奥丑别苍鈥�&苍产蝉辫;(GUB) began in 2009, its goal was to empower鈥痽oung people to influence the local issues which affected their lives. For the past 12 years the program was a part of CU 麻豆影院's鈥� Community Engagement, Design and Research鈥� (CEDaR) Center. Now one of the most鈥痵uccessful child-friendly city initiatives in the world, it's being spun off as an independent nonprofit under the fiscal sponsorship of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center.

鈥淕rowing Up 麻豆影院鈥痺ill continue its deep partnership with CU 麻豆影院 as it evolves during its next phase," said 鈥�Mara Mintzer, GUB's director. "It 鈥痝rew from鈥痑 strong foundation in academia, and the鈥� students and faculty have been key to its success." 

The relationship between CEDaR and GUB is a model for how the university can develop, nurture and then spin off nonprofit activities, says Brian Muller, associate professor and CEDaR director.

鈥淕rowing Up 麻豆影院 began as a service-based research project and evolved into a program that is now more deeply embedded in the community than the university," Muller says. 鈥淚t will continue as a CEDaR affiliate with more flexibility to raise money and cultivate new relationships to expand its programs. Spinning it off strengthens GUB and benefits all its partners."

Over the years GUB grew to become one of the most鈥痵uccessful child-friendly city initiatives in the world. Some of GUB's鈥痩argest successes include Mintzer's鈥� 2018 TED Talk 鈥�," viewed 2.3 million times and translated into 21 languages;鈥� GUB鈥檚 鈥渃hild-friendly city map project,鈥� which brought together more than 30鈥痮rganizations and 700 young people to create the nation鈥檚 first printed, bilingual map designed by kids for kids; and the award-winning book, "Placemaking With Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities," co-authored by GUB founders and faculty.鈥� 

University roots
In December 2008 Growing Up 麻豆影院 was conceived by David Driskell, director of community planning and sustainability for the city of 麻豆影院, and Willem van Vliet, CU 麻豆影院 professor (emeritus) and CEDaR fellow, as an effort to make 麻豆影院 one of the nation鈥檚 first child-friendly cities, recognizing鈥痶he rights and interests of children in local policy, law, programs and budgets as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Louise Chawla, CU 麻豆影院 professor (emerita) and CEDaR fellow, was also formative in GUB鈥檚 development. 

GUB formally launched in the spring of 2009 through an MOU鈥痓etween CU鈥槎褂霸�, the city of 麻豆影院鈥痑nd the 麻豆影院 Valley School District, working in partnership with local nonprofits, businesses, and many participating children and youth. 鈥疘ts overall goal was to bring about a culture change so that youth participation in local affairs would no longer be extraordinary, but mainstream and routine.鈥疓UB鈥痗reated鈥痯rogramming that helped local youth provide critical input on matters of city planning, education, sustainability, social justice and human rights. It supported a new generation of civic leaders, who tangibly improve their communities by sharing recommendations for city and community design and decision-making. 

• Contributed to key city planning guidelines and policies, including seven鈥痬aster plans for open space and mountain parks, resilient cities, and transportation, and more. 

• Engaged more than 6,000 麻豆影院 area kids on more than 100 city and community projects. Many program participants work with GUB for three鈥痬onths or more. 

• Upheld an internal standard to ensure that at least 50 percent of participating program children and youth are from historically marginalized groups. 

• Worked with more than 60 local and county partners to support hundreds of ideation sessions, after-school enrichments, and community engagement events. 

• Widely cited academic book chapters and journal articles. 

• Keynote addresses at national and international conferences. 

• Local, national, and international media coverage. 

• Training, lectures, and consulting sessions for many global partners, ranging from government staff and elected officials, young people, educators鈥痑nd academics. 

