About the Alliance

The Child and Nature Alliance of Canada is a network of organizations and individuals who are working to connect children to nature through education, advocacy, programming, policy, research, and the built environment. Our vision is that all children and families in Canada are connected with nature and the outdoors in order to enhance their health and well-being. Our work aims to connect Canada’s children and families with nature and the outdoors in the settings where they live, play, learn and work.

Ensuring All Canadian Children and Families Get Outside and Play!

After three years of work by The Kesho Trust, the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada (Society) was formally registered in March 2009 and launched at the Get Outside! It’s in Our Nature Forum at Royal Roads University. The Alliance was created as a vehicle for developing a deliberate and comprehensive strategy in Canada to reconnect children and youth to nature. Our work builds on the movement initiated by Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods. Working in collaboration with the Children and Nature Network, the Alliance seeks to provide a Canadian context to the worldwide movement to enhance children’s health and well-being by reconnecting them to the outdoors.

The goals of the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada are:

To build a Canadian identity in the movement to reconnect children and families to nature.
To encourage Canadian children and families to spend more time outside in an environmentally responsible manner.
To inspire society to make nature easily accessible.
To be a respected source of knowledge for connecting children and families to nature.
To demonstrate sustainability as a highly effective organization that promotes leadership through good governance, diversity and collaboration.