Giving Compass' Take:

• Anupama Joshi at Grantmakers In Health highlights some of the many benefits of spending time outdoors and in nature and argues that meaningful time spent outdoors leads to stronger and healthier people, communities, and ecosystems.

• How can we talk about and elevate the importance the outdoors can and should play in people’s lives?

• Here's why getting children outside is so important. 

Ample data exists to support the numerous benefits of nature. The correlations between time spent outdoors and positive health outcomes are well-documented. A 2018 meta-analysis of 143 scientific studies showed that data consistently links exposure to both urban green space and undeveloped natural areas to statistically significant reductions in poor health indicators including diastolic blood pressure, salivary biomarkers of stress, heart rate, and diabetes. Findings also indicated that time spent in green spaces reduces risks of preterm birth and premature death. Furthermore, some studies suggest that improvements to and increased access to outdoor spaces may combat health inequities, as people in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities often experience positive outcomes to a greater degree (Twohig-Bennett and Jones 2018). School and community-based programs that provide meaningful outdoor experiences to children and youth have been linked to improved social and emotional well-being including increased prosocial behavior (Dopko et al. 2019) and decreased violence and juvenile arrest rates (D’Agostino et al. 2019). Blue Sky Funders Forum has also compiled other research that links nature-based programs to conservation, education, and civic engagement outcomes.

Read the full article about the benefits of spending time outdoors by Anupama Joshi at Grantmakers In Health.