Newsletter from Thursday, March 3rd, 2022
Dear NCH2 Community,
We hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy. Please submit materials for the next newsletter by March 16th, 2022 so we can make sure to include them. Submit items by emailing NCH2.Chicago@gmail.com.
This week's newsletter includes news on the new paid position available with NCH2, information on the return of NCH2 coffee and discussion series, upcoming local events, community resources, job opportunities, and links to articles in the research literature and popular press.
This week's newsletter includes news on the new paid position available with NCH2, information on the return of NCH2 coffee and discussion series, upcoming local events, community resources, job opportunities, and links to articles in the research literature and popular press.
NCH2 is Hiring - Corrected Qualifications
Hiring: Program Administrator
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s in Global Health, Environmental Policy, Parks and Recreation, or a related field of social science research, with 4+ years program administration or similar experience; or 6 years program administration or similar experience. Demonstrated success at establishing multi-sector partnerships and long-term relationships with community-based organizations.
To support the work of the Health and Nature Catalyst, the project newly funded by the Walder Foundation, NCH2 is hiring a Program Administrator. The program will create strategic partnerships and projects that use nature-based solutions to simultaneously leverage improvements in equity, the environment, and public health to yield increased community resilience. The program will build a regional network through which members of the healthcare/public health, environmental conservation/sustainability, and environmental justice/equity communities can collaborate. The job involves fostering relationships among stakeholders through working groups, educational opportunities and one-to-one outreach, co-education of stakeholders from diverse communities, identifying and prioritizing opportunities for pilot projects and creation and review of requests for proposals (with consultation from a Steering Committee).
To view the job posting and/or apply for the job, click here.
If you are a current employee of Northwestern University please use the following link instead:
https://myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hr858prd/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_EMP_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&SiteId=1&FOCUS=Employee&JobOpeningId=43438&PostingSeq=1
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s in Global Health, Environmental Policy, Parks and Recreation, or a related field of social science research, with 4+ years program administration or similar experience; or 6 years program administration or similar experience. Demonstrated success at establishing multi-sector partnerships and long-term relationships with community-based organizations.
To support the work of the Health and Nature Catalyst, the project newly funded by the Walder Foundation, NCH2 is hiring a Program Administrator. The program will create strategic partnerships and projects that use nature-based solutions to simultaneously leverage improvements in equity, the environment, and public health to yield increased community resilience. The program will build a regional network through which members of the healthcare/public health, environmental conservation/sustainability, and environmental justice/equity communities can collaborate. The job involves fostering relationships among stakeholders through working groups, educational opportunities and one-to-one outreach, co-education of stakeholders from diverse communities, identifying and prioritizing opportunities for pilot projects and creation and review of requests for proposals (with consultation from a Steering Committee).
To view the job posting and/or apply for the job, click here.
If you are a current employee of Northwestern University please use the following link instead:
https://myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hr858prd/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_EMP_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&SiteId=1&FOCUS=Employee&JobOpeningId=43438&PostingSeq=1
NCH2 Coffee and Discussion Resumes Next Week!
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On March 10, 2022, from 12 noon to 1:15 CST, join us on Zoom for an introduction to “Nature, Culture, and Human Health (NCH2): Catalyzing Nature-based Solutions for Human and Public Health” the project recently funded by a Walder Foundation Resilient by Nature Award. What does the project entail? How can you contribute?
Attendance is free and open to the public. Register in advance for this meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom |
Upcoming Coffee Discussions - Save the Date
Presented by: The Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. Catherine Game and Dani Abboud.
- April 7, 2022; 12:00-1:15 pm; Virtual Event: Accelerating Health and Nature Collaboration
Presented by: The Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. Catherine Game and Dani Abboud.
Local Events
Forest Preserves of Cook County Forest Therapy Walk
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Deer Grove-East
W Dundee Rd, west of N Hicks Rd
Cook County, IL 60074
Description: Awaken your senses and renew your bond with the nature and the Preserves. Certified Forest Therapy guide. Ages 18 & up. REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Call 224-456-8602.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Forest Preserves of Cook County
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Deer Grove-East
W Dundee Rd, west of N Hicks Rd
Cook County, IL 60074
Description: Awaken your senses and renew your bond with the nature and the Preserves. Certified Forest Therapy guide. Ages 18 & up. REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Call 224-456-8602.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Forest Preserves of Cook County
Chicago Park District Yoga on the River at Park No. 571
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Park No. 571
2828 S. Eleanor St.
Chicago, IL 60608
Description: Celebrate International Women's Day with a free morning of yoga and enjoy the view of the Chicago River! Adults, 18 & up.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Chicago Park District
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Park No. 571
2828 S. Eleanor St.
Chicago, IL 60608
Description: Celebrate International Women's Day with a free morning of yoga and enjoy the view of the Chicago River! Adults, 18 & up.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District Birding is for Everyone at Northerly Island
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Northerly Island Park1521 S. Linn White Dr.
