Our Impact

Since July 1, 2010:

5,743 Children Ages 5-18 reached
31 Food Cadre Members ages 18-35 trained in urban food production, food security, food, nutrition & environmental education
49 young leaders ages 13-19 trained in civic engagement, community organizing, sustainability and leadership
35 teachers trained in fun, experiential, project-based education
607 new community volunteers
23 garden projects

With youth we impact the community in four areas

Food & Health

View our 2010-2011 YEAR END FOOD CADRE REPORT

Nutrition Education: We offer youth the chance to learn about sustainably grown, healthy food through peer education in the schools, service-learning opportunities and workdays at local gardens and farms to allow children and youth to grow healthy food attitudes, eating and cooking habits, and encourage family-scale food production towards the overall outcome of reducing diet-related childhood illnesses.

  • 75% of students who participated in our nutrition education programs made at least one promising positive change in their food attitudes and/or eating habits to incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • 90.3% of the  high school students who participated in our Food & Nutrition Program in health classes at Capital High reported that they were more likely to cook for themselves as a result of participating in the program.

Engaging with Gardens and Sustainable Development: Education and training in the areas of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and energy efficiency, water conservation and reuse, green building, ecological restoration and waste reduction are critical to our community’s future and the survival of our local food system.

  • 80% of youth who participated in our environmental education programs made a least one positive change regarding their knowledge of environmentally-conscious practices and sustainable agriculture.
  • More than 80% of the  youth who participated in our garden-based programs demonstrated increased knowledge and skills in gardening.
  • More than 80% of youth engaged in environmental projects and demonstrated changes in at least one attitudinal or behavioral measure. Attitude and behavior changes range from practicing environmentally conscious practices, such as composting and gardening to reading food labels and eating leftovers.

Access to Healthy Food: For local, sustainable food systems to be viable and feed Santa Fe’s hungry, we need to have enough local farms and farmers to meet the demand.

Civic Engagement
We increase civic engagement by training and mentoring youth to mobilize and organize community members to take action; working with partners to create formal avenues for youth participation at decision-making tables (Commissions, Advisory Boards, and Task Forces) and the media.

List their accomplishments:

- City of Santa Fe’s Youth Advisory Board to the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission
- Eco-Schools Student Coalition
- Youth Voices

Education
Earth Care supports educators and entire schools with fun, experiential, project-based curriculum, model programs and training. Grounded in our framework of ‘education for sustainability’ with a service learning approach, our strategies increase student engagement and motivation for learning and develop avenues for students to engage in and lead sustainable community development efforts.

  • More than 60% of youth who participated in the school service-learning programs saw a relevance of their education to the real world and demonstrated a positive attitude about school and learning.

Economic Opportunity

  • Provided job training and placements to 31 young professionals with 14 local schools, nonprofits, and government agencies.
  • Provided career training and education awards to use towards post-secondary education to 25 high school students.