GUB has been a part of CEDaR and housed in the Program for Environmental Design for about 12 years, working in the context of an overall CEDaR philosophy that focuses on partnerships with city governments and community organizations; participatory action research;鈥� interdisciplinary collaboration across campus; integrated research by undergraduates, graduate students and faculty; and engagement with low-income and minority populations.鈥� 

Joint CEDaR and GUB initiatives include the鈥�Hill Redevelopment Project, a three-year effort to build engagement among the varied voices in development policy on the Hill. During this project, GUB worked with a Flatirons Elementary鈥� fourth-grade class鈥痶o develop ideas to make the 11th Street Corridor a fun and safer鈥痯lace for people of all ages. In another joint CEDaR effort to develop innovative urban design for manufactured housing communities,鈥疓UB engaged鈥痺ith the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park community to encourage brainstorming with children and parents around the design of green spaces, playgrounds and safety, as well as adding new amenities to the park.     

In addition, CEDaR provided the GUB partnership with services鈥痠ncluding office space and fiscal, computer, human resources and communications support; staff oversight; and management of joint projects and MOUs.  

GUB's evolution into a new phase will be celebrated at a  on May 4.  

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In February 2021, Louise Chawla, CEDaR fellow and professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design, was invited to give an opening speech for a weeklong Festival of Early Infancy (birth to 6 year olds) in the city of Strasbourg, France on the topic of 鈥淐onnecting Children with Nature to Foster Wellbeing and a Caring Relationship with the Natural World.鈥� During the hour-long discussion that followed, the city鈥檚 deputy mayor was interested in learning about Growing Up 麻豆影院, a partnership between CEDaR, 麻豆影院鈥檚 city government, and the 麻豆影院 Valley School District to engage children and youth in city planning and design. Growing Up 麻豆影院 projects include young children in elementary schools and preschools. The festival was organized by the Academy of Early Infancy and the Terra Symbiosis Foundation in Strasbourg, with the aim of inspiring the greening of child care, preschool and elementary school grounds and encouraging greater use of the city鈥檚 parks by early childhood institutions and families with young children.  

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Do you love bees and want to help them? You can make a difference by showing your support for a new Colorado pollinator license plate. 

This month the state legislature is considering a new special license plate that will support conservation efforts throughout the state to protect pollinators. The initiative will raise funding for work with state agencies, municipal governments and private landowners to protect and increase pollinator-friendly gardens, parks, open space, and highway margins across the state.  

One of the community engagements of Louise Chawla, a CEDaR fellow, is serving on the leadership committee of People and Pollinators Action Network, a statewide group that works for healthy ecosystems and biodiverse habitat for pollinators and the web of life of which they are an essential part.

"Not only are pollinators necessary for many of the crops that feed people, but they also sustain many of the wildflowers and flowering trees and shrubs on Colorado鈥檚 wildlands," she says.

But before the legislature can vote, the state needs to know that the public supports this new license plate, which means collecting 3,000 signatures from Colorado car owners. Please 鈥搃t only takes about one minute鈥揳nd share with your friends and networks.  You are not committing to get the plate when it is created鈥攋ust endorsing the idea. 

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A literature review by Louise Chawla, professor emerita at the 麻豆影院 and CEDaR fellow, finds children are happier and more likely to protect the natural world when they have a greater connection to it, but this connection is complex and can also generate negative emotions linked to issues like climate change.

The , published in the British Ecological Society Journal People and Nature, is the first to focus on nature connection in children and adolescents. In the article Chawla comprehensively reviews the full scope of literature on the topic, covering peer-reviewed articles, books and studies by environmental organizations. Chawla also received a 2020 SHIFT (Shaping How We Invest for Tomorrow) Award for Research for her investigations of connections between access to nature, children鈥檚 health and wellbeing, and childhood sources of lifelong care for the natural world.

The review finds that connecting with nature supports multiple areas of young people鈥檚 wellbeing. 鈥淭here is strong evidence that children are happier, healthier, function better, know more about the environment, and are more likely to take action to protect the natural world when they spend time in nature,鈥� Chawla said.

Several studies found that children鈥檚 connection with nature increased with time spent in natural environments. Time spent in this way was also a predictor for active care for nature in adulthood. These findings support strategies and policies that ensure that young people have access to wild areas, parks, gardens, green neighborhoods and naturalized grounds at schools.

However, a connection with nature is not universally positive.

