparities that exist inside of our country. We've got 60 million folks over the last decade who have dealt with unhealthy water and issues that are going on in that space and of course disproportionately there are so many children who we worry about and who are impacted in this space. When we look at what happened in Flint, Michigan, please understand we've got 1.2 million kids who are dealing with the impacts that are from lead and the neurological disorders that come from that and also sometimes it makes it more difficult for kids to actually be able to learn but also we've seen the studies that show that when we can get kids outdoors, when we can get kids touching nature again, it can be a way of healing. It can also be a way to help to improve education along with the other steps that are necessary in that space. We have this opportunity and this transformational moment to make real change happen. We have an opportunity to address the food and justice issues that are happening in our country right now. 24 million folks who are currently dealing with food insecurity and we know disproportionately it is children who continue to be impacted in that space but as we get kids out into urban gardens and and helping them to better understand how things grow in their relationship in that space it's transformational. This is our moment. I'll share this last point with you all. My grandmother used to share with me that we have power unless we give it away. Each and every one of us has our own individual power to get engaged to push a little bit harder to expand a little bit further and as a collective we can most definitely change structures and we can make sure that everyone is protected and of course that that power is also tied up in our vote making sure that whether on the local level all the way up to the federal level that we are thinking critically and that we are working with parents and others to make sure that we're utilizing our vote to get folks in office who care about what's happening in our communities and who care about what's happening to our kids. I'm Mustafa Santiago Ali. I want to thank y'all for giving me just a few moments to share space with you with the transformational work that I know that you have done and that you will continue to do. Thank you all so much. Hi everyone I'm Sarah Konradie. I'm the early childhood health outdoors program director at the National Wildlife Federation joining you today from Denver, Colorado. Before we get started I just want to take a second and honor the experience that everyone here has had being a child. So I'd like you to draw on your own experience and ask you to think about a time that you spent in nature as a child so if you're visual like me you might recall the flash of an image or maybe you remember the way something felt in your hand the sensory quality some the way something sounded. Maybe it was scratching in the dirt between the roots of trees or just splashing in the rain after a thunderstorm. If you're like me maybe you remember picking wild flowers through the gaps in the fence at your elementary school. So take a minute go to the link in the chat or go to www.menti.com and enter the code six two eight five nine five nine and share with us share with the group one of two things. So think about how that space felt the qualities of that space maybe it was shady or muddy or how it made you feel maybe you recall feeling confident or maybe you felt scared. So in the Mentimeter share you know a word or two that just describes how you felt in that space or the qualities of that space that stick with you today. So we'll we'll start to see across this fantastically diverse audience this national audience maybe some of those common themes of those recollections that that you know we've all bring bringing with us today and are sort of this common thread tying us together wonderful free safe powerful powerful calm playful wonderful magical yep we all need a little magic just beautiful and we have a national audience today and this is it's just remarkable as we think about all of these things that that tie us together no matter where we grew up where we spent time alive yeah beautiful thank you thank you all for taking a moment to share all of this all pretty safe wonderful well thank you we'll we'll let this continue to populate I'm so glad we were able to kind of draw these experiences together and I'm going to share with you just a little bit more of the evidence of the background of the research of you know why these experiences have been so formative and thank you yes and once remarking notice how free comes up so much that that feeling of being independent and free such a such an important experience for for so many of us as children so many people may think of these experiences that you've all shared as just recess or summer break maybe something that just happened on vacation but we know of course our educators know that those moments those that you've just pulled out of the depths of your memories those are vital learning opportunities and we know that kids learn about themselves the world each other through experience interactions and play and that play and learning can happen anywhere inside and outside there has been so much time money energy invested into optimizing our indoor classroom environments for kids which is great but we know that the outdoors is a critical contributor to the health and well-being of children and their caregivers and outdoor quality is an often overlooked strategy for supporting whole child development so in this moment when we're looking at a once in a generation opportunity to re-envision our schools and child care facilities what if we challenge ourselves to think about what's possible outdoors our team works with providers to improve the quality of their outdoor spaces oftentimes this is what we see when we make our first site visit next slide please but the question is does this really support kids learning not just once but again and again this playgrounds over a parking lot in a strip mall it's not uncommon right but what's here for kids to do yeah I mean it's pretty safe but it kind of ends there it doesn't support a variety of learning styles it doesn't support the needs of children with different interests and abilities perhaps a lot of those emotions that you all recall feeling in your special place from childhood may not be something that are replicated in a space like this so I want to ask you how we can move beyond traditional playgrounds like these and reimagine them as outdoor learning environments well let me show you next slide please this is that exact same playground but enhanced with more choices now it includes an outdoor classroom blocks mud kitchen water play stem center flower and vegetable gardens there's a new trike pathway and a lot more it's just off off camera there next slide please the owner of this program Michelle told us about the changes that she's seen since redesigning her space she says that this is completely transformed how we think about outdoor play learning and discovery that they see and feel the benefits every single day they see it when their infants get to touch and smell plants when their toddlers sit and enjoy the quiet space in the sensory area when our preschoolers feel the wind blow as they make their way around the trike path as their friends are using their imagination just nearby to build a pirate ship in their loose parts area we see the impact of this transformation in our children's behaviors in our staff interactions and in our parent involvement and again I just want to take a minute and remind us that this is all happening in a fenced-in parking lot in a strip