On November 3rd, Congressman Ron Kind (WI) and Senator Mark Udall (CO) introduced the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act in Congress! This is a huge milestone for all of us working to reconnect children, youth and families with nature.
You can read more here and see Congressman Kind’s blog on the bill here. The Outdoors Alliance for Kids press release is attached.
We believe that the policies proposed by the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act will advance our collective efforts to reconnect children, youth and families with the natural world, while improving our children's health, supporting economic growth and strengthening the future of conservation in America. The legislation will achieve these goals by:
- Directing the President to develop an inter-agency federal strategy and action plan to connect children, youth and families with the natural world;
- Encouraging states to develop similar state-based strategies that incorporate public health, parks and recreation, transportation and other initiatives at the local level; and
- Supporting research documenting the health, conservation and other benefits of active time spent outdoors in the natural world.
The legislation encourages solutions that include connecting communities with green spaces, providing opportunities for outdoor recreation, engaging the health community to educate parents and caregivers and much more. We believe that the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act’s focus on health and recreation solutions will be an excellent complement to the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act's systemic approach of getting environmental education back into our nation's schools.
On December 1, join NAAEE for the roll-out of "A Framework for Assessing Environmental Literacy" at the National Press Club, Washington, DC, and live via the Internet.
This new framework for assessing environmental literacy was developed with experts from the fields of environmental education, social studies education, and science education, plus related policy and social science fields. The development team will be joined by leaders from large-scale national and international assessments to discuss how to define and assess environmental literacy. The NAAEE spearheaded this project with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) to release the framework.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, December 1, 2011, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
To register for this important event, visit: www.naaee.net/framework
