Healthy Kids Outdoors Act!

Moments ago Congressman Ron Kind (WI) and Senator Mark Udall (CO) introduced the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act in Congress!  This is a huge milestone for all of us working to reconnect children, youth and families with nature.

You can read more here and see Congressman Kind’s blog on the bill here.  

We believe that the policies proposed by the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act will advance our collective efforts to reconnect children, youth and families with the natural world, while improving our children's health, supporting economic growth and strengthening the future of conservation in America.  The legislation will achieve these goals by:

• Directing the President to develop an inter-agency federal strategy and action plan to connect children, youth and families with the natural world;
• Encouraging states to develop similar state-based strategies that incorporate public health, parks and recreation, transportation and other initiatives at the local level; and
• Supporting research documenting the health, conservation and other benefits of active time spent outdoors in the natural world.

The legislation encourages solutions that include connecting communities with green spaces, providing opportunities for outdoor recreation, engaging the health community to educate parents and caregivers and much more.  We believe that the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act’s focus on health and recreation solutions will be an excellent complement to the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act's systemic approach of getting environmental education back into our nation's schools.
We will be in touch in the coming weeks about opportunities to urge Congress to take action on this important legislation.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

All my best,

Patrick Fitzgerald

Patrick Fitzgerald
Director of Education Advocacy

National Wildlife Federation

National Advocacy Center

901 E St, NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC  20004

www.nwf.org