Chicago, IL 60605
Description: Join us for a guided bird hike at the Northerly Island Park. This gathering is for first-time birders, long-time birders and everyone in between. All you need is the ability to appreciate our feathered friends. Participants in this event will be introduced to basic birding techniques including how to use binoculars, common Chicago birds, different points of interest around Northerly Island and meet other birders. Binoculars will be available to borrow for this program. This is a free event.
If you have questions, please contact Julie Ohmes at Julianne.Ohmes@chicagoparkdistrict.com or call at 312.745.2910.
For more information, click here.
Photo by Aaron J Hill from Pexels
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Northerly Island Park1521 S. Linn White Dr.
Chicago, IL 60605
Description: Join us for a guided bird hike at the Northerly Island Park. This gathering is for first-time birders, long-time birders and everyone in between. All you need is the ability to appreciate our feathered friends. Participants in this event will be introduced to basic birding techniques including how to use binoculars, common Chicago birds, different points of interest around Northerly Island and meet other birders. Binoculars will be available to borrow for this program. This is a free event.
If you have questions, please contact Julie Ohmes at Julianne.Ohmes@chicagoparkdistrict.com or call at 312.745.2910.
For more information, click here.
Photo by Aaron J Hill from Pexels
Friends of the Forest Preserves - The Preserves in Pixels: A virtual photo exhibit and panel discussion
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Description: Celebrate the wonderous world of nature photography with the Friends community. “The Preserves in Pixels: A Virtual Photo Exhibit and Panel Discussion” is Thursday, March 10, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Join us in honoring the winners of the 12th Annual Photo Contest. You’ll enjoy a slideshow of all the winning photos followed by a panel discussion with the photographers themselves.
Experience the wistful delight of a spring beauty, the serene charm of a great blue heron, the bold gaze of a buck – all discovered in our beloved forest preserves in Cook County. The virtual format provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about the stories behind the lens. The panelists will also share what inspires them about nature photography and what they love most about photographing in the forest preserves. And we’ll have time for questions from the audience. You’ll come away with a new appreciation for nature photography, a new perspective on the diversity found throughout the forest preserves, and some tips on how to start or broaden your hobby as a nature photographer.
*BONUS* The winners of the 13th Annual Photo Contest have just been chosen. We’ll be announcing the winners at this event!
This event is free, but you must register to join.
Submit your photos to the 14th Annual Photo Contest.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Friends of the Forest Preserves
Date: Tue, Mar 8th
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Description: Celebrate the wonderous world of nature photography with the Friends community. “The Preserves in Pixels: A Virtual Photo Exhibit and Panel Discussion” is Thursday, March 10, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Join us in honoring the winners of the 12th Annual Photo Contest. You’ll enjoy a slideshow of all the winning photos followed by a panel discussion with the photographers themselves.
Experience the wistful delight of a spring beauty, the serene charm of a great blue heron, the bold gaze of a buck – all discovered in our beloved forest preserves in Cook County. The virtual format provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about the stories behind the lens. The panelists will also share what inspires them about nature photography and what they love most about photographing in the forest preserves. And we’ll have time for questions from the audience. You’ll come away with a new appreciation for nature photography, a new perspective on the diversity found throughout the forest preserves, and some tips on how to start or broaden your hobby as a nature photographer.
*BONUS* The winners of the 13th Annual Photo Contest have just been chosen. We’ll be announcing the winners at this event!
This event is free, but you must register to join.
Submit your photos to the 14th Annual Photo Contest.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Friends of the Forest Preserves
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Forest Preserves of Cook County Women’s History Month Walk
Date: Sat, Mar 12th Time: 10 am Location: Thatcher Woods Chicago Ave, west of Thatcher Ave River Forest, IL 60305 Description: Join us on a hike where we highlight conservation leader Isabel Bassett Wasson and the work and discoveries she made at Thatcher Woods and beyond. REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Register at https://tinyurl.com/womanswalk. For more information, click here. Photo by Mihis Alex from Pexels |
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Forest Preserves of Cook County Conservation@Home: Kick Start your Garden!
