2022 Year-in-Review & 2023 Insight

2022: A Year of Growth

This past year has been an incredible year for the Nature Niños program. There has been a tremendous amount of growth in not just the programming that we are able to offer, but the community as well.

Our programming has been able to grow to include 2 Investigating the Outdoors classes. 3 Tiny Trees classes, 3 Charter School experience programs, and bi-monthly Community Hikes. Our largest growth occurred with our summer Outdoor Adventure Camp, providing three 3-week camp sessions with 10 youth camp counselors. This camp was part of a broader project to research the best practices for youth programs who want to engage marginalized youth in hunting and angling. This project will produce a full report of the findings and an action guide of how to implement them into a new or existing program. These documents will be shared in early 2023.

We are lucky to have expanded the team to include a project manager, and lead and assistant educators. We have also made fantastic connections with dedicated local organizations and educators who are able to pass their knowledge on to our children to help spark their love for nature and the world around them. Nature Niños owes much to the talented people who work to provide these special experiences everyday.

Thank you to all our parents, teachers, funders, and supporters who attend our programs, donate to continue the program, and feel passionately about giving our youth great outdoor experiences.

What to expect in 2023?

Nature Ninos will be continuing our Investigating the Outdoors, Tiny Trees, charter school experiences, community hikes, and Outdoor Adventure Camp. We plan on revitalizing a nature and place-based teacher training with our Teacher Training Summit for PreK-12 educators in spring. This will include the opportunity to become a certified Project WILD instructor and other curriculum training. We will also be working with the Village of Pecos and other locations in New Mexico to assist in establishing local outdoor youth programs based on our 2022 research. Finally, two new programs will begin to uplift youth voices. One will be a short educational series on youth involvement with the New Mexico legislature, Camo Kids at the Capitol. The other will be a youth board giving opportunity for active involvement in the growth and direction of class programming.

We look forward to another exciting year!