Equity, diversity, accessibility and inclusion
Historically, Oregon’s outdoor school programs were developed for and by the dominant culture, and attending outdoor school was a privilege. With the successful adoption of Measure 99, voters made outdoor school a right for all Oregon 5th and 6th grade students. Therefore, the staff, culture and interdisciplinary curriculum of outdoor school must reflect and embrace the physical, social and emotional identities of all participants.
Systemic-level change to outdoor school is essential to ensure the equitable inclusion of all participants – prioritizing the most marginalized identities and communities.
Achieving ADA accessiblity at Camp Fire Wilani
Transcript
[Music] In response to 2020's disruption and programming, the Outdoor School Program created two grants which allowed outdoor school sites and providers to focus on equity work and how it shows up in their programming and/or the physical design of their site. Camp Fire Alani is one of our grant recipients. Camp Fire Alani is so excited about these grant funds because we were able to update this property that we've been living and working on since 1960. It was grandfathered in with not a lot of ADA accessibility, and thanks to these grant funds, we've been able to convert our major bathhouse with the pool and hot showers and toilets and sinks to make it 100% ADA accessible with brand new concrete pads, wide doors, and an appropriately graded pathway to make sure that differently-abled people, folks of all abilities, all of our students can enjoy their time here at camp.
Being able to make these adjustments for kids with different mobility levels is helping us to think long term about how we can be constantly examining our program through different lenses, whether those lenses are cultural, or around ability, or around background, around mental health. How can we constantly be looking at ways to create inclusivity on multiple levels? And I'm just really looking forward to taking us to a place that we never thought we could be. Camp Fire Alani is so excited to be able to say yes to any community member, any student who wants to access our programs. And to have a school call me and say, "We have a student with limited mobility who's in a wheelchair," to be able to now have the adventure on hand and say, "Yes, you can come." It was so exciting this year when we got to bring Scarlett down our long, steep steps all the way down to the canoe area, and to see her laughing and smiling and being in a canoe because of the adventure, was so amazing. To be able to see every child to be able to potentially have access here is just... it changes your life. [Music]
Expand your knowledge
Interested in professional development?
Please reach out to Charissa V. Jones, the Outreach and Inclusion Coordinator, if you are interested in a consultation regarding how to fulfill your outdoor school program's equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts to support the success of all Oregon students.
Creative solutions for remote areas of the state
The OSU Extension Outdoor School program works to ensure that every student in Oregon has an equitable and impactful outdoor school experience, including the most remote and underserved portions of our state. In the eastern region of Oregon, where there are several rural schools and districts that historically have not participated in outdoor school, we were able to collaboratively identify and overcome barriers for the Harney County ESD. Every community has its unique needs, and we will continue to collaborate and work closely with partners across the state to provide empowering learning experiences for all students.
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Where you can be your authentic self
Equity, diversity, and inclusion are foundational to achieving our vision to create equitable and positive outcomes for every Oregonian through empowering learning experiences. This work will change the structure of outdoor school and improve the experience for all students. We choose to openly engage in an ongoing process of active learning and growth, understanding that this work requires a sustained commitment.
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[Music]
The pandemic drastically changed what outdoor school looked like in 2020 however one positive of this is that it allowed outdoor school providers and sites to focus in on equity work in their programming the oregon state university extension service outdoor school program created two grants one of which we'll be talking about the equity diversity and inclusion grant which allowed outdoor school providers to look at equity in their programming curriculum and staff training we were High School Leadership Institute very excited about the opportunity to apply for the grant through osu extension because during the pandemic we recognized the need to engage with our high school students because we were unable to work with them during the 2021 school year through this grant we developed a high school leadership institute to connect high school students with each other and career professionals while focusing the institute to center the voice of students and communities of color throughout the experience
A lot of what we did was re-learn how to to be a part of a community and um to build relationships with each other to see people who look similar to you and who look different than you and learn to build relationships through difference and through commonalities so that they can learn to meet people where they're at we push them to look in and talk about their identity and how it affects the world around them the summer leadership institute was a program for them to be leaders in their school communities Conclusion i was excited about the proposal submitted by mesd for our equity diversity and inclusion grants it was really innovative and recognized that for high school students to participate many of them work during the summer and their incomes are important to their families so they made this program free for all participants and they even found a way to remove some barriers so that there could be a stipend offered to every high schooler every every student was also eligible for pcc college credits this program was a great success and it reflects the commitment of osu extension service outdoor school program and the mesd outdoor school to equity diversity inclusion and to seeking to serve marginalized peoples and just elevating and uplifting all people in our community
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All means all
In 2016, Oregon voters overwhelmingly passed legislation to fund outdoor school for ALL of Oregon’s 5th and 6th grade students. As a result of the legislation, the Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service Outdoor School (ODS) program collaborated to create our mission and vision on a foundation of values of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). These values are essential to who we are and to what we do.
We lead with equity because equity acknowledges and addresses the histories and structured systems that keep underserved and underrepresented populations from necessary resources. Without equity, we cannot develop a truly diverse and inclusive community. Equity requires an acknowledgment that everyone has different needs, experiences, and opportunities. When we understand this, we allocate resources accordingly so everyone has access to the same outcomes.
Equity is the approach and equality is the desired outcome.
We acknowledge that historic and institutional barriers have kept youth from fully participating in outdoor school and that for many, particularly those from the dominant culture, these barriers are hard to see. We strive to foster positive experiences for all students by:
- Working with our communities and partners to expose and eliminate institutional policies and structures that uphold systems of power and privilege.
- Providing ongoing opportunities for education and self-reflection to our staff, outdoor school partners, and stakeholders.