The philosophy behind Roots & Shoots is that “every individual matters, every individual has a role to play, every individual makes a difference.” Roots & Shoots groups are committed to making a positive impact in the world by showing respect for living things and the environment we all share.  Through community service projects Root & Shoots groups around the world express their care and concern for the environment, animals and the human community.

Starting a Roots & Shoots group in our local Marin City is a great way to involve the youth in service and leadership. Roots and Shoots programs motivate and challenge students by bringing their environmental interests and concerns into the classroom.

Empowering youth to brainstorm together to identify the environmental problems in our local community encourages them to investigate these problems and collaborate to discover solutions. It is these steps that give youth a voice and know that others around the world want to make a difference too.

Fostering Healthy Children

In our efforts to incorporate environmental learning at the Center we began by developing a project to build an environmental playground funded by a local grant.  The staff was excited by the children’s enthusiasm; the children proved to have the ability to grasp environmental concepts and showed an increase in learning in their language and social skills and incorporated increased physical activity. Behavioral issues all but disappeared when the children were engaged in this project. The environmental playground provides a unique setting for exploration and continued learning. Plants that attract birds and butterflies are incorporated into the playground and provide daily discoveries and exploration.  There is a digging ‘beach’ area, small waterfall, rock creek bridge and hand pumping system for re-filtering water into the pond.  To incorporate cultural learning into the project an African mud hut playhouse was created and painted by the children to include African motif designs. The environmental playground has proved to be an extremely effective therapeutic tool for children when behavioral and emotional issues prevent them from functioning in the regular classroom.  Children develop higher self-esteem when their learning activities reflect their culture and their connection to the earth.