Youth Exploring Sonoma's Parks, YES! Parks is focused on satisfying goals aligned with the Parks Make Life Better initiative. YES! Parks promotes physical, emotional, and mental health and wellness. Participants also take actions to sustain and steward our natural and cultural resources
YES! Parks promotes physical, emotional, and mental health wellness. YES! Parks provides youth with the skills and knowledge to develop a lifelong relationship to nature and getting outdoors. Teens are empowered to recreate outside and learn stress reduction practices through holistic, thematically linked series of field trips. This healing experience is a gateway to improved mental and physical health. We know from the research that this kind of greenspace exposure is associated with numerous health benefits including reduced cortisol levels, reduced blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, and more (Twohig‐Bennett, C, and A. Jones, 2018). These results are indicative of the beneficial influence of greenspace on a wide range of health outcomes. Participants graduate from the program with a sense of well-being, as well as tools not only explore nearby nature, but to practice mindfulness and ultimately lead healthier lives.
Through YES! Parks teens also help sustain and steward our natural resources. Over the length of the program the youth learn about nature and environmental challenges in our parks. They subsequently choose and enact a stewardship action designed to enhance parks habitats. This has included beach clean ups, creek clean up’s, invasive plant removal projects, campground improvements projects and more. They have also participated in photography exhibits designed to ignite stewardship of and love for our environment. These projects have led to tangible, on the ground improvements of our park environments. |