By Lily Gordon, Program Coordinator

This October, we kicked off the expanded version of our Middle School Environmental Leadership Program (MS-ELP). The MS-ELP program was designed and piloted in spring of 2023 by Brandon Tolentino-Serrano, FNL’s Program Manager. The program is a nature enrichment opportunity for a cohort of 13 low income middle school-aged youth in Somerville. They meet weekly with Brandon at the Healey School for two-hour sessions of outdoor activities and learning. Every few weeks, Brandon takes them on bigger, four-hour field trips to exciting places like Middlesex Fells, Drumlin Farm, and Nature Linc’s site in Lincoln.

Now in its third year, the program has been such a success that we are not only continuing the same model, we are also expanding to a second cohort based at the East Somerville Community School! Brandon is teaching both cohorts with the support of part time staff. Since FNL manages the recruitment for this program, September was crunch time for Brandon, interviewing interested students and their families. He mentioned that there was so much interest that he even had to make a waitlist for the program.

The MS-ELP program fills a crucial gap for youth. Middle school is an age at which youth have fewer options for free after school programs, and this primarily affects low-income students whose families may lack the resources to pay for enrichment programs. Furthermore, youth from low income backgrounds tend to have fewer opportunities in general to engage with nature due to lack of physical access, historical exclusion, and other barriers. Our Environmental Leadership Program is built to fill in this gap.

The MS-ELP offers equitable access to nature, an increased sense of belonging, mental and physical health benefits for youth, and a foundation of environmental justice. We provide equitable access by making the program free, including transportation to green spaces, and prioritizing accessible outdoor locations so that students have the ability to access them on their own outside the program. Youth develop a deeper personal relationship with nature, building a sense that nature is somewhere they belong. Nature experiences provide youth with physical benefits in addition to mental health benefits, with activities designed to encourage mindfulness in nature and an opportunity to take a break from technology. Building on all of this, participants begin to develop a sense of environmental leadership, learning about how environmental justice connects to their lives and their own communities.

We’d like to sincerely thank our partners and the Foundations that have made it possible for us to run and expand the MS-ELP: the City of Somerville, the Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation, the Pabis Foundation, the Dorr Foundation, and Arc’teryx Outerwear.

Expanding the Middle School Program