Environmental Education 2002-2016

Cedar Tree Foundation made a variety of grants under the broad theme of Environmental Education starting in 2002.  In 2007 Cedar Tree began to focus efforts around organizations working to bring environmental education opportunities to youth who otherwise would not have had a chance to explore, learn from and develop stewardship for the natural world around them. 

Solar Youth

Solar Youth is a small youth development organization in New Haven, CT which uses environmental education as a way to teach youth aged 4-18+ to engage in their community and become environmental stewards.  Solar Youth runs after school and summer programs, as well as green jobs training for older youth.  They host field trips and community activities and offer a pipeline of engagement including internships and governance roles for Solar Youth participants on the Solar Youth Board.

Solar Youth received its first grant from the Cedar Tree Foundation in 2008, and received support through 2016.

kids for the bay

KIDS for the BAY believes that “Everyone is an Environmentalist”, and provides environmental education programs to elementary school students in low-income, urban schools throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in California. In KIDS for the BAY programs, the local watershed environment becomes a living laboratory for hands-on science learning and environmental action. Field trips to creek, bay and ocean habitats connect students with nature. Students help to clean up and restore local creek habitats, school campuses and neighborhoods, and lead schoolwide assemblies to teach their school communities to reduce trash and waste on a daily basis by practicing the Five Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot and Refuse). After working with KIDS for the BAY, teachers have the opportunity to continue to create environmentally-friendly classrooms through the Blue Watershed Classrooms Program. In this follow-up program, students, teachers and families work together to create Zero-Waste, watershed-friendly classrooms year-round. During Cedar Tree’s years of support, KIDS for the BAY developed and expanded programs to reach more students and teachers each year.

Cedar Tree funded this organization between 2007 and 2013 to help develop environmental literacy and stewardship among children in the Berkley, CA area.

Updated 9/2020