- Youth Nature After School Programs Programs with youth from Brown Boys & Girls Club and Kingswood Community Center. Through outdoor recreation, gardening, food education, service opportunities and STEM-based activities, students are increasing their connection to nature and their awareness of environmental health.
- Green Jobs In partnership with the City of Wilmington, Green Jobs provides Wilmington high school youth with a summer internship opportunities focused on the environment.
- Summer Marsh Experience Students from Delaware Futures participate in an immersive weeklong work-study program doing outdoor projects that support our restoration and education work. Students also overnight at Ashland Nature Center, hike trails, visit Longwood Gardens, and present their work to friends and family.
RENEW – Reaching and Engaging through Nature to Empower Wilmington
Delaware Nature Society believes that healthy ecosystems are a right of all people, and that conserving the environment contributes to the vitality of a community’s health and well-being. Since our inception, we have been committed to making nature education experiences attainable for all children, starting with the very first environmental field study programs in 1970, taught in the City of Wilmington through a partnership with Wilmington public schools.
We recognize that protecting and enhancing the environment is often eclipsed by other social challenges facing youth in Wilmington; however, we believe that a healthy environment is a critical asset to community, economics, and health.
To deepen our commitment in making nature education more accessible, in 2017, we developed the RENEW (Reaching and Engaging through Nature to Empower Wilmington). RENEW connects Wilmington youth to nature education programs with a STEM focus, and activities that make learning about the environment relevant and fun. Anchored at our DuPont Environmental Education Center, and through outreach programs conducted in Wilmington schools, city parks, and community centers, RENEW reinforces the connection between children and their environment, and how a healthy community contributes to their own health and well-being.
Through repeat visitation and year-long programs, RENEW encourages and elevates participants’ comfort levels with their natural world, ultimately bolstering involvement of individuals to improve their lives, community, and environment. In the past two years, we’ve developed signature programs through partnerships that brings RENEW to youth in Wilmington including: