Nearby Nature’s 2020 Black Lives Matter Statement:
- Nearby Nature stands in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement, demanding an end to systemic racism. We are deeply disturbed by the ongoing tragic losses of Black lives across the country and resolve to reflect on institutional biases at Nearby Nature and examine how they have contributed to racism in our community.
- Progress toward achieving Nearby Nature’s goal of connecting people all ages, backgrounds, and communities with nature nearby requires that systemic racism be acknowledged and addressed in concrete ways. Black people, indigenous people, and other people of color have historically been made unwelcome in many parks and natural areas. Limiting any group’s access to the benefits of nature harms everyone in our community. Nearby Nature is committed to listening to, learning from, and partnering with communities of color in order to change systems of inequity, as well as to ensure safe, accessible, and welcoming parks and natural areas for all.
- Educating without bias begins with self-reflection. Systemic racism can only be dismantled if we take a closer look at the services we provide, how we provide them, who receives them, who has a voice in our organization, and if all of these in combination adequately reflect and equitably serve our community. As an organization, we dedicate ourselves to identifying the roles we play in upholding systems of oppression, taking anti-racist actions to help dismantle these systems, and implementing a process of ongoing evaluation to assess our progress.
- This statement is a commitment to ongoing action. As of summer 2020, we started in on a plan of action that includes a regular review of our curricula, enhanced staff and volunteer training, improved outreach to communities of color, and regular updates on our anti-racism work. We welcome your input and participation in this journey. Please contact us at info@nearbynature.org if you would like to be involved.
— Nearby Nature’s Board of Directors (Samara Phelps, Kirsten Haugen, Salmon Norgaard-Stroich, Cynthia Waters, and Holly Hartmann) and Executive Director Beth Stein, June 2020
2020-21 Updates: In late 2020, we established a relationship with the Eugene-Springfield Chapter of the NAACP and through this partnership provided over $3,000 in youth program scholarships in 2020-2021 for BIPOC children. We also worked toward hosting a series of joint Restoration Celebrations in the future — our first was in October 2021 — as part of this partnership. As part of the NAACP’s Health Committee during this year, we helped organized a series of events in Alton Baker Park for our BIPOC community members in the summer of 2021 — Get Your Nature On! During this time we also partnered with Relief Nursery to provide over $1,000 in scholarship aid to under-served children in their programs.
2022-23 Updates: In the summer of 2022, we contracted with Ayisha Elliot, of Black Girl from Eugene, for a summer daycamps staff training about the tenents of white supremacy. We made a recording of this training available to those who could not attend and have shared it with others over time. We also had our Summer Daycamps website page, our Daycamps registration form, and our dayscamp descriptions fully translated into Spanish for the first time in 2022. As we have since 2015, we offered two bilingual summer daycamps in 2022 and 2023, and in the Spring of 2023 we also piloted hosting Green Start programs in Spanish.
2024-25 Updates: During this school year, Nearby Nature’s teachers at the Network Charter School were involved in a year long Human Rights-Social Justice professional development program with Ayisha Elliot. Thanks to the discussions inspired by these learning sessions, the school has been revising its student and teacher handbooks and is updating school policies with DEJI in mind. Our Nearby Nature teachers will be taking into account lessons learned through this process as they work with their students and will also share lessons learned with Nearby Nature’s administration. For the summers of 2024 and 2025, we continued to refine the translations we have made for our Spanish language Daycamps page and continued to offer two summer daycamps in Spanish.