webinar

Why Outdoor Programs Help Youth Thrive

DATE

October 8, 2025

TIME

3-4p ET / noon-1p PT

LOCATION

Virtual

Findings from The Nature of the Outdoors: Stronger Youth Development Through Exploration

As young people across the country continue to face anxiety, depression, and trauma, a new report argues that access to nature may be one of our most powerful—and scalable—strategies to help youth thrive. The Nature of the Outdoors: Stronger Youth Development Through Exploration shows how nature-based programs—often overlooked or thought of as nice-to-have—can play a transformative role in building participants’ positive identity, relationship skills, emotional regulation, and sense of purpose.
Register

Join GTY, YMCA of the USA and Hello Insight to discuss this Annie E. Casey Foundation-funded study of 10,000+ youth in outdoor programs ranging from wilderness adventures to day camps. Study data, drawn from organizations nationwide using Hello Insight’s shared impact measurement tools, reveals that nature-based programs consistently outperform other settings in cultivating key life skills for thriving—especially for young people navigating complex life challenges.

What You’ll Learn

  • New findings on how outdoor programs drive measurable social-emotional growth
  • Why nature-based settings uniquely support healing, connection, and purpose 
  • How funders can help scale these approaches in communities that need them most

This program is free and open to grantmakers and others in the thriving youth community. GTY’s webinars and funder learning opportunities are made possible through the time and expertise of presenters from the field.

In the spirit of transparency, GTY will make available the list of webinar participants to presenters upon request, unless the registrant requests to remain anonymous (please indicate your preference via the registration form).

Speakers

Kim Flores, Ph.D.

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Hello Insight

Dr. Flores has spent the last three decades developing innovative strategies to make evaluation both useful and accessible for all. Drawing upon her training in developmental and environmental psychology, she has introduced hundreds of adults and young people, their programs, and communities to the empowering impact of sustained participation, reflection, and evaluation. Her unique approach highlights the developmental nature of evaluation for young people, staff, organizations, donors, foundations, and communities.

As the co-founder and CEO of Hello Insight, Dr. Flores has been able to realize her life-long dream of building a sustained learning community that fosters the development of young people, staff, programs, organizations, and entire fields of practice. Hello Insight was born out of her passion for supporting youth-serving organizations of all types, sizes, and missions to move the needle on the outcomes that matter most for young people.

Dr. Flores has conducted international research and evaluation projects that have focused on youth development, civic engagement, youth media, the arts, children’s rights, post conflict, protection, international development, and a variety of social issues. She has worked with numerous government, U.N. agencies, and non-governmental agencies to examine implementation strategies and impacts of local, national, and international youth initiatives. Dr. Flores has authored several books and publications on youth-led evaluation and organizational learning. She is the founder of the American Evaluation Association’s topical interest group on youth-focused evaluation.

Cynthia Weaver

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Cynthia Weaver is a Senior Associate with the Evidence-Based Practice Group (EBPG) at The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The EBPG team is part of the larger Research Evaluation Evidence and Data unit at Casey. The EBPG team prioritizes building evidence for programs and practices and scaling what works. Throughout her investments, Weaver prioritizes rethinking: who gets to say what evidence is; who gets to make meaning of the data, and; who gets to turn that data into action. As a result, support for participatory action research (YPAR) to design, implement and scale practices and programs aligned with the lived experiences of those most impacted is a major focus of her portfolio. She also invests in expanding equitable access to emerging implementation innovations to scale what works.

Prior to her 12 years with Casey, Weaver was an assistant professor of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi. She was a social worker along the Gulf Coast for many years prior to her academic work.

Courtney Aber

YMCA of Greater Seattle; National BOLD & GOLD Director

Courtney Aber is the National Director of Outdoor Initiatives at the YMCA of Greater Seattle. She works to connect communities through innovative program models that leverage the power of the outdoors in positive youth development. Previously, she led the YMCA’s Bold & Gold program for 14 years, bringing youth from different racial and economic backgrounds together to build self-confidence, community awareness, and a sense of wonder through immersive experiences in the natural world. Under her leadership, Bold & Gold scaled throughout the US and has begun expanding internationally.

Courtney is recognized as a thought leader in harnessing outdoor experiences as catalysts for positive youth development. She co-authored a report looking at 10,000 youth and the impact of nature engagement on their skills for thriving and collaborates regularly with other non-profits to revolutionize how we can better serve youth through unusual partnerships. Having run outdoor programs in various capacities since 1992, she continues to be amazed at the power of the outdoors to change lives and bring out the best in people. She has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in the Methow Valley in Washington State.

Presented by

Grantmakers for Thriving Youth

SUGGEST A PROGRAM

Have something you want to share or learn?

GTY is interested in uplifting strategies for philanthropy to support thriving youth. If you have an idea for a future program, reach out to us.

Subscribe

Stay informed about the latest news, events, and opportunities.

Subscribe

* indicates required
Do you represent a grantmaking organization? *

Learn

Connect

Act

GTY is a funders’ forum promoting equitable systems, structures and opportunities for young people to thrive in learning, work, citizenship and life.

follow us on LinkedIn