Empathy In Nature Project Inc

Empathetic educators always an integral part of the empathy in nature mission, empathetic educators has developed into a program that brings together leading-edge educators and researchers in service of the under-resourced communities who have traditionally been underrepresented in these spaces. The barriers to this level of teacher training are high, between costs, schedules, and locations. Empathy in nature is bridging that gap and providing access to educators and caregivers by providing low or no-cost workshops and courses, providing transportation and/or bringing the workshops to areas that represent these communities, and making workshops and courses available at times that work for them. In 2023 empathy in nature partnered with uc san diego extension to run an a synchronous course that was free for partners of ein and provided university credit for their nature play course. In 2024 ein embarked on an innovative program with a local non-profit to bring nature-play and social and emotional training to childcare providers throughout the county. Traditionally, child care providers, especially family-run businesses, do not have access to the same kinds of quality training and resources that other chidcare organizations are. As individually run businesses, they lack community and peer-driven support. Ein created a program that included a 4-workshop in-person series, customized field guides, and quarterly office hours, all provided for free to the local childcare community. The program was extraordinarily popular and successful. To expand reach, the program has been translated into an online platform, giving free access to thousands of providers. The program will continue to run, expanding into topics that providers have expressed the most interest in, while repeating the original workshops to ensure that more providers are given the chance to attend.