Nature Mentors: a program to encourage outdoor activity and nature engagement among urban youth and families

ABSTRACT

Significant declines in outdoor activity and engagement with the natural environment are growing concerns with negative impacts on well-being. We pilot-tested an intervention encouraging outdoor activity among adult mentor and child mentee pairs and families, in partnership with Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center. The study used a mixed methods approach, including pre and post-program surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings indicate the significance of environmental barriers to behavior change, especially in urban areas, as well as the potential utility of programs like Nature Mentors in producing shifts towards more time spent outdoors and in contact with nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature
• outdoor activity
• environmental barriers
• behavior change
• environmental Education

Acknowledgments

Thank you to our Urban Ecology Center partners, its staff and many volunteers; without you this play would not happen. Thank you to our open-minded, fun, patient and curious Nature Mentors participants for your enthusiasm and dedication to something new.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported in part by Institutional Research Grant #86-004-26 from the American Cancer Society; the Research and Education Program Fund, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin; and the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center, Population Sciences Program.

Notes on contributors

Kelly A. Hackett

Kelly A. Hackett was formerly a Research Program Coordinator in the division of Epidemiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, now pursuing a Master of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She focuses on qualitative methods and methodologies, community-engaged and participatory research, and culturally responsive evaluation of health programs.

Michael C. Ziegler

Michael C. Ziegler was a seasonal Urban Adventure Specialist at the Urban Ecology Center, who went on to receive his Masters in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He loves spending time engaging others in his love for having fun in the wild and gets energy from building supportive and vibrant communities welcoming to all its members.

Jared A. Olson

Jared A. Olson works in the Center for Healthy Communities and Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is a graduate of the Public and Community Health program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Previously a high school educator, his research interests include health outcomes and equity as they relate to land use, food systems, political ecology, and praxis.

Jessica Bizub

Jessica Bizub is an applied social science researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Center for Urban Population Health, primarily working with nonprofit and government agencies to design and execute projects including program evaluations, needs assessments, and other initiatives that use data for decision-making. Her research interests include youth development, human-environment interactions, and social-emotional health.

Melinda Stolley

Melinda Stolley is a health psychologist with expertise in obesity and cancer survivorship research. Her research focuses on health behaviors and health behavior change with the goal of improving patient-reported and cancer outcomes. She currently serves as the Associate Director for Prevention and Control for the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center and is a Professor in the Department of Medicine.

Aniko Szabo

Aniko Szabo is a Professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Director of the Biostatistics Consulting Service at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Szabo's research interests are in statistical modeling of biomedical data. She collaborates with biomedical investigators across the entire spectrum of translational research from analyzing cellular assays, animal experiments, and observational studies in patients to designing prospective clinical trials and evaluation of policy impacts in national databases.

Elizabeth Heller

Elizabeth Heller is the Senior Director of Education and Strategic Planning at the Urban Ecology Center where she began in 2000 to combine her interests in the city and in natural environments. She went on to receive her Masters in Business Administration from UW-Milwaukee in 2005 where she received the Outstanding Business Plan award for her plan to launch a branch of the Urban Ecology Center in Washington Park.

Kirsten M. M. Beyer

Kirsten M. M. Beyer is an Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Co-Director of the Global Health Pathway for medical students, and the Associate Director of the PhD Program of Public and Community Health. She is a health geographer interested in human-environment interaction as it related to public health [with environment conceived broadly as including the physical (built and natural) and social environments], and her primary research interests are in the health impacts of neighborhood environmental characteristics such as green space and residential racial segregation, and the development of community-based interventions to improve health and reduce health disparities.