Eco-Therapy for Foster System- and Juvenile Justice-Impacted Youth

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Systems-impacted youth often experience significant exposure to interpersonal and community violence, trauma from neglect, domestic violence, and/or physical or sexual abuse, and these youth–especially youth of color–are at higher-risk for incarceration, underemployment, major disparities in health outcomes, poverty, homelessness, and recidivism.
The Coalition provides targeted support, education, prosocial activities and enrichment outlets, access to a variety of comprehensive resources, and individualized mobile case management for systems-impacted youth, ages 16 to 26. The majority of youth served are BIPOC and 100% come from low-income, high-need communities (East, South and Central L.A., and portions of the San Fernando Valley) throughout L.A. County where resources are severely lacking in these historically marginalized areas. The youth we empower lack access and rarely, if ever, get the opportunity to experience our local natural resources due to economic and social limitations.

An LA2050 grant will be critical to the launch of the Coalition’s engaging, year-round eco-therapy programming, which will include a structured schedule of 1-2 nature enrichment activities/field trips a month for approximately 15-20 youth per outing over the course of the grant period. Examples of the nature-focused calendar of activities we are proposing include hiking, bike riding through the Ballona wetlands, visits to state parks, beach trips, fishing at Silverwood Lake, camping excursions to Crystal Lake Campground, and kayaking the L.A. River. We also plan to provide opportunities for youth to connect with nature throughout the year through our partnerships with Stand InBalance equine-assisted growth and learning, Wolf Connection therapy, and Nature For All to provide youth with an interpretative beach trip to Malibu Lagoon and mountain trip to Placerita Canyon. The Coalition also will plan specific “Summer of Engagement” programming, which is especially important as parents from low-income families typically struggle to keep youth engaged throughout summertime due to economic limitations and lack of access to transportation. Our program staff will plan approximately 10-12 activities including a kick-off event at the beach, followed by a calendar of events from July through August 2025 such as hiking, kayaking, outdoor BBQs in the park for group sizes ranging from 10-20 youth and a weekend camping trip for 10-15 youth to Catalina Island.

The Coalition fills a major gap in resources for systems-impacted youth through individualized case management and a wide variety of educational, therapeutic, and enrichment outlets that make a long-lasting, transformative impact on our youth. With 30 years of experience working with systems-impacted youth, we especially understand the powerful impact of immersing youth in nature, “eco-therapy,” and its cognitive benefits, which are directly linked to improvements in mood, mental health, and overall emotional well-being. However, the youth we serve lack access to experience nature in their communities. In fact, trips and excursions to the beach, mountains, nature trails and state parks are “firsts” for the majority of our youth participants.
LA2050’s investment will ensure that we level the playing field and mitigate inequities for more systems-impacted youth by giving them opportunities and targeted support to transition to adulthood and excel academically, professionally and in life.

Our Program Data Analyst collects data to formulate detailed reports that feature service statistics, benchmarks and long-term indicators of success including identification of healthy coping strategies, program engagement through an intensive case management model, high school graduation, college acceptance and retention, employment attainment and retention, and recidivism rates. Based on the comprehensive program data we collect, 82% of justice-impacted youth who participate in our programs will not recidivate, compared to 24% youth who will not recidivate in the general community within three years. For our foster youth, 90% of seniors graduate from high school, 90% of these seniors enroll in college, and 50% of these youth are also employed (full- or part-time). Without our program, only 58% of foster youth are expected to graduate from high school, according to Foster Care Counts.