For Vashon Wilderness Program (VWP) Executive and Program Director Stacey Hinden, allowing all children to have access to nature connection is vital.

Through a new partnership with the Vashon Island School District and grant funding provided by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office and support from the Vashon Schools Foundation, students at Chautauqua Elementary School (CES) will experience a new recess program aimed at providing guided, nature-based skills and activities.

This new recess program at CES will launch in September and continue throughout the 2022-2023 school year.

Hinden expects that in addition to the programming VWP currently offers and the new recess program, a total of 1,000 children will experience the benefits of nature connection.

Since its inception in 2007, VWP has served more than 4,000 people through weekly and monthly programs, summer camps, adult workshops and training, and seasonal celebrations.

“We are absolutely committed to increasing access to nature mentoring for all children in our community,” said Hinden.

As part of the new program, CES has configured their recess schedule to allow for 30 minutes of time with VWP on the days they’re on campus, said Hinden.

VWP plans to have four experienced mentors onsite, and students will be able to choose from a series of activities.

“We’re going to make sure we’re offering up all of the various different aspects of what we normally offer to kids in our longer day programs,” said Hinden. “…all of that classic stuff, but now is going to be right there right on campus right during the school day.”

VWP plans to make available activities such as nature crafts, with students learning to make cordage or weave baskets, sensory-based games with nature connection skills embedded into the games, options to go on “nature wanders” through the campus woods and the choice to peruse fields guides or items from the nature museum.

The new recess program at CES came to fruition after VWP had been attempting to obtain funding for a larger-scale project for the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office’s “No Child Left Inside” grant, which is disbursed on a two-year cycle.

While VWP did not initially receive the two-year “No Child Left Inside” grant, this left the VWP motivated to find another way to bring their nature education curriculum to students at VISD.

According to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, the “No Child Left Inside” grant is designed to fund “outdoor environmental, ecological, agricultural, or other natural resource-based education and recreation programs serving youth.”

“We have been long committed to equitable access to our programs, and so that we knew that collaborating with the district was the way to ensure that more kids could benefit from the health and healing benefits of nature connection,” said Hinden.

Hinden and her colleagues redesigned the program and came up with the concept for a recess program at CES. According to Hinden, similar recess programs have been launched in New York and Connecticut with great success.

Recently, Hinden received a call from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, who informed her that there were remaining funds from the “No Child Left Inside” grant to fund a project on a one-year timeline.

The “No Child Left Inside” two-year grant cycle opens again in the fall, and Hinden plans to “continue conversations” about what the school district and VWP would like to have in the program going forward.

In total, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office is contributing $37,500 to the CES recess program. The total cost of the program is about $54,000, said Hinden.

VWP and Vashon Island High School (VHS) may also be partnering as well, as the two are in the process of getting a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) approved by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

According to Hinden, the application for the new class, “Careers in Education,” is currently pending approval.

However, if the application is approved by OSPI, VWP would be brought on as a partner to teach the course. Elements learned in the class, said Hinden, would include information on nature-based leadership skills and how to be a nature connection mentor.

The class would also provide a field placement, and students in the CTE course would be placed in the CES recess program project.

“Creating that culture of connection is something we’re quite familiar with doing,” said Hinden. “We’re so excited not just for the teens to learn very pragmatic skills…but also to be of service and to create those kinds of connections with the elementary school kids.”

Overall, Hinden hopes that the new elementary program and pending high school class give Vashon students the chance to meaningfully connect with nature.

“We want them to feel that they are celebrated, they have a place in their school community, in the wider Vashon community because of their sense of absolute comfort and connection with who they are and who they are as a child of the Earth, because we all are,” said Hinden.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of children to be served by Vashon Wilderness Program’s current programming and the new recess program. A total of 1,000 children will be served by the current programming and the new recess program at CES.