mall in suburban Denver so Michelle's observation of those benefits that they're seeing every day is backed up by a large body of research next slide natural outdoor learning environments with a diversity of features and choices are much much better and just to be clear this is not about field trips to nature this is about daily experiences time spent in high quality outdoor spaces time spent in high quality outdoor spaces supports young children's physical health it's proven that time outdoors in nature boosts the immune system never more important than today when children play in natural environments designed and activated using best practices we know that they move more in fact kids are 22 percent more likely to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity in these spaces and with their caregivers they spend more time outdoors in all seasons and those findings have been replicated across multiple states and in multiple climates when hands-on production gardening is introduced we know that children uh like to try new foods new tastes um and that helps them to develop healthier eating habits outdoor time and high quality play spaces supports kids cognitive development it increases their concentration uh leads to greater attention functioning and these spaces support children's mental health by reducing stress levels high quality outdoor environments promote social emotional development as children interact more positively to caregivers and each other when kids play in nature maybe this was represented in some of your earliest experiences they have more positive feelings about each other their play is more imaginative more creative than play in other settings and we know of course that that creative play encourages language development social skills collaborative skills um and I I did see this uh proliferating in the mentor meter that feeling of self-efficacy uh I can do it right that comes with age appropriate risk taking and incremental challenges and responsive environments like the ones that we're talking about make it possible for more children children engage in longer periods of self-directed free play in these spaces the space and the equipment isn't dictating how children play much more open-ended these spaces also support high quality inclusion because they're more easily modified and adapted once these spaces have been thoughtfully renovated there's a reduction in challenging behaviors non-traditional outdoor spaces really empower teachers to plan for the positive behaviors that they want to see outside just like they do in their classrooms but children are not alone we know that these spaces benefit caregivers as well plus these outdoor learning environments reduce existing equity gaps next slide please research suggests that children disproportionately suffer the long-term developmental consequences of limited experiences in nature specifically children of color and children and families living with low incomes are more likely to live in areas without quality parks and without nearby green space the center for american progress calls this the nature gap across the u.s three fours of census tracts with large numbers of children and families of color live in so-called nature deprived places for children who lack access to the developmental benefits of nearby nature in their home environments due to systemic racism and its impact on the built environment bringing nature into the quality equation of licensed care is a way to offset this disparity it's important to consider that for many young children time outside in the licensed child care setting may be their first and only consistent outdoor experience the health and well-being benefits of nearby nature should not be out of reach for any young child and we can affect this inequity at a system level scale the good news is that these everyday experiences are affordable and they're scalable next slide please anyone with an outdoor space can start activating it right away simply saying yes to children engaging with materials that may already be there like twigs plants small stones and those research backed benefits that I mentioned previously many of those outcomes can be realized with pretty modest investments as Kathleen mentioned earlier of course you can always spend big bucks on a nature playground but you don't need an extreme playground makeover to create a better outdoor learning environment and so importantly these spaces can be constructed incrementally with ongoing family and community engagement including incorporating children's voices into the planning process and that can result in really unique and culturally relevant outdoor play spaces next slide please of course there's more to this than just adding sticks and rocks to our playgrounds we maximize the positive benefits for young children when place meets practice as so beautifully illustrated in this photo here it's critical that providers have access to professional development to help empower them to engage young children outside the combined efforts of the national wildlife federation and the natural learning initiative are already reaching thousands of providers across the country through professional development offerings including the outdoor learning environment certificate course which is offered remotely through nc state university this health equity strategy is innovative but it's not new it's accessible adaptable it can work anywhere urban suburban rural and our team of landscape architects and early childhood specialists I assure you we have seen it all it is also scalable and it's urgent this national movement needs investment in places and practices and supportive policies to ensure that the developmental benefits of these environments are available to all children please join us in thinking about how we can remove barriers to creating these high quality and health promoting spaces how providers can be incentivized for their efforts and intentionally planning these spaces and most of all join us in the belief that every child in licensed care everywhere should have nature within reach for their own healthy futures a healthy society and a healthy planet and now we'll see a beautiful example of a high quality space and high quality practices in action at a safe place child enrichment center in Raleigh North Carolina thank you for me it was the completion of a dream and a hope that I have for all children we needed to figure out a way to use our outdoor environment and make it a classroom the children became a part of the process we took down a fence we installed a pathway and instantly the children started to move more we've added a pollinator garden so we are able to attract insects and butterflies and we have bird houses we have set up centers so that they can have items to capture and observe nature there's art there's science obviously there's math it's a part of what we do every day our children plant their food they harvest it they're part of the preparation of the food and as a result they eat their food we operate in a food desert it just makes good sense that we would create a culture that fresh food and access to it is the norm one I cook staff that our garden is a resource for them currently we are harvesting all of our lettuce we're able to share that in the classrooms teaching and cooking opportunities and then we have enough surplus that our families are able to take a package home with them for dinner we talk about building brains but we're also building pallets so that early exposure they begin to crave it and our children extend that excitement into their home so we're finding our parents expanding their vocabulary about food and items that they're