Nature Builds Resilience

Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.

—David Orr

Happy Spring to all of our friends and supporters, students, client families and education partners!

As the extra pulses of winter snow have both slowed the melt off and provided precious water to our thirsty land, it has been an especially happy season for us at Gateway Mountain Center. We are grateful for so much: The easing of the pandemic; the return of visiting school students to Donner Summit; and the growing national awareness and focus on the youth mental health crisis.

For the first time ever, youth mental health was a topic of the President’s State of the Union Speech, and the action items detailed in the White House’s position paper in follow-up to the speech are resoundingly aligned with what we believe is crucial to begin meeting the tremendous need. The paper’s point #2, to “pilot new approaches to train a diverse group of paraprofessionals,” goes straight to the heart of what we do at GMC. Whole Hearts Minds & Bodies, our nature-based therapeutic mentoring program, is a robust and effective example of a system of clinically supervised paraprofessionals who can deliver effective treatment in the community, where kids are.

The health and therapeutic benefits of time in nature are also getting a lot of attention. In March we were honored to be part of a webinar for pediatricians sponsored by the CA Surgeon General's ACE’S Aware initiative, about how nature is an effective “stress buster” to relieve the impacts of toxic stress for children. Learn more about a range of important nature-based efforts for preventing and addressing ACEs by watching the full symposium.

All of our programs—from educational school field trips and mountain adventure summer camps to youth wellness programs and individual nature-based mental health treatment—are based on our passionate belief that there are four key roots for supporting healthy development in youth:

1. Authentic Relationship.

2. Connecting to Nature.

3. Embodied Peak Experience.

4. Helping Others.

Read more about our Four Roots Framework.

Please help spread the word about our programs! Introduce us to your favorite school teacher or youth group, who could add nature and adventure to their programs. Consider supporting our work with your philanthropic giving to help sustain the free programming we provide to hundreds of under-resourced kids each year. And please take care of yourselves, walk outside, focus on the beauty and feel the wonder of even the smallest bit of our glorious natural world…Breathe in deeply, and share that feeling with everyone you meet today.

Sincerely,

Peter Mayfield, Founder/Executive Director