About

About the Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership and Playbook

The Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership is a collaboration of leading national organizations working across sectors to ensure that all children have access to high quality outdoor experiences and environmental education.

About the Playbook

Regular time in nature can help kids be healthier, happier, smarter and better stewards of the environment.

The Playbook is a tool to help legislators and community leaders advance state policies that expand outdoor opportunities for young people.

  • Proven Policies: Share and explore successful examples from across the U.S. proven to connect kids and youth to meaningful time outdoors through our Annual Trend Reports.
  • Innovative Ideas: Inspire and celebrate new ideas through the stories of forward-thinking community leaders, lawmakers, scientists, and other leading outdoor champions through our Resource Center and Community Spotlights.
  • Collaborative Network: Connect with leaders, experts, and advocates to navigate state policy initiatives across health, education, and outdoor recreation that center equity and justice.

Who We Are

We have come together to advance state-level policies that support getting kids outside everywhere they live, learn, work and play. We are engaging our existing networks, which collectively include over 1,000 legislators in every state in the U.S. and more than 5,000,000 grassroots advocates for environmental and outdoor education and recreation. Together, with you, we are creating a new, powerful national outdoor engagement policy strategy.

Your Youth Outdoor Policy Team

Adrian Angulo (he/him)

Campaigns & Programs Director
Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

David Beard (he/him)

Director of Policy & Government Affairs
Children & Nature Network

Sarah Bodor (she/her)

Senior Director of Capacity Building
North American Association for Environmental Education

Megan Fink (she/her)

Partnerships and Policy Manager
North American Association for Environmental Education

Grant Gliniecki (he/they)

Outdoor Policy Coordinator
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

Dylan McDowell (he/him)

Executive Director
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

Ángel Peña (he/him)

Executive Director
Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

Children & Nature Network

C&NN envisions a future in which all children play, learn and grow with nature in their everyday lives. To achieve that vision, we are leading an international movement to increase equitable access to nature so that children and natural places can thrive. We power the movement by investing in leadership and communities through: 1) sharing evidence-based resources, 2) scaling innovative solutions, and 3) driving policy change.

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North American Association for Environmental Education

The mission of NAAEE is to use the power of education to advance environmental literacy and civic engagement for a more equitable and sustainable future. We work with educators, policymakers, and partners throughout the world. Our work is based on more than five decades of research about what motivates individuals, organizations, and communities to learn, take action, and create positive societal change.

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National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

Created by and for state legislators, the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators is a nonprofit that organizes over 1,000 environmentally-committed state legislators from all 50 states and both parties. NCEL provides venues and opportunities for lawmakers to share ideas and collaborate on environmental issues.

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Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project

In 2017, a group of long-time conservation advocates and friends from Las Cruces, New Mexico came together. Tired of being tokenized in conservation and outdoor recreation spaces, they worked to create opportunities for Latinx/Hispanic borderland community members to engage with, access, and learn about public lands and waters. Two years later, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project formally established itself as a 501(c)(3) non-profit and began to spearhead state and national-level policy work.

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