May 2020 C&D Minutes

Scroll to bottom to read Kathleen Skoller's Reflections on the C&D
Topic: Connecting Community-based Health and Conservation Organizations
Location: Virtual

Updates

• Several members of the steering committee, as well as colleagues from various universities, are working on a survey to assess how people are using nature during COVID-19, and the barriers people are facing to access greenspace

Introductions

• Terry opened the meeting with an overview of NCH2 mission and quick crash-course on using Zoom.
• Terry posed the question to the land management agencies in the group: “Are you seeing an increase of engagement in public nature areas due to COVID-19?”
  • Resounding yes from all attending

Presentation: A Conservation Community Model – John Sentell Lake Forest Open Lands Association
(LFOLA)

• John Sentell gave an overview of Lake Forest Open Lands conservation and community engagement initiatives
  • Primarily land preservation in Lake Forest/Lake Bluff/Mettawa but serves a larger geographic area through targeted community programs
  • Preserved over 800 acres of land, home to diverse habitats that host rare plant and animal species
  • FOLA’s two-fold strategy: 1) Land preservation and stewardship and 2) public engagement programs, public and private school programming, and youth engagement model reaching underserved communities through the Center for Conservation Leadership
• Land Stewardship & Community Engagement:
  • Conversation started with the question “how can we better engage people on local level to really move the needle forward in nature and health? Can this be measured? We know success can be measured on the “nature side” of the equation – can we integrate metrics on the “health” side of the equation too?
  • Shared an overview of Lake Forest Open Lands’ Connected Resiliency model for community conservation
    • John views the Connected Resiliency model as an opportunity to connect land preservation, education, conservation science – and potentially human health -- to get people more aware and engaged in nature on a much deeper, broader, and more impactful scale.
    • View where we live as one connected conservation community, regardless of boundary lines
  • Stewarding quality habitats found in nature preserves is not enough—every place is “connected” and matters: we need all hands on deck
• John asks: In what ways can we better link community-based programs to drive a deeper understanding and connection between people and nature?
  • Terry brings up the survey project, how collecting hard data can help urban planners and decision makers see the benefit from, and demand for nature engagement
  • Assessing impact of community engagement programs
• Center for Conservation Leadership:
  • Susie Hoffman, Director of Education and CCL, gives an overview of CCL program
    • Goal is to teach young people about conservation, stewardship, biodiversity, and their local environments so that they learn to care about these things
    • Mental and physical health is an important component of the program as well
  • 15-20 students participate in the initial program every summer, go on trips to Northern Wisconsin for immersive nature engagement with experts, upon returning to their communities students are paired with experts to conduct a stewardship project in their own communities
  • Help students find jobs in the conservation community
• Question: Who participates in CCL?
  • High school students in underserved community, 75% Hispanic, 13-14% Black
  • Most students are from Waukegan, as well as North Chicago and Round Lake
• Question: Is students’ progress in conservation tracked long term?
  • 90% of students go on to higher education, 45% major in environmental fields
  • Students are tracked from the beginning, and contacted regularly to discuss their progress
• Debra Williams asked: How do we address the underlying issues that keep people from engaging to create a larger change?
  • For CCL specifically, students engage in community engagement in their owncommunities to help drive change for some of the underlying issues

Group Discussion

• How can we move community engagement programs forward?
  • Jan Roehll commented: The Conservation Foundation is trying to partner with Parks Rx to engage youth and families in nature
    • Biggest issue is getting message beyond the choir
  • Someone suggests engaging healthcare workers who could greatly benefit from mental health benefits of nature, especially in light of the stress of COVID-19
    • Terry agrees, states that physicians and hospital executives are very concerned about burnout and would be receptive to this messaging
• How do we build a positive feedback loop of nature engagement?
  • John asks if anyone has measured if participants feel better knowing they’ve engaged with nature through a given program
    • Ted Haffner: it’s hard to get people engaged in nature when their communities have vital needs not being met
    • Catherine Game suggests flipping the question to focus more on how conservation and conservationists can help meet the needs of a community and tackle issues of socio-economic inequality
    • Aaron Wolf suggests working time into program agendas to have group reflection and better capture impact
  • What moves people to take action, to understand their role in a greater system?
    • Dani Abboud raises the point that there is often a tendency to assume that groups who aren’t engaged in our idea of conservation have no nature- engagement or experience, which isn’t true
    • Many people have cultural ties to land/nature, building programs that are culturally relevant can be a better engagement tactic than simply presenting the traditional conservation activities
    • Terry brings up a previous discussion led by Debra Williams on the importance of engaging in authentic conversations with communities and building partnerships with community organizations
• Terry introduces “One Health, One Planet” idea for fall symposium
  • How can we take this conversation on building community support/engagement and build it into our symposium? Who needs to be at the table that isn’t already?
  • Suggestions included:
    • We need to engage environmental justice organizations, especially recognizing the fact that while we all live on one planet, we experience environmental and health challenges rapidly differently due to socio-economic inequalities
    • Cook County Farm Bureau, engage students in food systems

Wrap-Up

• We have virtual July and September meetings scheduled
• Additional comments, thoughts, or questions can be sent to [email protected]

Kathleen Skoller's Reflections on May 2020 C&D

The following resources might spark ideas for – “One Planet One Health”. While not “high touch”, they can be used now while we shelter in place. Any could be used with educational programs for youth and adults to inspire engagement in community projects such as those mentioned during the meeting. 

