Boston Youth Environmental Network's
First Annual Meeting
BYEN launched its new strategic vision at two events held in early February. To get started, we held an evening talk on Tuesday, February 8th. BYEN welcomed Kevin Coyle, Vice President for Education at the National Wildlife Federation, to Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center to speak with 30 educators, school teachers and families about the academic, social and health benefits of spending time outdoors as children. The following day, Wednesday, February 9th, BYEN held its first Annual Meeting at the Lavine Civic Forum at City Year’s headquarters in Back Bay. Over 130 individuals from more than 80 organizations attended the event, which included a keynote address by Kevin Coyle, panel discussion on Pathways & Partnerships by state and city leaders, breakout sessions to explore more deeply elements of the BYEN strategic plan, and a policy forum on national legislation affecting Environmental Education efforts. See descriptions of these events in the sections below.
Back to School, Back Outside
On the evening of February 8th, as the temperature dropped and the winter winds howled outside, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center was host to Kevin Coyle, Vice President for Education at the National Wildlife Federation, who presented on his report Back to School, Back Outside. Coyle shared results from numerous studies on the impacts of outdoor learning on academic achievement, behavior management and physical health to an audience of local school teachers, environmental educators and youth.
One of the most striking graphs Coyle presented compared the amount of time spent outdoors with that spent in front of a screen during an average American’s childhood. Twenty-five years ago, children had roughly two and a half hours of screen time each day and two hours outside. Shockingly, today’s children spend an average of 38 minutes outside and over seven hours in front of a TV, computer or phone on a daily basis. When we remove from the analysis time children spend in structured sports, the amount of outdoor time drops to only seven minutes a day!
Such limited time spent outdoors is leading to some serious health effects and academic shortfalls. Fortunately, researchers have seen some of these effects reversed with as little as 60 minutes of outdoor time each day. Families and schools can, and want to, do much to increase the amount of time children spend outdoors. Coyle pointed to an encouraging statistic - 95% of parents consistently feel that environmental learning is important for their children.
Through the BYEN Get Out and Learn (GOAL) Initiative, Environmental Education (EE) program providers are partnering with Boston Public School teachers in grades K-8 to enrich science learning through hands-on, outdoor activities that are aligned with the district’s science curriculum. Since its inception in Spring 2009, approximately 6,500 students from 38 different schools have gone outside to learn with the support of environmental science and education professionals from the community.
BYEN plans to expand the GOAL Initiative over the next few years, with the goal of supporting outdoor science learning for 15,000 BPS students annually by the year 2014. We will also be working to build and sustain lasting partnerships between EE providers and the school-based education community.
View Kevin Coyle’s presentation here.
Greening the World of Work for the Next Generation
The BYEN Annual Meeting kicked off with a keynote address by Kevin Coyle of the National Wildlife Federation. Tailoring his morning presentation to the audience and focus of the day – Environmental Education & Career Pathway – Mr. Coyle highlighted the importance of preparing all young people for success under new economic conditions in a world that relies much more on renewable energy resources than on fossil fuels.
Greening the world of work implies much more than training a relatively small number of individuals for entry level jobs installing insulation or solar panels. Most of these jobs will be filled by existing technicians who could quickly develop additional skills needed to adopt energy efficiency approaches in their work. Beyond thinking about “green jobs,” Mr. Coyle emphasized the competitive advantage young people will have upon entering the workforce, no matter what occupation they choose, if they develop a solid foundation in principles of sustainability and environmental science concepts during their K-12 school years. Mr. Coyle likened the revolutionary change a switch to renewable energy will bring to the global economy and civilization to the immense impact technology has had in our lives.
Rather than getting mired in the debate over if green jobs will be created and how many there will be, recognizing the universal shift in every aspect of our personal and professional lives which now relies on a petroleum based machinery to keep it running, points to the importance of preparing all young people (and ourselves) for life in the future.
In addition to academic tutelage in environmental concepts, young people develop the knowledge, skills and compassion through hands-on employment experiences and career exploration in environmental fields. BYEN is playing a coordinating role in Environmental Youth Employment initiatives in the City of Boston. Here is a short list of our accomplishments and current services:
- Brought together city agencies and key stakeholders to devise a plan, and obtain funding, to expand the number of teens working on park stewardship projects in summer 2009 by 135 youth. Plans are underway to implement the Green Teens, Great Parks expansion initiative in summer 2011;
- Facilitate the professional development and sharing of best practices among environmental youth employment program providers through joint trainings, workshops, and on-line resources;
- Convened partnership group to design the highly successful abcd, inc. Green Career Exploration program for youth;
- Foster cross-program collaboration through facilitated networking opportunities among program providers and the youth they serve and being a one-stop shop for information on youth environmental job opportunities;
- Build upon and strengthen the diversity and cultural competency of the environmental sector in Boston through tracking of program participants, bridging young people to employers in the private sector of the environmental industry, offering skill-based cultural competency workshops and cultivating next step leadership opportunities for program graduates to make the most of their talents, experience and interests.
