Magic happens when you bring together organizations with shared passion. Power To Be first connected with NatureKids BC through our partnership with BC Parks when both of our organizations were involved in a BC Parks Day event. Later, when NatureKids BC reached out to us with some questions about inclusion in their programs, we were excited to offer them one of our workshops to share inclusive practices and approaches. Staff and volunteer club leaders from NatureKids BC joined us virtually to learn about making the outdoors more accessible for all.
Just as we are all individuals with our own stories and our own support needs, each organization brings their own context and history when we meet them to provide a workshop. This information is important to understand when we plan how to deliver our workshops most effectively. We spent some time getting to know NatureKids BC before our workshop, learning more about the programming they offer and the ways we could support them through the workshop. NatureKids BC supports children ages 5-12 and their families to get outdoors to explore, play, learn about, and take action for nature. Supported by incredible volunteers across the province, they have nature clubs in 25+ communities throughout BC, publish NatureWILD magazine, BC’s only “home grown nature magazine for children”, run a nature passport and action awards program for families who “step up for nature”, and facilitate community science and stewardship projects.
In our workshop with NatureKids BC, we introduced them to numerous inclusion approaches and principles, provided examples and strategies based off our preparatory conversations, and reviewed some simple ways to apply these ideas. We then dove into some personalized scenarios we designed for NatureKids BC to get at the heart of the learning they were seeking. As is unsurprising when you fill a (virtual) room with folks passionate about what they do, our afternoon of exploration, creativity, and inclusion sped by. One of the topics we covered was the importance of partnership and collaboration. This is a strong pillar of the work we do at Power To Be and one we fully live through our workshop model. We are passionate about our mission and know that for everyone to belong in nature, we need to work with partners to move the inclusion movement forward.
To help celebrate the work NatureKids BC is doing to support children and families in nature, we are giving away a few annual subscriptions to NatureWILD, the beautiful magazine they publish quarterly. If you are interested in receiving the gift of one of these subscriptions, please e-mail vancouverprograms@powertobe.ca (please note there is a limited quantity available).
