New Partnerships; Expanding our Community

By Lily Gordon, Program Coordinator

Building a wider environmentally-aware community is a key piece of Nature Linc’s new Vision statement, developed as a part of our 2025 Strategic Plan. We aim to be a resource to other organizations that are interested in environmental justice, bringing our staff in to enrich their programming. We also aim to teach other organizations to actually do what we do: connect youth with nature in an engaging way. Meg Ito, FNL’s Director of Education and Community Engagement, is currently working on multiple new exciting projects that will expand this community of environmentally-engaged organizations.

One partnership Meg is expanding is with First Connections. Part of the Justice Resource Institute, First Connections supports new parents with everything from diapers, support groups for parents, and play groups for kids. That’s where Nature Linc comes in: this October we hosted a group of young kids and parents for our second nature-based play group. Parents had a chance to connect with each other while their kids connected with nature, played with other tots, and, of course, had a blast with nature teacher Ms. Meg.

One brand new project is our collaboration with the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge’s volunteer group, the Friends of the Woodlands and Waters. Meg recently connected with the volunteer group’s coordinator, and together they schemed up a series of “Nature Exploration” sessions, four days of nature enrichment at the Assabet Refuge, a beautiful protected area of woodlands, ponds, and rivers in Sudbury, MA. Four sessions for kids 6-12 years old are planned between October and December, each with a different theme. FNL staff will bring our teaching experience this fall, and in doing so hopefully provide a model for future outdoor education programming at the Assabet Refuge.