Urban Wildwoods: Teen Area

This promising practice highlights the Urban Wildwoods: Teen Area initiative by Shambhala School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The staff at Shambhala School recognize that spending time in nature during childhood and teenage years has a lifelong positive influence on various aspects of development, such as self-esteem, creativity, independence, and problem-solving skills. Unfortunately, the school’s playground has been cordoned off for over a year due to environmental pollution, so the plan to create an Urban Wildwoods was put into place. Since the outdoor space has been reduced to one patch of concrete, their high school students have been hesitant to spend time outside, which is why the first phase of the project is to build a hang-out space for the high school students, featuring a round outdoor seating area for school and community talking circles in a natural environment. This area will offer a unique place to play, rejuvenate, socialize, and learn, in an atmosphere of nature and beauty, and it will be a place of refuge and engagement in an inner-city setting for all to enjoy. 

Why we’re recommending this resource:

• Authority: author is identifiable and has related qualifications and/or credentials / affiliated with a reputable institution
• Objectivity: minimal to no biases or affiliations with a company selling products of promoting a questionable agenda.
• Currency: information that is recent or has been recently endorsed
• Canadian Resource