鈥淢y review shows that connecting with nature is a complex experience that can generate troubling emotions as well as happiness,鈥� Chawla said. 鈥淲e need to keep in mind that children are inheriting an unravelling biosphere, and many of them know it. Research shows that when adolescents react with despair, they are unlikely to take action to address challenges.鈥�

The review finds that there is overlap in the strategies used to increase children鈥檚 feelings of connection with nature and supporting them with difficult dimensions of this connection.

These strategies include helping young people learn what they can do to protect the natural world, as individuals and working collectively with others, and sharing examples of people who care for nature. Research covered in the review finds that young people are more likely to believe a better world is possible when friends, family and teachers listen sympathetically to their fears and give them a safe space to share their emotions.

One of the most surprising findings from the review was the complete disconnect between researchers studying the benefits of childhood connection to nature and those studying responses to environmental threats.

鈥淧eople who study children鈥檚 connection with nature and those who study their coping with environmental risk and loss have been pursuing separate directions without referencing or engaging with each other,鈥� Chawla said. 鈥淚 am arguing that researchers on both sides need to pay attention to each other鈥檚 work and learn from each other."  

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Louise Chawla, professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design and CEDaR fellow, received a 2020 SHIFT (Shaping How We Invest for Tomorrow) Award for Research for her investigations of connections between access to nature, children鈥檚 health and wellbeing, and childhood sources of lifelong care for the natural world. Established in 2014 and based in the nonprofit organization, the Center for Jackson Hole, SHIFT highlights connections between public health and public lands, in urban as well as rural areas, and makes the case for community greening and the protection of natural lands as a component of comprehensive health care, with attention to environmental justice and social equity. The mission of SHIFT is to bring together researchers, advocates for outdoor recreation and land conservation, and members of the health care industry to identify how time spent outdoors in nature benefits the health and wellbeing of all people. As an award recipient, Chawla鈥檚 work will be featured at the annual SHIFT Festival in October, this year to be held virtually, which convenes hundreds of participants from across the nation.

Read more about Louise Chawla's research, recently published in the British Ecological Society Journal People and Nature.

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麻豆影院 175 people attended the fourth annual Colorado Pollinator Summit, 鈥淧rotecting Colorado鈥檚 Biodiversity," which was planned by CU 麻豆影院's Community Engagement, Design and Research Center (CEDaR)  in partnership with other organizations. The Nov. 1 event, which featured plenary talks and panels on urban neighborhoods, landscaping for biodiversity and holistic farming in Colorado, was held at the Sustainability, Energy & Environment Center (SEEC) on the CU 麻豆影院 east campus.

"There is great enthusiasm for protecting bees and restoring habitat for them," said Louise Chawla, a CEDaR fellow and professor emerita, who has helped plan the summit for the past three years. 

In addition to domesticated honeybees, Colorado has 500 species of wild bees, who in many cases pollinate crops and wild plants more efficiently than honeybees, she said.  Other species that help pollinate the state's flowering plants and trees include beetles, flies and to a lesser extent, hummingbirds, butterflies and a species of bat.

The summit was opened by Kate Greenberg, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture, who affirmed the commitment of Gov. Polis and his administration to help farmers transition to agricultural methods that protect wildlife habitat and wildlife species, such as pollinators. 

Brendon Rockey, who raises specialty potatoes and quinoa on 500 irrigated acres in Colorado's San Luis Valley, spoke about how companion planting of wildflowers in his potato fields attracts beneficial pollinators and birds. A panel of landscape designers and prairie restoration experts discussed the native Colorado landscapes they are installing, in some cases at the scale of corporate and residential developments.  Another panel featured work from CU 麻豆影院, including the parking lot pollinator gardens that Danielle Bilot, an instructor in the university鈥檚 Program in Environmental Design, is creating with her students. Megan Jones, a Colorado State University (CSU) doctoral student, shared her research which explores why people install wildscaping gardens in their yards and why they become 鈥渁mbassadors鈥� who spread this practice among their neighbors. 

"Biodiversity landscaping is important to me," Chawla said. "It is critical for sharing the living world with children, who are the focus of my practice and research."

The event was planned by CEDaR, along with the nonprofit, the People and Pollinators Action Network, the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Botanic Gardens, the City of 麻豆影院,  CSU Extension, and the Audubon Society. 

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