Nature Everywhere Communities

Explore Resources

Drive change for children and nature in your community

Nature Everywhere resources are designed for practitioners working to embed equitable access to nature into local systems. Explore tools that support partnership-building, systems thinking, planning, community engagement and implementation in the places children spend time every day.

Whether you’re a city leader, educator, nonprofit partner, funder, or advocate, we invite you to dig into these evidence-based resources and learn from communities how to strengthen your community’s approach. 

These resources were developed over the last ten years as part of Cities Connecting Children to Nature, a partnership with National League of Cities, as well as Nature Everywhere Communities, a partnership with National League of Cities and KABOOM!. They are the tools used in supporting community teams through Nature Everywhere’s proven process.

Build a strong team: An essential step

From experience, we’ve seen that communities experience stronger results when teams include:

  • Leadership with authority, commitment, and capacity to align priorities and sustain action over time
  • Cross-sector representation that reflects the community, including voices historically excluded from decision-making
  • An understanding of local policy and institutional contexts, so strategies align with how systems actually operate
  • Awareness of systems change, including how policies, practices, relationships, and resources interact

We encourage teams to use the resources below to guide their team-building process.

Explore Nature Everywhere Communities resources

These resources guide teams in addressing systemic barriers to accessing nature. Resources were developed through the Cities Connecting Children to Nature and the Nature Everywhere Communities initiatives.

Review and use these resources so your entire team has a shared understanding of the “why” and “how” of equitable nature access for children.

Successful communities lay the foundation for a community-wide initiative by mapping community assets, engaging youth and families and creating a shared vision to prioritize children’s access to nature. The linked resources provide more details on each foundational element.

Equitable Access to Nature

Equitable Access to Nature: A Systems Change Approach

The Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) initiative supports cities as they work to change and improve citywide systems so that all children have opportunities to play, learn and grow with nature in their daily lives. Many cities are searching for ways to bring nature’s benefits to all.

Watch Video
CCCN Resource

Advancing Equity in Children’s Connection to Nature

Equity serves as a central goal of the Cities Connecting Children to Nature initiative (CCCN). In this new equity resource, CCCN provides a snapshot into the current consensus within CCCN on definitions and principles for advancing equity, as well as a few illustrative examples of city progress and additional ideas.

Read More

Creating a Vision for Equitable Access to Nature

This resource aims to support a visioning is a process through which community partners develop a vision statement that sets the course for the local children and nature initiative. Through public engagement, the community defines its purpose, core values, and ambitions for the future.

Read More
Community Engagement Guide PDF Thumbnail

Community Engagement Guide for Nature Everywhere Communities

This resource aims to guide you to meaningfully engage community members to inform a Nature Everywhere vision and action plan.

Read More

Building a successful cross-sector team

What is a cross-sector team and why is it important for the success of Nature Everywhere Communities initiative? This one-page resource defines a cross-sector team and looks at considerations for how to form a successful team. This resource is targeted to support Action Challenge communities.

Read More

Landscape Scan

The early phase of Nature Everywhere Communities involves a planning phase to “map the landscape” of the local systems both literally and figuratively. This planning process helps teams analyze assets, gaps, opportunities, and barriers. This resources provides a high-level view of what to consider when doing landscape scans for stakeholders, programs and experiences, and policies and funding in a community.

Read More

Equity Mapping: Young Children & Nature Toolkit

The research is clear: When young children, ages 0 – 5, have regular access to nature and green spaces where they live, play and learn, their physical and mental health improves, they develop social-emotional skills and they are better prepared for school.

Read More

Pledges of Support, Resolutions & Proclamations

For communities working to incorporate nature-based solutions to children’s health and development, the support of local government officials or school leadership can catalyze coalition building and action. A pledge of support, resolution or proclamation can demonstrate a leader’s commitment to equitable nature access for children. This resource provides an overview of types of support and examples.

