On March 7, 2020, the Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) team held its Nature Nurtures Symposium to provide Trauma-Informed Care trainings, workshops on integrating nature into daily practices, youth stories, and networking opportunities to its attendees. The event, held at Digital Harbor High School, was attended by 159 members of the health, early childcare, education, and environmental communities from around Baltimore City, and is part of Baltimore CCCN’s larger strategy to strengthen partnerships between those sectors.
Increased trauma-informed care training and nature connections were identified as a priority in increasing equitable access to nature in Baltimore City. According to the Office of Children and Family Success, 42% of Baltimore’s children will experience 3+ traumatic events before reaching adulthood. To confront this issue, there has been a city-wide push towards increased trauma responsiveness through the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act.
This strategy is crucial to enhancing proactive health policy and improving children’s comfort in the outdoors; we’re aiming to increase a child’s sense of physical, emotional, and mental safety and provide adults with the proper tools to facilitate beneficial nature-based experiences for Baltimore’s children and youth. On the other hand, time in nature has vast mental and physical health benefits associated with it, so we are simultaneously working to encourage healthcare providers and educators to incorporate outdoor time into their practices.
We have thus spent the last 8 months planning the Nature Nurtures symposium, and watched it finally come to life on March 7, 2020. After a brief welcome, keynote speaker Jamil A. Mott began the day by sharing his personal experience with childhood trauma and the healing he found by spending time in nature. Every attendee then participated in a Trauma-Informed Care training led by health professionals from the Baltimore City Health Department or Black Mental Health Alliance.
During lunch, 17 local environmental organizations including Parks & People Foundation, Blue Water Baltimore, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Waterfront Partnership, and many others tabled to provide networking opportunities and resources to attendees.
In the afternoon, each attendee then chose from 9 separate workshops focused on various aspects of connecting to nature and incorporating the outdoors into daily practices. The presenters led sessions on Forest Bathing, taking students and young children outdoors, Park Rx, forming personal narratives, and group bike-rides.
We closed out the day with a Youth Panel to hear from Baltimore City youth about their experiences in nature and the growth they’ve experienced by spending regular time outdoors. Our panelists included 2 students from Parks & People’s Branches Internship, as well as 3 youth organizers through United Workers.
Moving forward, we’re hoping to hold more workshops to dive deeper into the topics of trauma-responsiveness and the healing benefits of time outdoors. To collaborate or be involved in future trainings, contact Baltimore’s CCCN coordinator Anika Richter at anika.richter@baltimorecity.gov.
[all pictures c/o Allyson Washington]