willing to try we have to do the bigger work and if we want to make an impact on the generation it's going to be in the area of health there are pieces of this that everybody can do and what the help of us all of it we knew we wanted to make an impact to the community that we were serving and that is an underserved group of families and we wanted this to be a place that they could come and that it would be hopeful and that they could see that there is opportunities to do anything that you want to do we want to say that we changed the culture here what a great program highlighted there and we're so lucky to have kim shawl who was featured in the video on our next panel so we have two panels for you the first is practitioners with experience developing and implementing awesome outdoor learning programs and the second is a policy panel where then we'll identify federal state and advocacy strategies that will enable more children to gain access to high quality outdoor learning programs our moderators will post questions to the panelists and we invite you to ask questions in the chat without further ado we'll welcome anupama joshi the moderator of our first panel to kick things off thank you so much kora and i am really thrilled to be in community with these leaders on the panel that we have today you've heard about the why of why this work is important in this panel today you're going to hear about the how how do you make this a reality how do you make quality outdoor learning environments a reality at early childhood centers and the good news is that in addition to the three panels that we have today there is hundreds of centers that are considering this and our hundreds are are looking at innovating and overcoming some of the barriers that we have to make this a reality so we have a stellar panel for you we have a early childhood provider kim shaw who you just saw a video of we have a licensing expert debbie gray and we have an educator katie cross who will be joining me today so without much ado i'm going to just jump right in with the questions as we go through the panel question and answers please feel free to follow and join the conversation on twitter using hashtag five outside as well as following on ad new america ad and at nwf and at any point in time during the panel if you have questions please post them in the chat box and we'll pick them up and hopefully have time for addressing at least a couple at the end of the panel so let me just kick off by by asking all three of you and let's start with kim since we just saw the view of your center make it real for our viewers how does outdoor learning and play manifest itself in in an early childhood center kim you want to kick us off thank you thank you again for inviting us to share our story and valuing what we bring to the table so for us we knew as premium speakers have already emphasized on the importance of being outside and then as we partner with the natural learning institute we constructed a plan and we were very intentional about using a larger space we as a center is very small we converted a house and so that outdoor environment was essential to being able to put wings on our children and to be able to go outside and move in a way that was not restricted and a high quality center you want to create as many yeses as possible and outside we can say yes you can jump you can run you can scream and so we became intentional and started a plan to add the same um sellers and settings that we had inside we could create that outside and therefore um spending rich time in an environment that created everything that we know that nature can do for us um is common so we have places that are quiet that are sheltered and that children can escape to teachers could bring everything that they do inside art all of their lesson planning we could create that in our outdoor learning classroom and so that's what we try to do um and it's open ended so we're just constantly adding and changing and that space is involving and again it's the video state we are in a food desert and we knew that gardening a garden-based um environment would send a strong message to our children and our families that we don't have to be in the crime state um and so that's what we've tried to do and again we're always adding to that and learning every day how to do it better fantastic work thank you Kim next maybe we should go to Debbie could you talk a little bit about what this means in the work that you do you know with regards to licensing child care centers yeah so um thank you I am the program quality and technical assistant manager for child care licensing in Colorado prior to that I was actually one of the state environment rating scale trainers um for seven years so I spent an incredible amount of time doing observations in outdoor learning environments for the ERS tool as well as a class tool and one of the things that my colleagues and I started to see as is that we had playgrounds that were very very sterile we saw that children were were bored outside and they were not being stimulated or challenged outside and we wondered anecdotally if there were more injuries that were occurring um when children were using the playground equipment um in unintended ways in ways it was not designed in 2014 I joined the licensing team and I already had this this passion to try to transform playground spaces into outdoor learning environments um we started researching uh about outdoor learning environments and what we could do to encourage families and encourage providers to to bring out more indoor interest areas outside as well as to provide more nature outside um so in 2014 I was introduced to the echo team and was so very excited to collaborate have the opportunity to collaborate with this team and one of the challenges that we initially faced was that our staff really our licensing specialists they did not have as much exposure to outdoor based areas and environments as I had and obviously as echo had so we immediately had Sarah come in and do quite a bit of training with us that showed these wonderful slides of why nature is so important and showed our staff how natural environments can be transformed from what we saw parking lots with only plastic playgrounds to green spaces that showed children busy at work gardening playing in mud kitchens experimenting with a flow of water after her training um I came in I also have 12 years I'm a certified playground safety inspector for the last 12 years so I came in and I taught our space or I taught our staff that this can be um a balance that we can create natural environment learning settings in a safe place so we talked quite a bit about our licensing rules which incorporate some of the ASTM licensing uh or ASTM standards for playgrounds um and we talked about the balance that we can have gross motor equipment um whether it's plastic or whether it's nature um it can also have a use zone and a resilient surface and it can be safe so I felt very very privileged to be able to collaborate with echo look at some of their plans um from the immediate beginning of their process and incorporate our licensing specialist in that planning process so that they too could see that this can be achieved um so through this I think we have really encouraged our licensing specialists that this can be done they've seen wonderful incredible transformed spaces and they are fully on board now with providing guidance resources and technical assistance to all of our childcare programs on how to start this journey to transform your playground to a natural inspired learning environment so thank you so Katie could you elaborate a little bit more on the work that you do in terms