Read more

Gathering Stakeholders

Engaging local stakeholders helps align new children and nature strategies with previous efforts and community goals. It can also help maximize local resources and build connections with new stakeholders who may value children’s well-being but may not currently use nature connections. This resource supports communities in bringing local stakeholders together to support local efforts.

Read More

Many communities advance children’s access to nature through specific children and nature connection strategies that activate the foundational elements noted above. 

Girl with gloves tending to garden.

Green Schoolyards for Healthy Communities

Greening schoolyards brings nature back to schools, fostering creativity, wellness, and climate-resilient spaces for every child.

Read More
Infographic shows how connecting children ages 0 to 5 to nature can have benefits for their health and wellness, school readiness, and social-emotional learning.

Nature in Early Childhood

The early years in a child’s life lay the foundation for lifelong health, learning and well-being. Between birth and age 5, children’s brains develop faster than at any other stage, shaped by their experiences, relationships and environments. 

Read More
Children explore a grassy area with shrubs, surrounded by stone walls. One holds a clipboard and paper in his hand.

Climate Resilience

This Climate Resilience-Nature Connections Toolkit demonstrates how cities can pursue both goals of increasing climate resilience and fostering deeper connections to nature, simultaneously. Four proven strategies in this toolkit, Nature in Early Childhood, Green Schoolyards, Nature-Smart Libraries and Nature Exploration Areas, when combined with climate goals, create healthier, more resilient communities where children thrive and ecosystems are protected.

Read More

Nature Exploration Area

As urban populations grow and access to green spaces remains limited for many, cities are seeking innovative ways to provide children and communities with equitable access to nature.

Read More

Nature-Smart Libraries

This toolkit highlights innovative, Nature-Smart Library initiatives nationwide, showcasing how libraries can collaborate with cities, parks, and community partners to expand nature access. While many libraries lead individual efforts, this toolkit emphasizes system-wide strategies to ensure nature is accessible across entire communities.

Read More

Youth Development

We partnered with the Outdoor Foundation, Search Institute, and Fresh Tracks to better understand the intersection of youth development and nature-based programming. This work, made possible with funding from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, resulted in the development of tools and resources that unite youth development and nature-based programs around a common goal of helping youth reach their full potential as people–and as nature advocates.

Read More

Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights (COBOR)

The creation of a Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights (COBOR) illustrates what equitable access to nature should look like and establishes a common foundation and high aspirations for nature connection in a community.

Read More

Collage of families and educators exploring nature and community activities.

Community Spotlight: Providence, Rhode Island

In Providence, Rhode Island, access to nature has become a defining feature of the city’s landscape and identity. Read the full article to learn more.

Read More

Community Spotlight: Jacksonville, Florida

Project One Health JAX is making significant investments to make nature an everyday part of childhood across Jacksonville, Florida’s urban core. These investments combine national strategy and neighborhood leadership, ensuring that solutions are both evidence-based and locally relevant.

Read More

Community Spotlight: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee transforms schoolyards from vast expanses of asphalt into nature-rich environments that enhance student well-being and manage stormwater.

Read More

Community Spotlight: Lowell, Massachusetts

Learn more about Lowell, Massachusetts, a Nature Everywhere Community working alongside community organizations, educators and youth to expand outdoor opportunities.

Read More

Minneapolis Spotlight: The promise and possibilities of parks for youth

For more than a decade, the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board has used equity tools to prioritize investments in recreation centers and programming.

Read More

Community Spotlight: Saint Paul, Minnesota

Learn more about how Saint Paul, Minnesota, is leading the way in connecting children to nature.

Read More

Community Spotlight: Kingston, New York

With a population of just 24,000, Kingston, New York, is a relatively small city — but the city and local nonprofits have made a big commitment to connecting families and kids to the benefits of time in nature. Over the last decade, they’ve built walking and biking trails throughout Kingston, increasing access to its 13 parks. 

Read More

Nature Everywhere Communities are made possible with major support from:

JPB Foundation
The Kresge Foundation

Help children connect to nature

Donate today to plant hope in a generation that desperately needs it.

Join the movement