The Living Schoolyards Act Lecture Series: Community Benefits and Green Jobs

Lecture #4— May 10, 2023
Community Benefits and Green Jobs of the Living Schoolyards Act

Green Schoolyards America hosted the fourth session of its five-part webinar series on the wide-ranging benefits of the Living Schoolyards Act. In each session, experts from a variety of disciplines highlight a group of benefits that living schoolyards—and this legislation when enacted—bring to children and communities across the nation. The sessions will provide information, resources, and ideas, and will help build a movement to pass this crucial legislation. We hope you will join us and invite your colleagues!

The Living Schoolyards Act (S-4993) is groundbreaking legislation that was introduced in the United States Senate in Fall 2022 and reintroduced in April 2023 by Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM). Find out more about the bill and how you can support its passage here: https://www.greenschoolyards.org/livi...

On May 10, 2023, we were honored to feature panelists Laura Thompson of Big Green; Ryan Parker of FoodCorps Maine; Jeanne McCarty of Out Teach; and Danielle Denk of Trust for Public Land. Our speakers discussed how living schoolyards provide far-reaching economic and social benefits to the local communities in which they are built and how they can serve as jobs training centers for the green careers of the future - and how the Living Schoolyards Act would bring more of these proven benefits to students across the United States.

GUEST SPEAKERS
Laura Thompson, Director of Strategic Alliances, Big Green
Ryan Parker, Impact and Partnerships Lead, Maine, FoodCorps
Jeanne McCarty, CEO, Out Teach
-Danielle Denk, National Community Schoolyards™ Initiative
Director
, Trust for Public Land

MEETING HOSTS

Nancy Striniste, National Policy Liaison, Green Schoolyards America
Rachel Pringle, MA, Director: Strategy and Operations, Green Schoolyards America
Dante Sudilovsky, Communications and Program Coordinator, Green Schoolyards America

WEBINAR TIMING

0:00 Welcome by Nancy Striniste
8:40 Presentation by guest panelist Laura Thompson
21:32 Presentation by guest panelist Ryan Parker
36:34 Presentation by guest panelist Jeanne McCarty
49:50 Presentation by guest panelist Danielle Denk
01:02:00 Wrap up by Nancy Striniste

RESOURCES
Support the Passage of the Living Schoolyard Act!
https://www.greenschoolyards.org/livi...

Living Schoolyards Act Fact Sheet:
https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/imo/m...

Register for the Living Schoolyards Act Lecture Series:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regis...

UPCOMING LECTURES
May 25, 2023 11:00 AM

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GREENING SCHOOL GROUNDS AND CREATING LIVING SCHOOLYARDS, PLEASE SEE:

Green Schoolyards America
https://www.greenschoolyards.org/

Green Schoolyards America collaborates with school districts and public agencies to create Living Schoolyard Initiatives that transform asphalt-covered school grounds into park-like green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning, and play while contributing to the ecological health and resilience of our cities. We are working to change the norm for school ground design, use, and management so that all children will have access to the natural world in the places they already visit on a daily basis.

Our programs support the living school ground movement, build relationships that help it succeed, and work to embed this perspective in our existing institutions and policy and regulatory frameworks.