Natural Leaders Network (national)

FULL ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS

On Saturday, April 4th, all over America, young people came together to celebrate the launch of C&NN’s Natural Leaders Network, a new campaign that focuses on developing youth leadership in the children and nature movement. Dubbed Natural Leaders, they flexed their muscle and demonstrated how to connect all youth with a nature-based outdoor play experience.

We’ve launched the “Natural Leaders Network” to encourage young leaders to take decisive action to curb nature-deficit disorder. April 4th, Natural Leaders Day: Get outside and play, served as the official announcement of the Natural Leaders Network.

We are creating a group of motivated young leaders in this movement said Juan Martinez, C&NN’s Natural Leaders coordinator, Often we find that the people who are talking about connecting youth with nature are not so young, so the Natural Leaders Network seeks to connect all the youth who are already doing so and those who want to but don’t know where to look for a support system.

Richard Louv, praised the initiative. The Natural Leaders campaign will galvanize young women and men across the country, and beyond our borders, to go outdoors, take their friends with them, and help organize their communities to guarantee safe places for children to play in the natural world. Young Natural Leaders will come from inner cities, suburbs and rural areas. Every child has a right to the gifts of nature.

NLNs and HatsIn fact, young leaders took action in every corner of the country, with events as varied as they were inspiring’”from a community garden project in New York to a beach clean-up and play event in Los Angeles. The Natural Leaders are organizing a grassroots effort to provide all youth with access to nature.

Some of these motivated young people will attend the Natural Leaders Summit at the Headlands Institute in June. There, natural leaders from across the nation will congregate to celebrate and strategize about how best to connect America’s youth with nature.