Minnesota’s capital city brings more people to nature with a focus on innovation, equity and resilience

The summer of 2020 was one of social distancing and shuttered public spaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Minnesota’s capital city of Saint Paul was also swept up in the civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police in the neighboring city of Minneapolis. Saint Paul residents, especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color, found it challenging to find places where they felt safe to gather and connect—at a time when they needed it most.

“Folks of color needed a place that we knew was safe. We needed to be in community,” said Asha Shoffner, environmental and outdoor education program coordinator for Saint Paul Parks and Recreation. “The only place to do that during COVID was outside.”

Shoffner responded by organizing local hikes specifically for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Hikes were first organized for adults, “but community members told us they wanted to get outside and enjoy nature with their kids and families,” said Shoffner. “Our BIPOC Family Nature Club  was in direct response to this need expressed by the community.”

Ninety-nine percent of adults surveyed said that participating in a BIPOC outdoor program benefited their overall well being. And, ninety percent of adult participants said they had never been involved in Saint Paul’s outdoor programs before. “We are reaching a whole new demographic,” said Shoffner.

Listening and responding to the community’s needs starts at the top in Saint Paul, stemming from the three pillars of Mayor Melvin Carter’s administration: innovation, equity and resilience. These values are evident in how the city runs its programs, who staffs them, how funding is allocated, and who is in the room making decisions.

“From day one, our focus has been to make the work of the city relevant to our residents,” said Russ Stark, chief resilience officer, who coordinates all nature, outdoor and climate resilience projects for the Saint Paul Mayor’s Office. “Mayor Carter talks about how when he was younger, his community viewed an environmentalist as ‘someone who could afford to be an environmentalist.’ As Mayor, he’s asked us to constantly think about how climate, sustainability and nature are relevant to every resident’s everyday life.” 

The focus on making nature relevant to children and families’ daily lives crystalized back in 2016 when Saint Paul was chosen as one of 7 pilot cities for Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN), a joint national initiative of the National League of Cities and the Children & Nature Network. 

Since 2016, CCCN efforts have evolved into a citywide initiative called Explore Outdoors Saint. Paul, an interagency effort that champions a nature-oriented mindset across all of the city’s youth programs. Explore Outdoors Saint Paul recently published its first Annual Report, highlighting the innovative ways the city is bringing nature-based programming to new families, particularly in BIPOC and low income communities.

“The residents of our city are diverse in every way. If we try to reach folks through just one kind of nature program, we are going to miss a lot of people,” said Shoffner. “By offering a variety of ways to access nature and through different approaches to engagement, we are making the natural world more accessible to more people.”

The intention of the city’s inter-agency Explore Outdoors team is to help children access the benefits of nature through as many touch points in their daily lives as possible, including where they live, learn and play. This means library staff collaborate with schools and recreation centers to create nature-based programs. It means hiring community members who know local families and speak their languages to lead family hikes. It means training staff at child care centers, schools and nonprofits organizations to offer nature-based programs.

“A lot of the work I support has to do with creating continuity across agencies,” said Joseph Houlihan, school coordinator for Saint Paul Public Library and a member of the Explore Outdoors Saint Paul team. “Showing up for young people consistently, so they see we are working together to serve them as part of the same community, that’s our intention.”

The creative spark for finding ways to reach underserved communities really gained momentum about four years ago, following a study that indicated the city’s recreation centers didn’t understand resident use of programs. The study identified barriers that were discouraging some residents from joining recreation programs, including fees, staff representation, type of program offerings, and the ways in which programs were promoted. 

“The call came from Mayor Carter and others in city leadership that we be intentional about breaking down those barriers,” said Andy Rodriguez, recreation services manager for the Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department. “We knew we needed to respond to what the community wanted. So, we asked the community directly.”

Parks and recreation staff started piloting new programs using targeted funding from a mayoral initiative called “Equity Matters.” To qualify for Equity Matters funding, pilot programs had to be new, community based and community driven.

“The effort was successful,” said Rodriguez. “We saw an increase in participation and that led to an increase in funding. As a result we’ve been able to direct funds to help increase the participation of specific communities, responding to what they want. We hope to continue to see this increased participation into the future.”

One example of Equity Matters-funded programming is a new urban camping program. When the city launched the program, they worked directly with neighborhood recreation centers serving BIPOC communities. They removed fees and other barriers that could prohibit local families from experiencing a night of camping. Urban camping experiences were offered in three tiers to meet the interests (and comfort levels) of different families, ranging from camping events at local rec centers, in local regional parks, and through a three-day canoe and camping trip.

Melvin Carter, 46th Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, leads with “an unapologetic equity agenda.” Photo courtesy of melvincarter.org

Mayor Carter and his family participated. “My children and I spent the night in a tent at the back of one of our rec centers. We had a great time,” said Mayor Carter. “My kids woke up in the morning and asked, ‘can we do it again tonight?’”

While many of these efforts started prior to COVID, events during the past year pushed the Explore Outdoors Saint Paul team to be even more innovative, more resilient and more focused on equity. “The past year has pushed us off that ‘innovative’ ledge more,” said Rodriguez, “but we were already working that way and will continue to work that way.” 

Bringing the proven benefits of nature to more children and families was a challenge the Explore Outdoors Saint Paul team was designed to meet. They knew they couldn’t do it by thinking small or focusing on just one approach.

“We saw early on that there were limits to what one city department or program could do,” said Mary Henke-Haney, education coordinator for the City of Saint Paul and a member of the Explore Outdoors Saint Paul team. “CCCN had a role in reminding us to think beyond one program and to think at the systems level. When we branch out and work at many levels across the city, there is so much more we can accomplish and so many more people we can reach.” 

Doing more and reaching more people is exactly what Explore Outdoors Saint Paul has done. Check out the program’s annual report to learn more about this innovative team’s efforts.

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