View Coyle's Annual Meeting keynote presentation (PowerPoint as PDF).
View Dawn Chavez's Annual Meeting presentation on BYEN's new strategic plan.
Pathways & Partnerships for Youth
The second hour of the BYEN Annual Meeting turned to hear the insights from a panel of experts sharing their perspectives on Pathways & Partnerships for youth. The panel moderated by Crystal Johnson, Integrative Sustainability & Environmental Strategist from ISES, included:
● Conny Doty, Office of Jobs & Community Services, City of Boston
● Greg Watson, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
● Kristen McKinnon, Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
● Councilor John Connolly, Boston City Council and acting Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Education (K-12 and BPS Education Policy)
Each panelist spoke from a unique point of view, yet drove home the common message that we not only have an opportunity for, but there is an absolute need to build a K-16 career pathway that gets kids outdoors more, sparks and then builds upon an early interest in STEM through hands-on learning, creates more high-quality, meaningful, skill-building opportunities for Boston’s youth and prepares young people for academic, personal and professional success in an economy that will be revolutionized by renewable energy.
Whether focused on environmental sustainability, preparing the next generation for entering the workforce, or striving towards educational equity for all, these thought leaders all enthusiastically support our work and are committed to seeing BYEN’s efforts move forward.
Taking Action
BYEN is at a pivotal stage in its development. While building relationships and an understanding of the needs of BYEN members remains a key part of our work, we are now activating our network to collaborate on shared goals and leverage our collective impact to bring more resources to our programs and ultimately, to the youth we serve.
Four breakout sessions at the BYEN Annual Meeting, focusing on different areas of the pathway, dug into the newly released strategic plan to explore the intersection of network initiatives with on-the-ground program efforts.
Breakout Sessions included:
● K-12 Environmental Education
● Out of School Time Programming
● Environmental Youth Employment
● Evaluation & Measurement
Notes on each of these sessions can be found here.
To join a working group around one or more of these focus areas, contact Dawn Chávez at dchavez@environetwork.org.
Policy Briefing with Kevin Coyle
During the afternoon portion of the annual meeting, about 20 leaders from BYEN member environmental education organizations met with Kevin Coyle. Kevin provided and excellent summary of the many national legislative pieces that are being worked on or currently exist to support environmental education. Kevin covered legislative efforts taking place within the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of the Interior.
As a group, we decided the most immediate opportunity is for Boston and MA organizations to work in a coordinated way to ask MA decision makers to include an amendment in the upcoming re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This amendment will provide states with the resources to create and implement environmental literacy plans. The majority of these funds will go toward teacher professional development. The parameters for this environmental literacy plan amendment are currently defined under the No Child Left Inside Act that has been introduced in the past two congressional sessions.
BYEN has agreed to play a coordinating role for Boston-based EE organizations to advocate for the upcoming legislation on environmental literacy plans. BYEN will put together a list of talking points about the legislation for organizations to use in their discussions with MA decision makers.
Keep in touch!
Click here for an email list of registered participants by first name or organization.
Registered Organizations (80)
Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) - REEP
Appalachian Mountain Club
Beyond Benign
Blue Hill Observatory
Boston After School & Beyond
Boston Children's Museum
Boston College
Boston Harbor Islands
Boston PIC
The Boston Project Ministries, Inc.
Boston Public Schools
Boston Natural Areas Network
Boston Schoolyard Initiative
Boston University
Branching Out Program
Clean Water Action
Community Boating, Inc.
Community Currents
Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation/Youth Force
Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition
EDC
"e," Inc.
Edward Everett School
Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Ferry Beach Ecology School
Foundation for a Green Future, Inc.
Franklin Park Coalition
Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
Green Schools
Groundwork Somerville
Hale Reservation
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard School of Public Health
Island Alliance/National Park Service
JP Green House
Office of Jobs & Community Services
Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust
Mass Audubon's Boston Nature Center
MCCPSE
Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources
MA Department of Conservation and Recreation
Mass Department of Environmental Protection
MassCOSH Teens Lead @ Work
Mass Green Jobs Coalition, the Green Trade Association
MIT Sea Grant
Mount Watchusett Community College Natural Resource Major
Museum of Science, Boston
Mystic Community Garden/Welcome Project
North American Assoc. for Environmental Education
National Park Service, Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area
National Park Service, Olmsted National Historic Site
National Wildlife Federation
New England Aquarium
New England Wildlife Center
New Mission High School
Northeastern University Marine Science Center
Northeastern University
ReadBoston
Rennie Center For Education Research and Policy
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy
SHOUT After School Tutoring Program
Student Conservation Association
Sustainable Milton
Tech Networks of Boston
TERC
theMOVE
The Trustees of Reservations
Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
United Way Math, Science, and Technology initiative
Urban Ecology Institute
USDA Forest Service
Victory Programs ReVision Urban Farm
The Walden Woods Project
Worcester DPW&P - Water Operations
World Ocean School
Young Achievers
Youth Enrichment Services
YouthBuild Boston
Youth Options Unlimited
Zoo New England