of transforming these settings and then also if you could touch on what the cost of transforming that'd be great so um with my work with Nebraska Extension and University of Nebraska Lincoln we are working to bring the work of NLI and echo as one of um uh new uh expansion state for the echo project here in Nebraska and I work primarily with directly with teachers and program owners and administrators um in all areas of professional development and now in helping these programs design their outdoor spaces um so a lot of we kind of tend to work with people who come to us who um already understand the value of outdoor play um but we help them dig a little bit deeper and think about it's so much more than just the physical activity aspect while that's um important and a huge part of it um I had a class last night and a few of the comments our provider said is you know being in these outdoor natural environments the children can literally dig deeper um physically into the ground but into their exploration and learning um they said that the amount of social play they see in the outdoor environments that we've helped create is so much higher um and that they just see benefits to children in all areas of development um we also are looking to doing some potential research looking at the um benefits for the teachers as well um are we uh how we can help reduce teacher stress level help help programs maintain staff and have uh more less turn staff turnover when they have these outdoor spaces but one of the biggest challenges that we face is funding um when we think about funding sources we think about external funding so kind of through grants and other types of programs and then internal funding um external funding the challenges we usually face are that many of our programs or are privately owned um it's very very hard to find grant dollars for the birth to five um sector um it is even harder to find grant dollars for the birth to five sector when these are small businesses privately owned um child care programs and even harder for our family child care centers um it is very difficult to find any financial help for those um those providers um internally we should we still struggle a little bit um there's several programs we work with that have built new centers or are renovating old buildings to create new centers and there are towns and communities across Nebraska and they come to me to help them design um their outdoor space and we talk about budget and there's awful often no budget no the line zero um for the outdoor states it's a complete afterthought um for a lot of people who might not have expertise in this area and then a lot and then on the flip side we have programs that have um who are nervous because they've gotten quotes for our traditional space with the very large climbers and the board surfaces and they're looking at spending mass amounts of money to get these outdoor spaces put in um we can find the balance you know it does cost a little bit of money depending upon what structures you already have and what infrastructure you have there um but in general we are able to put in spaces that cost significantly less than the traditional spaces they're actually safer we don't have four five foot high falls surfaces for kids to fall off of onto the ground um and these spaces actually last longer um we know they do take a little bit of management to kind of keep them up going but overall there's no need to strip out your entire site every 10 to 15 years like for those large structures great thank you so much Katie points to be noted it doesn't cost more and it can happen um and that there are resources for you to make it happen so let's come back to Kim um my question to you is as you know last year I'm sure has been particularly challenging for your center as well as early childhood centers all across the country can you share a little bit about how you pivoted in terms of you know shipping your work and working with the children and with the parents in the last year uh with the pandemic oh yeah it truly has been it was a challenge and and and still continues to be um so quickly we had to make the commitment and the decision to stay open um once we made that decision we began to um support our community two of our partners decided to close and that will be early head start and we also administer the NC Pre-K classroom for North Carolina and with that closing they still extended its financial support um we had families that were essential workers and we stayed open to support them and then offer available slots to community essential workers to provide care at our location um we instantly um as our family sheltered employees we went to their homes and daily dropped off meals for them um checking with them daily to see if they had any other needs and try to provide those items um through the center or some community connections so we did door to door we had a route that um encompassed about three hours a day so we were able to drop off the centers for our families and blow kisses at our babies that we definitely missed and they were able to connect with staff and they had seen um every day and to add some comfort in that um we also begin to um address the the mental stress that caused that this pandemic calls for our staff so we um just really tried to create opportunities for us to support ourselves as of and we became a poster family as caregivers um and I want to say probably the biggest lesson that we learned was that um people first and that we needed to be consistent about self-care the previous year we had learned a lot about ACEs and trauma and created spaces in the center for the adults to go and do so and just reflect and we also you know took a lot of time to show up at PPP we added appeal fires and the suggestion was to crack a window but we went outside um and we found that we could do that we knew how to do that we ate outside we went to a space that naturally provided some comfort and um as we got guidance from the division of child development and um health and safety guidance um we did what we knew was best and and it let us outside and um again we are still creating ways that we can be out there longer and longer every day great there's a lot of kudos coming in the chat box do check that for all of the work that you're doing I know we are we are we're getting a lot of questions as well and we are tracking them but um let's just maybe close out in the next couple of minutes with uh with Debbie if you can if you can talk about um challenges in the licensing area that you that you see and then if there was a wish list that you had or a wish that you had in terms of easing those challenges and barriers what would that be? Well I think um a little bit of what I touched on earlier I think when we initially started working with Echo um some of our licensing staff themselves were a little bit concerned um whether or not we could safely transform playground spaces into natural outdoor learning environments so a big piece of what we did again was was provided that training um and provided that balance and try to provide that um explanation that that children are really more productive outside um in natural environments and that they're they're definitely um creating and and learning um and that this can be done by by all of our licensing rules so I guess a wish list for us is just to continue to work with Echo and to continue to transform these playgrounds and to see these children um engaged in this collaborative uh play together and um hoping to do some more training in our state um for all play for all providers on how to transform your playgrounds and um hopefully do uh training on our LMS system soon um on nature-inspired environments. Great, Katie what would be your wish list if you if you had one to make this easier? Oh yeah so I can't um can't say this is my own but um whenever I think about my wish list it's I hear Nilda's voice in the back of my um head and I hear her talking about um the paradigm shift and how we really need to continue to advocate um for ourselves as early childhood educators we need to help our families learn how to be advocates for their themselves and their children and their communities that we have to shift this paradigm from thinking that that large metal plastic structure is what children need in our early childhood settings because it's just not true we have so much research to show that that's not it is the best option for this type of a setting and we just need to keep slowly chipping away the other thing we always hear from Robin and Nilda as well is that this is incremental change um we don't actually want to see these things happen overnight that would also not be developmentally appropriate for children or adults um so thinking about shifting those paradigms incrementally over time advocating advocating advocating and trying to ensure that every child across our entire country has access to these natural spaces every single day. Here Kim your wish list you know that every center would be funded and receive everything they need for their children um we've learned that if you take care of the provider they will take care of the children and um just as this year brought new revelation about the importance of early childhood and this workforce and that child care should be considered infrastructure just like the roads just like the power lines and that we should share up this part of our community that does so much foundation for everyone and that's creating the best environment the best opportunities for our children to be successful um that America will have 90s lesson and begin to focus on what's important and if we take care of our younger set they will take care of us well said child care is essential infrastructure as we've seen last year for sure so let's jump in thank you so much first of all Kim Debbie and Katie it's been great to be in community with you and thank you for for sharing your experience and thoughts we'll jump in we have a couple of minutes for maybe taking one or two questions and before we move on to the next panel so the first question that we have is around balancing the risks of children playing outdoors with the benefits of outdoor play can you address that maybe this is one for actually either one of you can address it so jump in the risks of outdoor play versus the benefits I go ahead Debbie you want me to speak to you go ahead yeah I'll jump in sure so um one of the things we would talk all the time with um our teachers about as we're designing spaces and that implementing and ongoing is looking at the difference between hazard and risk it's very important that we under that we try to eliminate hazards we don't want hazards of those unknown dangers um and then we think about risk we there's not it's either it's not risky or not risky um walking down the street has risk walking through the grass walking on your mulch walking on your poor surface has risk so we try to help teachers and educators and our administrators understand the different levels of risk understanding the low high and you know low mid and high risk activities that can be done and then thinking about how we how we how we mitigate that risk what kind of plans we have in place if we do have maybe a structure that could be a little bit more dangerous or if we have children that are allowed to play with sticks you know what are the rules that we have in place and how do we as educators supervising those children and playing and engaging with those children um kind of set the criteria that we have as a as a team to decide where we draw the line and how we make those things work I know we talk a lot also about risk versus challenge and that we want to definitely challenge our children and just because um a playground may have height doesn't necessarily mean that's more developmentally challenging than um equipment that doesn't have height that they can use different domains so um we definitely talk about supervision is a big big piece of transforming any space making sure when you're providing new materials and new equipment that the children understand how to use those equipment um kind of what Katie said earlier just uh doing it in small incremental steps along the way so that children are slowly becoming acclimated to to this new space and and how to use equipment and and materials safely and I I have a funny story I had um one staff um that pushes the limits for everything and she had started to um bring a chair up to a tree and was teaching the children how to climb the tree get to the first branch and then let go so um this had become just a huge excitement for the children and Miss Anna was off one day and so the children got the chair on their own and put it up to the tree and the other teachers who didn't fully embrace this um endeavor was like well what do we do we need to you know show the risk here um but it was an example of how um you know some of these things these opportunities for children to climb trees to splash puddles that you have to create those opportunities and nobody was hurt the teachers learned that that everybody learned from her example how um refreshing this was and how they did that in their childhood and um it was a learning opportunity for all of us um and I just appreciate her and appreciate all the um providers and teachers who are embracing this concept and making sure that children have those experiences that's a great story to close us out on this panel that's the time that we have um so again thank you to Kim Debbie and Katie there's a lot more questions in in the chat box that are coming in and I'll leave it to the organizers to you know address those there's a lot of interest in in in hearing more from you and addressing some of their questions we're going to pass it on to Jennifer Zuckerman um to read us through our next policy panel great uh thanks so much Nipma um I'm so excited to be here today uh I know it says that I am with the Duke University World Food Policy Center but I think what's probably more relevant um is prior to coming to Duke I had uh an amazing 12-year opportunity to work with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation um and it's from that perspective that I get to share my experience in working specifically with uh Robin and Nilda at the Natural Learning Initiative and really how we were able to build to state-level change in North Carolina and then it's just been an amazing gift uh to be in this uh presentation this session so far today because it's kind of every funder's dream to invest in something and to see it grow um and grow where you know there was nothing that we as a funder had to do to kind of make it grow other than uh investing in um what we kept seeing working um and it was progressive it was iterative um and I was so glad uh that folks spoke to the fact that it is a paradigm shift and it is an incremental change so I'll share a little bit about that just as a framing uh from what's happened in North Carolina before we move into some of the questions uh to our panelists but also I um you know I'll share as a parent um my son is now almost 20 years old and he grew up getting to play on uh playgrounds kids together playground the kid zone at the North Carolina Zoo um and the stories that he wove interconnected with the outdoor learning environments that he was in um now he is producing films he's