• Pachamama Alliance. 
• I really love the work of the Pachamama Alliance. The community is global, their mission: “to create a thriving, just and spiritually fulfilling world”. The alliance grew out of a North South connection, a call from the Achuar, indigenous stewards of the rainforest in Ecuador and Peru. It has grown into communities on all continents with educational programs and accomplishments. Earth Wisdom and alliance with indigenous people and cultures is part of this. At a global gathering in May of 2018, Paul Hawkins referred to the Pachamama Alliance as “the mothership of organizations”.  
  • The “Awakening the Dreamer” symposium is available in numerous languages. Here’s a 2-minute  trailer: What will it take to change the world? Or, visit https://www.pachamama.org/engage/awakening-the-dreamer 
  • At www.pachamama.org , follow the link to “We can reverse global warming” or click here  for a 90 minute introduction to Project Drawdown. I’m quite sure this is available in Spanish. Participants will understand lots of ways to engage with social and earth justice. 
  • The Game Changer Intensive is a vital 7- 8 week leadership training program. The next one starts in June. It’s free with an ask for donations. A class of students in environmental education from the University of Hawaii were among the 665 participants I joined in January. 
  • There are Rights of Nature groups in Italy, Florida, Pennsylvania, Argentina to name a few. The rights of nature are now part of Ecuador’s constitution. The Global Commons is a great resource to learn from and connect with partnerships and communities all over the world. 
    • I’ve been on two of the Changemaker Journeys. On one, a small group of us gained new perspectives on the modern world from the Quechua in the Andes and the Achuar at the sacred headwaters of the Amazon in Ecuador. Last August on the high desert of New Mexico, I explored relationship with the natural world and indigenous traditions with Pat McCabe, Woman Stands Shinning, Dine and Lakota activist, and Arkan Lushwala, Peruvian elder. 
    • Not everyone in the modern world can be so fortunate as to experience nature with indigenous elders, but all of us have indigenous roots. Remembering this perspective is key to discovering our role in this era. These educational resources open hearts and minds to layers of interdependence as in a forest. 
• November Symposium Consideration. Kathleen Allen might be a good fit as a speaker for the November symposium. On Tuesday, May 26th, she’ll be offering a workshop, Taking Action in Response to COVID-19 a Living Systems Approach. Here is a talk she gave with Pachamama Alliance: Leading From the Roots_Kathleen Allen Feb 2020 
  • Similar to the core message of Awakening the Dreamer—that separation is an illusion and experiencing our deep interconnectedness with all of life is needed to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world—Dr. Allen spoke about the interdependence in natural systems that we overlook in many systems of modern society. 
  • She spoke about how humanity fell in love with the power of machines, which led to the view of organizations as machines. But thinking about organizations as living systems rather than mechanical ones reveals new opportunities to impact them by reframing key questions: 
    • What do I need to control? ➔ What can I unleash? Who can make this work? ➔ What interactions will make this work? How do I avoid resistance? ➔ How do I welcome resistance? How do I influence individual actions? ➔ How do I influence the field (or culture)? How can I create change? ➔ How can I transform energy that already exists in the system? 
  • She invited us all to look at our actions through the lens of living systems and noted that the connections are there whether we see them or not. The interdependence is there whether we see it or not. And without first seeing that interdependence, our actions will have limited impact. 
• Feature Film. Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees with Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a significant feature film - a look into all that’s green on this earth. Viewers enter forests the world over, realize how they sustain water systems, are crucial to life itself. The film explains Forest Bathing as part of Japan’s health care system and how it grew out of their national religion, Shintoism. It inspires nature connection, appreciation and action. This is a call to re-discover the wisdom of trees – as if remembering our ancient indigenous heritage. It’s an invitation to join communities the world over who are replanting and renewing forests. I have a copy of this film for use with small groups. Alternatively, click here for trailer and site where you can rent the film. 
• Video Series. With his five part series of short videos, Caretakers of Life , Arkan Lushwala, Peruvian elder, emphasizes the importance of awareness, time, space and what we do now. Basil Brave Heart, an Ogala Lakota Elder from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is Arkan’s adoptive father. Either of his two books could also be a focus for group discussion and processes. 
• Books of Interest. The Time of the Black Jaguar: An Offering of Indigenous Wisdom for the Continuity of Life on Earth.  
  • Jim Garrison said this: A book of extraordinary simplicity and power. His simple life, lived in the depths of the primordial vision of the world, has more to say about modernity and the world crisis we have engendered than all the books written by the specialists of the modern world itself. He echoes Plato: Our task is to remember what we have forgotten, and in remembering, we will find ourselves reconnecting with our Earth and learning the language of the Mother as if for the first time.” 
    
• Books of Interest. Deer and Thunder: Indigenous Ways of Restoring the World. In the introduction of this book Arkan tells about Basil Brave Heart’s response to the issue of cultural appropriation. Last summer, he explained it to us as “Washushi”. At present, I understand it to be a kind of “kitch”, self- aggrandizing use of indigenous ways. 

One or more of these and or any number of books with discussion, journaling, art-making, collaborative planning could inspire action and connection while at home, being safe in response to coronavirus. I’m available if needed to help orchestrate. There could be an outdoor component with Zoom - our present campfire for digital storytelling.