Camp Kawartha’s executive director has co-written a new book outlining a roadmap of how to engage children and youths with the outdoors and encourage a kinship with the earth.
Jacob Rodenburg, executive director at Camp Kawartha and Cathy Dueck coordinating consultant have teamed up to produce The Wild Path Home: A guide to Raising the Earth Stewards of Tomorrow.
Rodenburg said, “The idea behind the book was how can we raise kids who care for the Earth. You can’t expect that to happen on its own, it really needs to take an entire village. So, the other thing to think about is what do kids need at each age and stage of their development that’s going to encourage them, empower them, and activate them to do positive things for the Earth.”
The book is a product of a government funded Pathways Project which was organized by Rodenburg and Dueck.
Rodenburg explained that about five years ago, Camp Kawartha was successful in obtaining $750,000 from the Trillium foundation in addition to other funding which totaled close to $1 million in funding for the Pathways Project.
They were able to get about 50 community organizations to come together and compiled research on best practices in environmental education around the world. This included topics such as what are kids like at each age and stage of their development and what were they likely to respond to when it comes to the environment.
“From that, we’re able to identify 30 what we call landmarks. Those are key principles, key things we think kids should do at that age… We had an app, so if you were a parent, or if you were a teacher and let’s say you took your kids on a nature walk and that matched landmark eight, you could report it.”
Landmarks are tangible, achievable activities designed for youth from birth to the end of high school.
One example would be to plant, tend, and harvest something you can eat with the help of an adult for kids around ages seven or eight.
Rodenburg said that over the lifespan of the pilot project which was three years, they figured they would get about 10,000 people reporting landmarks they achieved. When all was said and done, they actually received over six times that number at 62,000 reports.
He said that while the number of participants using the Pathways Project was significant, the funding for the project ran out.
“How do you keep something like that going? So that’s where the genesis for this book came from. It’s really a call for all communities to work together to have a road map and to encourage an ethic and a culture of stewardship in their community.”
Rodenburg said that he hopes this book helps encourage environment kinship in youth without overwhelming or scaring them by how many environment challenges there are in the world today.
He said that this book would not have been possible without Dueck or the many organizations that contributed to the project.
“We had a round table and the round table had representation from Peterborough Family Services, from Otonabee Regional Conservation Area, from the two school boards, from Public Health, from the city of Peterborough, and they all had an input and we met regularly. They were able to provide guidance. We had also First Nations representation, which was very important. And it was really neat to get that Community input that helped to shape some of the landmarks and some of the directions that we were going.”
There will be an official book launch on September 5 at Take Cover Books in Peterborough at 7 p.m.
The book will be available anywhere you purchase books including local bookstores, at Chapters and on Amazon for $40. To learn more, visit pathwayproject.ca.
