Healthy Beginnings Outdoors: Strengthening the System for Nature-based Early Childhood Education

At a Glance

This project, Healthy Beginnings Outdoors: Strengthening the System for Nature-based Early Childhood Education, led by the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education (WAEE) seeks to strengthen its organizational capacity to lead a statewide coalition advancing outdoor and nature-based early childhood education. Building on the merger of three grassroots organizations and partnerships across the environmental education, early childhood and public health sectors, the project focuses on strategic planning, coalition development and operational improvements. WAEE plans to recruit 10 early childhood education providers across all five Wisconsin Department of Children and Families regions to participate in a year-long planning process, while improving donor management systems, creating a statewide resource hub and map, and strengthening fundraising and leadership capacity to support healthier early care environments and expand equitable access to nature for children across Wisconsin.

The Challenge

The Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education (WAEE) has built strong momentum as an emerging public health partner connecting environmental education, nature access and children’s health, with growing cross-sector partnerships, a statewide coalition effort and new initiatives such as its “Healthier, Happier, Smarter” podcast. However, as the organization expands this work, it has identified several capacity challenges. With a lean budget and a single staff member, WAEE and its board lack the fundraising experience needed to move beyond a piecemeal approach to supporting outdoor and nature-based early childhood education. Board members from the early childhood and health sectors are eager to coordinate a growing coalition but need additional facilitation and strategic planning skills to align the work of numerous partner organizations. The organization also identified the need for additional training to fully utilize its donor database, strengthen long-term donor cultivation, improve communication with early childhood education providers and better connect contacts to regional resources across the state.

Project Goals

This project aims to strengthen WAEE’s organizational capacity to lead a statewide coalition advancing outdoor and nature-based early childhood education. To accomplish this, the organization will:

1. Lead an early childhood coalition in a strategic planning process to create plans for communication, funding and professional development to increase access to outdoor and nature-based early childhood play-learning experiences.
2. Increase WAEE’s capacity to lead and sustain outdoor and nature-based early care and education efforts through professional development and implementation of functional operations improvements.