got films and film festivals and I truly believe this engagement in space and place to tell stories was beneficial not just for his health but for his development that creativity and so I'm so excited that this is what we're talking about and talking about from a national policy and state policy level so what happened in North Carolina was this iterative process of just moving from a small pilot at three centers to see if it works and then expanding out to 31 centers to see can we scale with similar impact then integrating uh the outdoor learning environments in with some policy and practice work with GoNAPSAC to really see how can we be affecting policy practice and outdoor learning environments to affect early childhood health and development um our work then went to scale from how do we convert best practice to common practice and how do we integrate educators regulators and landscape designers this is so far beyond just early care and education um and then what does it mean to make that a statewide program um the nli team created the outdoor learning environment quality tool in our fourth stage of pod they integrated the outdoor learning environment module in the community college curriculum library they established demonstration sites because folks have to see this to really begin to connect with it and they started to create the certificate programs the first for educators and then for landscape designers and what we've learned in North Carolina is that pod works um it increases activity it increases teacher and child interaction there's decreased behavioral issues there's increased likelihood of children trying new foods but for it to grow people need to see it and they need to experience it and for it to be implemented people need tools and resources and for policy to change there needs to be connection to it and coalition building um so while all of this was happening in North Carolina nli was working with South Carolina with Texas with Colorado with nwf and with head start and we're at this tipping point now of opportunity so our panel today is going to speak to their experiences in affecting policy by building coalitions um talk more explicitly about the impact and opportunity actually of covid and how connections and conversations with licensing can support these policy changes that we seek for this uh substantive change that we want to see at the local state and federal level so uh first i want to turn it over to kim kim co-front is with the texas association for the uh education of young children and um kim i'd love you to speak a little bit about your experience in building a coalition in texas to support outdoor learning environments so what what did it take to build that and what has happened from a policy perspective as a result thanks jennifer and uh thank you for having us here today and i say us because i'm representing our texas leadership team um that we affectionately call olay um outdoor learning environment texas um so the change and when i think of think about our change that we've had over the last six years i think about policy change with a capital p and then policy change with a lowercase b so i'm going to kind of give you examples of what we've done and what we've seen over the last six years and actually we actually started with a big policy p our um back in 2015 our our texas rising star which is our qrs um system here in texas revised their standards and looking at the um nli's uh best practices did some minor changes to our words that made a huge impact in the state and so one of the things that they did was they changed the previously named outdoor space and playground standard to now it is the outdoor learning environment standard um they added words like use natural elements and unmanufactured equipment um and so those minor changes in the standards has led to where we are today and we've seen some great progress with that um uh what our programs across the state are offering um we know um in this room that words matter um and these words really made a difference here in texas so that started to happen um and when that started to happen um i at the time i was with the texas association for the education of young children i have now changed jobs but most of my like last month so this is new so all my time with the leadership team has been with texas a or i see and i got a call from our one of our partners with department state health services and said hey this is this is happening with our texas rising star standards and children and natures network conference hosted by the texas park and wildlife um is having a conference would you come talk to us about how we can support this this work and support programs across the state so a bunch of us went out and it was important to know that that meeting was there was early childhood people there there was um health people there was landscape and design architecture there was higher ed and all of us had spent the spent a good chunk of the afternoon talking about these new standards talking about what each of our organizations associations and and agencies state agencies could help support programs um and at the end of the day we came out with that we need to develop a leadership team and really support our programs and so we all committed to a year supporting this work um six years later all 13 founding member organizations are still represented on this leader to that ship team um and we've seen some great progress and when that leadership team really started to work we really leaned into that collective impact what were each of us currently doing and what were our systems that then we can help enter um interface with the other organizations we had to learn each other's jargon I had no idea how the landscape architectures talk I'm an early childhood specialist that's my language they had no idea what it's like to work in a child care center or with that what life is like in that in those worlds so we had to learn each other and with department of state health services as our backbone we were able to really then lean into each other and with some funding from the obesity prevention from the cdc for improving physical activities our work began and we saw some great things so some of those lower case p policy changes what we have seen um is the our texas department of ag that houses our cacfp funds have started talking to their early childhood programs about how they can use those funds to improve their outdoor learning environment they have a grant that has now opened up to that space all of us with that take due conferences opened up and at the time at texas a i c i was there we have now an oley track an outdoor learning environment track of sessions throughout our three-day conference that really focuses on that texas department of ag to the same tvbc tea i'm using all of our acronym sorry um tvbc is our texas workforce commission who who houses our our child care subsidy and houses our qrs uh program and then ta or texas education agency that touches that pre-k program the second thing we really did is look at um how we can collaborate with with other agencies and one of our biggest wins was we have created a child-friendly plant list and seal um and so we were able to pull the texas nature in our life texas department um excuse me texas nature landscape association texas parks and wildlife the lbj wildlife center the texas department of ag and child care regulations all came together and talked about plants and figured out which plants were safe um in child care programs which ones are okay um which ones weren't poisonous and were okay to be with children and they have now developed a tool that has a seal for all these plants that