When East Bay Children & Nature (EBCN) officially incorporated, we set out with a clear, ambitious mandate: to ensure every child in our region has equitable access to the outdoors, right in their own neighborhoods. What began as a collaborative pilot in Emeryville has rapidly evolved into a regional movement.

In just our first year as an independent organization, we didn't just plan for the future—we put shovels in the ground, brought nature directly to families, navigated complex city partnerships, and changed municipal policy. By listening to the community and working closely with educators, city leaders, and public health advocates, we have laid the foundation for a greener, healthier East Bay.

Here is a look at what we accomplished together in year one:

Permanent Infrastructure & Policy Reform

We are changing the physical landscape and the rules that govern it to ensure nature access is a permanent right, not a temporary privilege.

• Passed Groundbreaking Policy: Successfully championed the municipal adoption of the Emeryville Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights (COBOR), officially embedding nature access into city planning priorities.

• Built the Stanford NEA: Facilitated the design and creation of a pilot Nature Exploration Area (NEA), transforming underutilized urban space into a permanent natural play zone.

• Nature Path & Outdoor Classroom: We designed and built the low-cost, community-led Nature Path at EUSD and provided the essential project management and advocacy to ensure the completion of the school’s Outdoor Classroom. These projects serve as a scalable blueprint for integrating nature-play directly into urban schoolyards.

• Piloted "Nature Nooks" at Yu Ming Schools: Designed and installed highly scalable, community-built micro-NEAs to prove that transformative, high-impact greening can be achieved on even the most cost-effective budgets.

• Formed a Strategic Task Force: Assembled an active, cross-sector steering committee tasked with developing and executing a comprehensive, city-wide nature implementation plan.

Immediate Access & Direct Programming

We aren't waiting for long-term construction to finish. We are bringing high-quality, tactile nature experiences to children right now.

• Activated Public Spaces: Hosted 14 highly attended Nature Pop-Ups across city parks and community gardens, bringing immediate play opportunities to local families.

• Equipped Local Educational Hubs: Delivered custom Nature Carts and "Create-with-Nature" toolkits to both ECCL and Yu Ming, providing the loose parts necessary for daily, tactile outdoor learning.

• Supported Specialized Needs: Provided targeted resources, including a sensory sand table and tailored nature kits, directly to the EUSD special education preschool program.

• Led Summer Immersion: Designed and hosted an immersive “Nature Week” curriculum for the city’s official summer camp program.

• Strengthening the Shared-Space Vision: We strengthened the partnership between the City and the School District, aligning both around a shared vision for nature access on the ECCL/EUSD campus. By stewarding this relationship, we transformed the site into a "dual-use" nature hub where the Nature Path, Outdoor Classroom, and garden serve students during the day and the public on weekends.

Community Advocacy & Regional Leadership

We are building a coalition of caregivers, educators, and national partners to close the nature gap across the entire East Bay.

• Secured Foundational Investment: Raised $70,000 in early grant funding to build our operational capacity and fuel our regional expansion.

• Empowered Local Educators: Conducted hands-on professional development sessions at both ECCL and Yu Ming, training teachers and staff on how to confidently integrate nature-play into their daily routines.

• Championed Garden Education: Supported the shared-use community gardens at ECCL by facilitating cooperative space-sharing and successfully advocating for dedicated garden instructors to guide the students.

• Grew a Grassroots Coalition: Engaged hundreds of children through joyful outdoor programming, resulting in a rapidly expanding network of over 500 local caregivers who joined our mailing list.

• Elevated Resident Voices: Mobilized the community to advocate for permanent green spaces, yielding overwhelming public support for nature-play through city-led surveys and focus groups.

• Earned National Recognition: Selected as a national Nature Everywhere Accelerator Community, granting us access to high-level technical resources and peer-learning alongside San Francisco Children & Nature.

• Represented on the National Stage: Traveled to the national Nature Everywhere Conference alongside Emeryville Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur to share our localized success model with leaders from across the country.

• Advanced Equity-Driven Growth: Utilized census-level equity mapping to ensure our future resources are deliberately directed to the neighborhoods that have historically been denied green investment.