RELEASE: The Public Lands Service Coalition joins steering committee of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 9, 2014

Contacts: Jackie Ostfeld; 202-548-6584; Jackie.Ostfeld@sierraclub.org; Joe Gersen; 202-737-6272; jgersen@corpsnetwork.org

The Public Lands Service Coalition joins steering committee of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids

Washington, DC– The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) today announced that The Corps Network’s Public Lands Service Coalition has joined the national partnership to connect children, youth and families with the outdoors. With the addition of one of the strongest voices for youth service to OAK’s steering committee, the alliance will work to advance one of its key goals to expand environmental stewardship opportunities for young people.

“The member organizations of the Public Lands Service Coalition (PLSC), which include conservation corps programs as well as conservation corps supporters, are excited and honored to be counted among this cadre of powerful voices for youth and environmental wellness. We have been working in tandem with OAK on addressing the alliance’s key issues.  Additionally we have received great support from OAK on the establishment of the 21^st Century Conservation Service Corps.” says Joe Gersen, Director of Government Relations for the PLSC.

“The PLSC has been one of the organizations leading the development of the 21CSC since 2010 and it continues to provide leadership through the Partnership for the 21^st Century Conservation Service Corps (P-21CSC).” said Eugenie Bostrom, Director of  Strategic Partnerships and Communications at Southwest Conservation Corps.

OAK is concerned about the growing divide between children, youth, families, and the outdoors. For many young people, spending time outdoors isn’t always easy or safe. Today’s youth spend 50 percent less time outdoors in natural settings than the generation that preceded them. Park and play deserts, a lack of transportation, stranger danger, safety, and overscheduled kids and adults are all factors contributing to the indoor and increasingly sedentary lifestyles of many kids and families. Physical inactivity is a factor in the rising rates in children of type II diabetes, poor cardiovascular health, and childhood obesity.

OAK is working to reverse this trend by advancing environmental education, community health and wellness, and environmental stewardship initiatives for children and youth. Environmental stewardship opportunities like those supported by the Public Lands Service Coalition provide young people with jobs, training, service and volunteer opportunities that connect them to the outdoors and help youth assume responsibility for the stewardship and preservation of America’s great outdoors and the healthy development of the next generation.

“OAK is honored to welcome the Public Lands Service Coalition onto its steering committee,” says Jackie Ostfeld, Chair of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids. “Environmental stewardship opportunities like those provided by the members of the Public Lands Service Coalition are important for engaging older youth in meaningful outdoor activities that build their leadership and job skills, improve their health and wellness, and connect them with America’s great outdoors.”

The PLSC promotes youth service jobs and career development on public and tribal lands and waters. Each year, Coalition members engage more than 17,000 young people in jobs and service opportunities, and they are poised to expand to address record-high youth unemployment, billions of dollars of backlogged maintenance needs on public lands, and the disengagement of youth from the outdoors. The Public Lands Service Coalition is a program of The Corps Network, the national association of service and conservation corps. For more information visit The Corps Network website at www.corpsnetwork.org.

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About the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK): OAK is a national strategic partnership of organizations from diverse sectors with a common interest in expanding opportunities for children, youth and families to connect with the outdoors. The members of OAK are brought together by the belief that the well-being of current and future generations, the health of our planet and communities and the economy of the future depend on humans having a personal, direct and life-long relationship with nature and the outdoors. OAK brings together more than sixty national organizations including the American Heart Association, Children & Nature Network, Izaak Walton League of America, National Association of State Park Directors, National Recreation and Park Association, National Wildlife Federation, The North Face, the Outdoor Foundation, Public Lands Service Coalition (a program of The Corps Network), REI, Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society and the YMCA of the USA to address the growing divide between children, youth and the natural world.

Find out more on our website: www.outdoorsallianceforkids.org