Bill's Backyard

The Authority helped fund Bay Area Older Adults’ Environmental Education Park Crawl program. The project consisted of eight, 4-hour walks in different parks and one wildlife lecture. Each two- to four-mile walk had an environmental theme that educated the participating adults age 60+ about our valley’s parks, natural resources, and urban green spaces. It also included lunch, coordination of transportation, parking fees, and three trained guides. Participants benefitted in multiple ways: safely walking outdoors in a group is critical in reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and depression, and learning about nature promotes cognitive health and reduces the risk of dementia.

This project brings a wide variety of hands-on science and nature programs that meet the needs of students, teachers, and parents of Title I schools in the Santa Clara Valley. Their programs help develop science skills, inspire a love of nature, and promote environmental stewardship. Through this project, Environmental Volunteers provide support and resources to underserved communities to ensure the outdoors and science and nature education are accessible to all.

The Authority helped to fund Living Classroom’s partnership with Campbell Unified School District to implement their new Environmental Literacy Initiative called "Champions for Change.” This project focuses on designing, installing, and maintaining new and enhanced edible and native habitat gardens on all Campbell Unified School District campuses and providing garden-based lessons across all grade levels with the aim of connecting students to nature and the sources of their food and graduating environmentally literate students by 8th grade.