Date: Sun, Mar 13th
Time: 11 am - 1 pm
Location: Caldwell Woods
W Devon Ave & N Nagle Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
Description: Learn about sustainable gardening, at-home conservation practices, and talk to local organizations about native landscaping and gardening. Presentation at noon.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Forest Preserves of Cook County
Date: Sun, Mar 13th
Time: 11 am - 1 pm
Location: Caldwell Woods
W Devon Ave & N Nagle Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
Description: Learn about sustainable gardening, at-home conservation practices, and talk to local organizations about native landscaping and gardening. Presentation at noon.
For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Forest Preserves of Cook County
Planning Ahead
- May is Mental Health Awareness Month
- Network for Public Health Law - Climate Change and Health Equity
We are interested in presentations from a wide variety of perspectives, including public health practitioners, community-based organizations, environmental organizations, attorneys, researchers, community members, and others. Submissions will be accepted until March 4, 2022. Click here to learn more. Please feel free to reach out by email (mkim@networkforphl.org) with any questions.
- Nature Rx: Social Emotional Learning for Students and Teachers
Flyer: https://www.kcoutdoored.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Flyer-Rx-2022.pdf
Community Resources
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Call for Participation: Join the ARCC Community-Academic Anti-Racism Learning Collaborative
The Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) at Northwestern University in collaboration with the Equity Institute-YWCA Evanston/NorthShore is opening up the ARCC Community-Academic Anti-Racism Learning Collaborative to more people. Launched in 2020, the Collaborative convenes a diverse mix of community and academic partners to engage together in a supportive space to question, learn, and address how racism operates in research institutions and policies and how community-academic research partnerships can apply an equity lens to their research and partnerships. Community-engaged research honors and supports the leadership of communities most impacted by inequities as local, cultural, and lived experience experts. This requires the intentional focusing of resources and power to Black, Indigenous People of Color and other marginalized communities most impacted by structural racism and the root causes of health inequities. Sign up here by March 7, 2022. For more information, click here. Photo Credit: ARCC |
Job Opportunities
- CDPH Hiring 7 Project Coordinators for Health Equity in All Policies and Healthy Chicago Equity Zones
Posting closes March 11. Salary is $61,920. Details here: https://chicago.taleo.net/careersection/100/jobdetail.ftl?job=1912.2-CDPH-2022
- The Nature Conservancy in Illinois: Director of Policy and Government Relations
To learn more click here to review the job description and qualifications.
"We offer a competitive salary with great benefits." For a complete position description
and to apply visit http://www.nature.org/careers and search for Job ID# 51017 by 11:59 p.m. March 11, 2022.
- Adventures Accessed: Chicago Based 2022 Instructor and Outreach Position
To learn more about this job position and Adventures Accessed click here.
Recent Research
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Citation: Ijaz N, Steinberg M, Flaherty T, Neubauer T, Thompson-Lastad A. Beyond Professional Licensure: A Statement of Principle on Culturally-Responsive Healthcare. Global Advances in Health and Medicine. 2021/01/01 2021; vol 11. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21649561211043092
NCH2 Comments: Regulatory agencies rely on licensures and certifications to ensure effectiveness and safety of interventions of therapeutic practices. However, these practices can be exclusionary to alternative and complementary practices, especially those associated with indigenous or traditional therapies. This paper addresses the issue of exclusionary credentialing processes to ask if there is a way to develop community-based certification processes that are more inclusive, but also serve the need to ensure accountability, safety, and quality to clients and patients. Photo by Total Shape from Pexels |
In the News
Overview: Inviting Everyone to Play – by Design
Accessibility is more than ramps and curb-cuts, though these and other basic aids are critical to safe mobility. Children with a disability need something almost as basic – an accessible playground. Nearly one in five people in this country has a disability, and 13% of children enrolled in public school in 2018 were receiving extra services for special needs, yet most playgrounds are not designed to accommodate them, wrote Megan Barber in Curbed more than three years ago.
The design of playgrounds have shifted from the safe and typical to more “natural, adventurous and engaging” ones, yet even innovative designs were not always inclusive. A 2010 revision to the Americans with Disabilities Act changed the standards for playgrounds, mandating, among other things, accessibility via ramps and barrier-free travel-routes, accessible play options, and appropriate surfaces beneath accessible equipment. In an accessible playground, kids in wheelchairs can play next to their peers
Initiatives like the California-based Magical Bridge Foundation and Shane’s Inspiration, as well as the Community Parks Initiative and the Anchor Parks Initiative, have built beautiful, enticing and accessible playgrounds. Municipalities and public schools need accessible playgrounds. The key is convincing the local governing bodies of the importance and benefits of accessible playgrounds; funding may follow.