landscape designers child care programs child care regulations anybody can look at to see if it's on that list um and um and make sure it's okay to be within spaces with children texas department of ag actually also made edible plant flashcards that have pictures of the plants and vegetables and fruits and vegetables in their different stages that they give out at conferences as part of their farm press initiative um and so we've really been able to see this database really help um i know as a parent i've used it in my own garden um with with children so it's been and i've given it to friends as they are planting planting as well and then so we went from the state level we did this state level work and now what we also have done throughout this process is we have four chapters and that are more locally focused so we have a chapter in austin we have a chapter in harris county which is houston we have a chapter up in lubeck and then we have a chapter our newest chapter is in the dfw area and each of them have taken um a little bit different twists depending on what their local communities need but the biggest important thing with with all of their their work is they have multiple agencies and part of their leadership team so they're from 12 key organizations so i think harris county has 18 organizations part of their harris counties is housed in their health department um austins is led by the lbj wildlife center um uh lubeck is led by texas tech university and dalis is led by um the botanical research institute of texas so they're all different and how they have formed but they all have everybody at the table making those decisions for um those programs they all have demonstration sites that they're working on as they build out uh their communities and support um programs to get to meet those standards and improve their their outdoor learning environments kim thank you so much you brought up so many different uh important pieces for what it takes to build these coalitions um and you know two things that we can touch on are one with advocacy advocacy is directly connected with licensing um and we really need to build those conversations in those relationships within licensing um and then uh then next we'll touch a little bit on funding as well but um i want to uh ask aliza yair with the washington state department of children youth and families uh she leads their outdoor preschool pilot program um and really uh aliza from your perspective and your experience to have an impact on policy that support and engagement within licensing is so important and so what have you seen that's been effective in moving that conversation to one of outdoor learning uh thank you uh before i start i want to honor and acknowledge that i'm speaking to you speaking to you from the ancestral lands of the peole of tribe who have been stewards of the land that i'm on past present and future and i am grateful for their welcome and support in moving out here with regards to effective shifting of perspective and practice in licensing you know there's there's two sides of it there's shifting hearts and minds and then there's shifting policy and practice um and it was mentioned in the previous panel that there is a balance between how we manage risk distinguishing risks from hazards and supporting child development and from the perspective of scaling that up a lot of it does have to do with uh understanding the real risks so uh debunking those myths about uh what is dangerous for children you know an example being i don't go outside uh because you might catch a cold well you know we all know a lot more about viruses now and that's simply not how that works um and so uh one of the things that we've done in the uh outdoor preschool licensing uh pilot project uh is that we have standardized the practice of benefit risk assessment so this is a process that any outdoor preschool goes through as they apply for licensing where they assess the benefits of the space assess the risks and put into their own policies um how they're going to manage those risks and support child development at the same time um and then that sort of sets up a system in those programs for communicating with parents about it training their teachers on it and also how to support children in their own risk assessment uh so that has been um probably the the biggest difference in how we've managed licensing and risk and policy and kind of putting practice and policy together in washington and you know it's pretty amazing because we also have had programs operating throughout the state uh in all seasons you know with snow and with heat um and for the past few years we have not had a single serious injury that resulted from any amount of risky playing uh outdoors so you know there there's the fear of uh litigation i think a lot of times as well you know and state policy um developers attorney general offices and also providers really do have to consider you know their own level of comfort with risk um but part of the systems building that we're doing in washington as well you know is about training licensing staff to understand risk management and also training child care providers uh in risk management and supporting nature-based play thank you so much aliza there's there's so much uh to kind of pull apart in that um and you know i think one thing that you touched on was um you know questions of fear uh and questions of relationship and questions of myth and getting to see things actually and make those actual connections but to be able to see something you have to be able to get things going and get things on the ground um and so i do want to check in with um amanda and so um you know we we also mentioned how you know folks are scared to um catch a cold by going outside and i think if there's one thing that uh covid has taught us is that outside is one of the healthiest places we can be let's reinforce that so um amanda brian is with the office of head start and um amanda i'd love for you to speak to both the impact and opportunities that have arisen in early care and education related to outdoor learning environments as a result of covid and specifically are there opportunities available um to kind of work on outdoor learning environments through mechanisms such as the american rescue plan yeah great questions and i just want to really acknowledge how much i enjoyed my um co-panelist discussions and and you know really kim's focus on the way that you work with states and collaborate across different programs and all that aliza said about um you know helping think about risk in a more um organized way i think is really important i you're absolutely right we've learned that um there's much redo much less chance of a virus being transmitted outside than there is inside we've learned that you don't need to scrub sanitize outdoor surfaces the way we initially thought you would we've known for a long time that children get more moderate to vigorous physical activity when they're outside um and when they actually are in a less built space outside when there's more opportunity for creative play so uh i think um you mentioned the american rescue plan there are supplemental funds for child care providers and head start programs to use to help them come back to in-person services we hope the office of head start and i think the office of child care are hoping to see um some programs to the extent possible doing things like establishing out to our classrooms that will be beneficial now and in perpetuity it's not just now like there are so many benefits for children and staff being outside getting natural light and air and having those opportunities for creative play there's almost nothing that