I originally started to write an Instagram post for Giving Tuesday, but I couldn’t pare it down well. Three sentences, a couple of hashtags, and a cute picture just didn’t convey it correctly. Those three sentences quickly turned into a few paragraphs, and now we’ve got our first blog post since August. I hope that it resonates with you.  

Sincerely: Heather West, Executive Director 

I was in a meeting recently that began with everyone going around the room and sharing their favorite childhood memory of the outdoors. It’s a pretty vague question really, so the answers were very different. Some folks remembered summer camp experiences or family vacations, others had a distinctly formative moment where something unique happened to them, and some simply recalled playing behind the levee or making a “tent” in the yard with a sheet and a clothes line. We all had different experiences in the outdoors ranging from urban, to suburban, to rural. In every case, we each did something outside as a kid or teen that stuck with us into adulthood and helped shape us into the people we are today.

Did you know that the average American kid spends 7.5 hours in front of a screen each day? The lure to stay inside and watch TV or play on a phone or tablet all day is strong. “Screen addiction” is a real term now (spend some time going down that rabbit hole if you haven’t yet).

In the New Orleans area especially, we have compounded the issue of screen time with reduced outdoor spaces due to urbanization and water-related issues. Plus, years of racial prejudice produced generational fear of the outdoors for a lot of Black families, and that fear has been passed down through the years to today’s kids.

It’s not as easy for kids to just go play outside anymore, but it’s just as important as ever. Spending time outdoors, whether playing at a park or exploring in a canoe, builds creativity and self-confidence. When kids play as a group, they learn how to work together and communicate in real time – not over a phone.

They can manipulate their environment and learn how the world naturally responds to their actions. Whether going on make-believe adventures in the yard or going on genuine adventures in the wild, kids need to spend time outdoors to find their sense of place in this big world and learn how to connect with others. 

At LOOP NOLA, we use outdoor adventures as a tool to teach Social and Emotional Learning skills and to help bridge the gap to the outdoors for our students. A lot of our youngsters have never played outside in a space like City Park or a Louisiana State Park.

You’d be surprised at the number of kids who are scared to go on a “hike” in City Park because they are worried about bears and lions in the woods. They have no frame of reference for a wooded path, so they rely on what they’ve seen in movies. Outdoor screen time is absolutely not the same as outdoor real time. We provide a safe place for them to try something that feels genuinely scary to them, have fun, ease their fear, and connect with their classmates. It seems incredibly simple, but it’s got a huge impact.

If you grew up in an age where kids naturally played outside without too much coaxing from adults (or where the adults in your life just told you to go play outside and that was that), then you know how important time outdoors can be for kids. Please consider supporting LOOP NOLA to help create those experiences for today’s youngsters.

In a world where kids spend so much time on screens and the outdoors seems scary, we need adults who value real life experiences to ensure that the next generation gets the chance to play outside too.