Read more: https://archive.curbed.com/2018/7/20/17582148/accessible-playgrounds-design-ada-standards-inclusive
Photo of Penny Park in Evanston, IL by Larry Gavin
Accessibility is more than ramps and curb-cuts, though these and other basic aids are critical to safe mobility. Children with a disability need something almost as basic – an accessible playground. Nearly one in five people in this country has a disability, and 13% of children enrolled in public school in 2018 were receiving extra services for special needs, yet most playgrounds are not designed to accommodate them, wrote Megan Barber in Curbed more than three years ago.
The design of playgrounds have shifted from the safe and typical to more “natural, adventurous and engaging” ones, yet even innovative designs were not always inclusive. A 2010 revision to the Americans with Disabilities Act changed the standards for playgrounds, mandating, among other things, accessibility via ramps and barrier-free travel-routes, accessible play options, and appropriate surfaces beneath accessible equipment. In an accessible playground, kids in wheelchairs can play next to their peers
Initiatives like the California-based Magical Bridge Foundation and Shane’s Inspiration, as well as the Community Parks Initiative and the Anchor Parks Initiative, have built beautiful, enticing and accessible playgrounds. Municipalities and public schools need accessible playgrounds. The key is convincing the local governing bodies of the importance and benefits of accessible playgrounds; funding may follow.
Read more: https://archive.curbed.com/2018/7/20/17582148/accessible-playgrounds-design-ada-standards-inclusive
Photo of Penny Park in Evanston, IL by Larry Gavin
Overview: The Solace of Nature: ‘I Forget Everything’
The stress of caring for an elderly father with deteriorating health compounded with the social isolation caused by the pandemic opened the door to depression, anxiety and panic attacks for a woman in England. The woman, who had struggled for decades with a physical ailments and mental illness, felt that more pills were not the answer. Writing last month in The Guardian, Damien Gayle quoted the woman, “Medication can only do so much when you’re stuck in four walls.” She was put in touch with a social prescribing link worker at Bolton GP Federation; Bolton is about 10 miles from Manchester, England. '
“In response to a dramatic increase in mental health referrals around the pandemic,” Mr. Gayle writes, “Bolton GP Federation and the Woodland Trust worked together to create a programme of ‘tranquility walks’, focusing on woodland, water and relaxation as a space to deal with anxiety. After participating in the walks, the woman said, “I just forget everything” – worries and stresses – when she’s on a walk and “just lose track of time.”
Walk leader Vicky Entwistle is quoted as saying the walks, show “the importance of getting more nature to people’s doorsteps to help boost our health every day, and the clear benefits of social prescribing with nature.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/21/i-forget-everything-the-benefits-of-nature-for-mental-health
Photo by Pille Kirsi from Pexels
The stress of caring for an elderly father with deteriorating health compounded with the social isolation caused by the pandemic opened the door to depression, anxiety and panic attacks for a woman in England. The woman, who had struggled for decades with a physical ailments and mental illness, felt that more pills were not the answer. Writing last month in The Guardian, Damien Gayle quoted the woman, “Medication can only do so much when you’re stuck in four walls.” She was put in touch with a social prescribing link worker at Bolton GP Federation; Bolton is about 10 miles from Manchester, England. '
“In response to a dramatic increase in mental health referrals around the pandemic,” Mr. Gayle writes, “Bolton GP Federation and the Woodland Trust worked together to create a programme of ‘tranquility walks’, focusing on woodland, water and relaxation as a space to deal with anxiety. After participating in the walks, the woman said, “I just forget everything” – worries and stresses – when she’s on a walk and “just lose track of time.”
Walk leader Vicky Entwistle is quoted as saying the walks, show “the importance of getting more nature to people’s doorsteps to help boost our health every day, and the clear benefits of social prescribing with nature.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/21/i-forget-everything-the-benefits-of-nature-for-mental-health
Photo by Pille Kirsi from Pexels
Overview: Signs of Spring
Even though it was three weeks before the vernal equinox, the Feb. 24 almanac listed five signs of spring for nature lovers. The almanac republished a March 2021 article by Catherine Boeckmann, who suggested people listen as well as look for early signs that winter is turning.
Backyard birds are one of the best predictors, she wrote. One hears the calls of cardinals and chickadees and the drilling of woodpeckers. Trees begin to bud, peepers and ducks become more apparent, and the air is softly scented with spring.
Read more: https://www.almanac.com/5-signs-spring-birds-peepers-and-tree-buds
Photo of local Red Twig Dogwood and emerging Snowdrops by Mary Gavin