Press Release - Secretary Jewell Announces Order to Implement Youth Initiative

[proverbialwisdom]

Source: U.S. Department of the Interior

Secretary Jewell Announces Order to Implement Youth Initiative Connecting Millions of Young People to America’s Great Outdoors

Sets Specific Goals to Work with Businesses, Conservation Groups and Youth Organizations to Provide Opportunities to Play, Learn, Serve and Work Outdoors

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Formalizing an ambitious initiative to connect America’s young people to the great outdoors, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today issued a Secretarial Order to significantly expand recreational, educational, volunteer and career opportunities for millions of youth and veterans on the nation’s public lands, including partnerships with businesses and youth organizations to support the Obama Administration’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC).

“If Americans are going to continue to have healthy lifestyles, healthy lands and a healthy economy, one of the steps we must take is to bridge the growing divide between young people and nature,” Jewell said. “Under this order, we are establishing specific goals that the department, as manager of America’s national parks, refuges and other public lands, will meet by working hand in hand with businesses, conservation organizations, Tribes, youth groups and other partners.”

The Secretarial Order formalizes the goals of the youth initiative Jewell first outlined at a National Press Club speech on October 31, 2013. It sets forth specific benchmarks for increasing Interior’s engagement with the next generation, empowers bureaus and offices to lead and implement a comprehensive strategy for meeting the goals, and outlines the accountability structure and implementation framework to achieve the goals, which are described as follows:

Play: Interior will develop or enhance outdoor recreation partnerships in a total of 50 cities over the next four years, to create new, systemic opportunities for outdoor play for over 10 million young people.

Learn: In four years, Interior will provide educational opportunities to at least 10 million of the nation's K-12 student population annually. In addition to welcoming students into public lands, Interior will leverage technology, including the recently launched National Park Service teacher portal, to bring our public lands to the classrooms.

Serve: In four years, Interior will attain one million volunteers annually on public lands. Interior will invest in volunteer management and coordination to ensure anyone who has an interest in devoting their time and talents to public lands has an opportunity to serve.

Work: Interior will provide 100,000 work and training opportunities to young people and veterans over four years within our bureaus and through public-private partnerships.

President Obama has made investing in America’s youth a priority. The President’s 2015 budget request for Interior proposes $50.6 million for youth programs and employment opportunities, a $13.6 million (or 37 percent) increase from 2014.



Read more: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/secretary-jewell-announces-order-to-implement-youth-initiative-connecting-millions-of-young-people-to-americas-great-outdoors.cfm

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.@Interior @SecretaryJewell: Order to Implement Youth Initiative Connecting Millions of Young People to Outdoors http://ow.ly/uNbhX

[Samantha]

1. This is wonderful

Thanks for posting.

Sam

[cheapdate]

2. Excellent!

[cheapdate]

3. This is why I'm a Democrat.

Our new Secretary of the Interior, Sarah Jewell, is an engineer and a business woman. She was the CEO of REI Outdoor. She's sat on the boards of Premera, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the University of Washington Board of Regents. She helped found the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

In 2009, Jewell received the National Audubon Society's Rachel Carson Award for her leadership in and dedication to conservation.

In her spare time, Jewell enjoys snowboarding and kayaking. She has also climbed Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica.

The Interior Secretary under George W. Bush was conservative businessman and politician Dirk Kempthorne. A former senator and executive vice president of the Idahoe Home Builders Association, During his six years in the Senate, Kempthorne scored a "0" on the League of Conservation Voters' legislative scorecards every year except 1993, when he scored 6 percent.