you can do inside that you can't do outside and i noticed somebody in the chat you know the concerns about whether people being uncomfortable i mean young children honestly have something called brown fat and they tend to move a lot more outside than adults do so it may not be the children who are uncomfortable and cold or hot whether they adjust it may be the adults so thinking about adult comfort um you know making sure there's um ventilation uh on wherever you are making sure the air quality's okay like there are a couple things you have to worry about but other than that use some of those funds put up a shade structure there are beautiful images of outdoor classrooms you can do large groups small group individual teaching and learning you can have a dramatic play area you can have loose parts that children can use for construction it's a place to foster imagination think about landscaping small hills um sunken logs places for climbing digging um but again you can bring blocks outside you can bring art materials a bucket of water and and paint brushes near a fence are often adequate for children to pretend right and paint for hours so uh we very much are hoping again to see those both for the immediate you know ways to think about having group sizes a little smaller and the benefits of being outside but also into perpetuity every day significant amounts of time out outdoors for all groups of children including infants and toddlers um unfortunately we've got so many questions and a lot of back and forth but we do need to transition to our clothes so um I will turn it over to um I believe um Lynette um to for the closing. Hi everyone thank you so much um to New America and the National Wildlife Federation for organizing this incredible webinar I have been glued at this entire time um I am Lynette Fraga I am the CEO of Child Care Aware of America and I have just been so inspired um listening to all of the amazing speakers who are dedicated to providing outdoor learning programs and opportunities for all children so appreciate even at the outset Cara painting a beautiful picture of children at play outdoors and Kathleen's comments that what we are talking about are durable and doable love that and it is time to be bold which I absolutely believe I was inspired as I'm sure all of you were as well by Mustafa's words to provide opportunities for all of us embracing equity and our earth to quote touch nature again healing and thriving in this transformational moment so greatly appreciated Sarah reminding us of our own childhood experiences loving the word cloud um and the photos of inclusion of all ages of children including infants and toddlers um that I have a significant affinity for and families in outdoor spaces Kim Shah just wow just wow and um what a beautiful video and thank you to all the panel panels um again been taking copious notes by the way also of the participants in the chat as well there's obviously a lot of enthusiasm for those of you who don't know child care aware of america is a national nonprofit organization that works with over 400 agencies that provide child care resource and referral services across the united states and communities with partners to ensure that all families have access to quality affordable care and the in these communities are great ways in multiple programs with broad footprints that affect change um I can name many of them but I know we've had um a lot of time well spent today speaking into programs but I will just share that there are multiple programs across the united states that do push the narrative of and the desire to create the kinds of spaces that were described today um so I hope some of you that are on um are also inspired these are all amazing innovative programs the echo program provides great recommendations and we were so pleased to be able to do a blog with them on our website last fall just raising up all of this so when I was I was a toddler teacher um and an infant teacher and a preschool teacher and an after kindergarten program teacher and the director of a center and a school age services coordinator and a training curriculum specialist I really had the opportunity to be in a lot of spaces and places and many different programs banning head start and early head start to military child care and beyond and what certainly was a theme is the recognition and understanding that when I had access to resources the outdoor environment was an amazing opportunity for children and by the way for me to and nurturing ourselves um and I received a lot of outdoor mentorship as well and I certainly recall also the clear disparities in programs the more experiences I had in the sector so in this moment through the pandemic we've seen that as well the clear disparities that live and by the way just a huge shout out again to Kim for sharing what heroic efforts your program undertook through the pandemic and I know there are thousands more um tens of thousands more of those like you that undertook similar efforts and I so appreciated Kim's mention of the social and emotional implications of the pandemic and using naturally provided comfort um and that it quote led us outside what a beautiful beautiful comment and so right now I just want to share from an advocacy perspective we have an opportunity to build a comprehensive child care and early education program that works for our nation's children families and educators across the United States and for our economy I greatly appreciate the program and policy panel and speaking into the risk fear and of course the myth busting that has to be done we have to provide equitable access to early care and education we must also support safe developmentally appropriate child care facilities with access to outdoor spaces in each and every neighborhood and all settings we must urge city county and state government leaders to make outdoor learning a community building priority we must also develop or strengthen partnership with parks and cities and schools and higher education in communities across the country and so many other partners if I only had one called action idea it would be to tell these stories these stories that we heard today and connect the narratives of what we heard today to the transformative ways we can think about our nation's children and our natural world reflecting on and getting in touch with our experiences with nature and connecting to the art of the possible as mustafa said for this generation and generations to come this webinar which brings together the outdoor learning and learning communities is a great example of the type of partnership that can strengthen multiple movements in service to our communities and honoring our children thank you thank you so much Lynette for that wonderful call to action I'll conclude today's events with gratitude and next steps thank you to all of the parents and educators who've done their best this year and persisted thank you to our speakers and panelists to new america's events production and communications teams to the national wildlife federation and the george b store foundation for your partnership and thank you to our participants for your interest and contribution in this important work so what's next look for emails from us in the coming days with the event recap and in the coming months we'll continue to publish materials that will support you as you advocate for more and better outdoor learning for young children if we believe in the potential of every child then we must build systems that enable every child to flourish that includes access to nature and high quality outdoor learning after all children thrive outside thanks for joining us and have a great day