About ECHO
By combining our expertise in landscape architecture and early childhood education, ECHO provides customized design solutions and professional development opportunities to support caregivers in engaging young children in the benefits and wonder of time spent outdoors.
Our Impact
Young children across the nation are spending more time indoors. On average, American children spend less than ten minutes in unstructured outdoor play each day, and over seven hours inside in front of a screen. Here at ECHO, our vision is to change that by bringing nature and outdoor play to every young child, every day.
10
states with active projects or partnerships
young children impacted across the nation
custom design solutions for early childhood serving community partners
Our Impact
Young children across the nation are spending more time indoors. On average, American children spend less than ten minutes in unstructured outdoor play each day, and over seven hours inside in front of a screen. Here at ECHO, our vision is to change that by bringing nature and outdoor play to every young child, every day.
10
states with active projects or partnerships
young children impacted across the nation
Custom design solutions for early childhood serving community partners
ECHO uses a national platform to elevate the needs of young children and their caregivers and to advocate for policies and resources that support the fundamental right for all children to benefit from time outdoors from birth.
This innovative and ambitious initiative began in 2016 in partnership with the Natural Learning Initiative and the generous support of a $1.75 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. Since then, ECHO has pioneered intentional, evidence-based strategies for transforming early childhood settings and systems to ensure that every young child has opportunities to thrive in healthy outdoor environments every day.
As a core program of PLAE, ECHO focuses on expanding nature-rich, inclusive, developmentally supportive outdoor learning and play environments for children, families, caregivers, and communities.
ECHO provides training and design services through grant-driven support and fee-based consultancy to offer a broad suite of resources designed to transform places, behaviors, and systems, including:
Landscape Design
ECHO’s team of landscape architects and designers collaborates with partners to create high-quality outdoor play and learning environments, driven by a community’s vision for its children and outdoor spaces.
Activation Assistance
ECHO provides training, professional development, and technical assistance to ensure caregivers, families, and educators are empowered with the skills and resources they need to engage young children in outside activities.
Training Resources
ECHO offers online resources to inspire and engage anyone, anywhere, who wants young children in their care to have higher-quality outdoor spaces and experiences.
Policy and Advocacy
ECHO uses our national platform to elevate the needs of young children and caregivers and to advocate for policies and resources to support them, including communications, shared learning, and network building.
ECHO’s Strategic Plan and Theory of Change envision a future where every young child has rich and engaging daily opportunities to play and learn in high-quality outdoor environments that support healthy development and lifelong connections to the natural world.
ECHO Team
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Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice
Early childhood, defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a critical stage of human development extending from before birth through age 8, sets the foundation for life-long physical health and social-emotional well-being. Research demonstrates that it is essential for young children to regularly engage in developmentally supportive, active, and diverse outdoor play and learning experiences to build strong and resilient bodies and minds.
In addition to enhancing physical, social, and emotional well-being, naturalized settings also help address the impacts of the rapidly changing climate by providing healthy habitats, mitigating extreme temperatures, improving air quality, and managing storm water runoff. ECHO focuses specifically on ensuring that these benefits are available to young children 0-5 years of age, a population that is particularly vulnerable to long term health impacts, by developing evidence-based, naturalized, play environments designed to increase childhood physical activity, healthy eating, social and emotional resilience, and outdoor learning.
Partnerships
Grow Outdoors South Carolina
ECHO is working with the South Carolina Department of Social Services Division of Early Care and Education, the South Carolina Department of Health and North Carolina State University’s Natural Learning Initiative to create nature-inspired outdoor play and learning spaces in the State’s childcare programs, part of Grow Outdoors South Carolina.
“The most recent data we have show that 42 percent of South Carolina public school students ages 5 to 18 are overweight or obese and over half, 57 percent, are not meeting minimum standards for heart and lung health,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, at the Department of Health. “These problems often persist into adulthood, so addressing them early is very important.”
ECHO is providing information and professional development to support childcare programs. They hired a local team of landscape designers and early education professionals who are providing design assistance, resources, and training to childcare providers to help co-create and activate outdoor learning environments that promote nature-based play, physical activity, and healthy eating. ECHO’s specialized expertise also includes landscape design strategies that help mitigate heat and enhance climate resilience—supporting both healthy children and healthy communities.
LEAF Initiative — Learning Environments for All to Flourish
LEAF is a University of Nebraska–Lincoln initiative that takes a community-based approach, merging research, design, engagement and education to transform spaces in early childhood programs across Nebraska.
The LEAF Initiative includes an interdisciplinary team of researchers, designers, educators and community partners who are working in collaboration with Nebraska Extension and partner organizations specializing in design, education and child development. ECHO was included in the proposal to the University’s ‘Grand Challenges’ opportunity, which entails a commitment of $10M for planning grants and ‘catalyst awards.’
ECHO is providing design and technical assistance to a cohort of early care and education systems. The overall project goal is to improve children’s mental and physical health in Nebraska by creating opportunities for them to benefit from nature-rich learning environments within early childhood programs. The LEAF team is committed to helping communities with fewer resources — making sure healthy spaces are available to all children across the state.
Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge
ECHO partnered with the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, local organizations, and community members to create a community-centered nature play space at its site in in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ECHO team embedded community voices at the center of the design process, using a collaborative visioning process to build a reflecting local culture, accessibility, and community. ECHO offered six community engagement events and worked with the Isleta Hiking Club—a local program for 3rd through 5th graders hosted by the Ancestral Lands Conservation Crew—to let children build physical models of what they wanted to see in the space.
ECHO’s professional landscape designers translated these local ideas into the final schematic blueprint. The nature play space and adjacent outdoor classroom are built to mimic the native high-desert and Rio Grande Bosque ecosystems. Moving away from plastic and steel, the site utilizes raw, regional materials to cultivate immersive, loose-parts exploration and physical challenges. There are boulder clusters and native logs for climbing, sticks and branches for building forts, sand, cultural sculptures and native pollinator gardens. Also, ECHO structured the project to rely on volunteer build days so locals could take part in putting the site together themselves.
Projects
ECHO works in a wide variety of settings, from small Family Child Care Homes to large early care and learning centers.
Little Giants Learning Center
This small nonprofit offers preschool, pre-K, before/after school programs, and summer programs for children participating in the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP). The Center also provides discounted tuition to families that do not qualify for CCCAP because they do not meet income or citizenship requirements.
Miss Carrie’s Child Care
A licensed in-home child care in Arvada, Colorado, Miss Carrie’s serves infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children. The facility focuses on play-based learning and curriculum designed to prepare children for kindergarten through activities like reading, singing, and arts and crafts.
Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center
This expansive center offers early childhood education to children ages 6 weeks through 7 years old. The revitalized playground was transformed into an outdoor learning environment with a stimulating outdoor classroom.
Monarch Montessori of Denver
The Denver public/private charter school offers students from infancy through fifth grade a dual-language, Montessori-based education that emphasizes independence, outdoor learning and whole-child development in a historically underserved community.
We have developed and curated free resources to help you bring nature play and outdoor learning to life in outdoor spaces.