What is Kids in Parks?
Kids in Parks has created a national network of trails that engage kids and families in activities that get them outdoors and connected to nature. Each of the program’s TRACK Trails provide visitors with engaging, self-guided activities designed to turn their visit into a fun and exciting adventure.
Families can explore nature by hiking, biking, geocaching, paddling, playing disc golf, and even playing e-Adventures in their own backyard! By TRACKing their adventures, kids create an online journal that allows them to track places visited, log miles completed, see badges earned, and receive prizes in the mail.
Sign up today and begin a lifetime of adventure in the great outdoors!
Kids in Parks, thanks to donations and grants, is a FREE program for children and families. Please consider a donation to the program and join us in cultivating lifelong wellness and meaningful connections to nature for the next generation.
The Need for Kids in Parks
Today’s families are more plugged into screens and less plugged into nature than ever before. These lifestyle choices are having devastating impacts on health outcomes of our children, families, and communities. However, there’s a potential solution.
Numerous studies have shown that spending time outdoors increases physical, mental, and social health, and is an indicator for future health. Likewise, parks benefit when people use them. Finding ways to create stronger connections between children and parks cultivates current and future stewards who understand the value and appeal of public lands.
Kids in Parks is a proven program that gets families outside. Over the past decade, kids have completed more than 1-million adventures, hiked more than 1-million miles, spent 500,000 hours outdoors, and burned more than 150-million calories on TRACK Trails. These outings are helping improve the overall health of kids, families, communities, and parks!
Program History
In 2008, Dr. Olson Huff, a renowned pediatrician in North Carolina, had a visionary idea—the creation of a hiking program designed to get kids active outdoors and reengaged with nature. Dr. Huff presented his vision to the leadership teams at the Blue Ridge Parkway, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, and he encouraged them to work together to design a program that encouraged families to utilize the trails along the Parkway as a resource for their health. A short time later, the idea came to fruition with the creation of Kids in Parks.
The original program was so successful that parks throughout the region and across the country rapidly embraced Kids in Parks TRACK Trails. Today, there are more than 300 TRACK Trails in 18 states, Washington DC, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nations. In addition, the program has partnered with more than 150 healthcare providers through its nature prescription program, TRACK Rx. Through TRACK Rx, doctors, public health workers, school nurses, and other healthcare professionals can prescribe outdoor activity and the program's network of TRACK Trails to their patients.
As one of the only health related nature programs in the country with data demonstrating results, the program has been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, recognized by the White House with a “Let’s Move! Champion of Change” award, and reviewed favorably as a practice-tested intervention by the Center for Training and Research Translation — a program funded by the Center for Disease Control. After only a few years, the Kids in Parks program is now supported by a strong partnership of private and public groups investing together for the health of our parks and our children.
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