Environmental Education for Title One Students and Boys and Girls Club

The Authority helped to fund Veggielution’s Eastside Explorers, an experiential, hands-on field trip program which engages hundreds of middle school students each year. Field trip activities are centered around collaborative group tasks focused on urban agriculture, nutrition, human impacts, and ecological interconnections. Veggielution's historical location in East San José encourages discovery while pushing students and teachers to develop a sense of teamwork and fostering a strong sense of place.

The Authority helped fund Bay Area Older Adults’ Environmental Education Park Crawl program. The project consisted of eight, 4-hour walks in different parks and one wildlife lecture. Each two- to four-mile walk had an environmental theme that educated the participating adults age 60+ about our valley’s parks, natural resources, and urban green spaces. It also included lunch, coordination of transportation, parking fees, and three trained guides. Participants benefitted in multiple ways: safely walking outdoors in a group is critical in reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and depression, and learning about nature promotes cognitive health and reduces the risk of dementia.

This pilot is an initiative by the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy to develop, implement, and measure the outcomes and impact of a regular calendar of parks and nature-based public programs. The Project Scope supports the implementation of 20 public programs over two years (approximately 10 per year), offering trail tours, nature walks, visitor center programs, special-topic workshops, youth activities, and more. The aim is to cultivate environmental stewardship, social cohesion, and civic engagement through nature-based programming that connects people to nature and each other.