This summer, Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts brought her research on nature, physical activity and health equity directly to the community with a new summer camp aiming to get high schoolers into green spaces in Buffalo, NY. The camp, called BET In FLO (Buffalo Eastside Teens in Frederick Law Olmsted Parks) immersed youth in learning about the health benefits of getting outside, the history of the Buffalo Olmsted Park System and a good dose of nature-based physical activity.
“With this camp, we are trying to upend the historical inequities of green space in this city and increase feelings of nature belongingness and wellbeing among youth,” said Roberts, a kinesiology professor at UMD School of Public Health, who incorporates active living to study the impact of built and natural environments on mental and physical health, particularly for people from marginalized communities.
In Buffalo, over 80% of Black Americans live on the city’s east side, an area where residents have 54% less nearby park space than those living in predominantly white Buffalo neighborhoods, according to Open Buffalo and Trust for Public Land. BET In FLO camp offered high school students from Buffalo’s east side a three-day immersive experience in the city’s green spaces.
“Most of these high school students had never visited these parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted or green spaces on the west side of Buffalo,” said Roberts. “As a kid who grew up part of my life on the East Side, I see so much of myself in these kids.”
Together with Dr. Greg Bratman, associate professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington, Roberts partnered with Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the historic Richardson Olmsted Campus and a cooperative called East Side Stewards that aims to restore the social and environmental health of Buffalo’s east side.
BET In FLO teens, from different high schools participated in outdoor activities and learning, including park survey assessment and restoration work, environmental and social justice workshops, a historical tour of the Buffalo Olmsted Park System, the first park system in the United States, and learning about the links between health and nature.
“We all come from nature,” said Sarina Islam, a 15-year-old student from Buffalo Seminary. “I didn’t realize this really until I did this program.”
Sasha Chavez, a kinesiology doctoral student at UMD concentrating in physical cultural studies, helped recruit, plan and run BET In FLO.
“Once they finished the program, students said they felt a better connection to nature,” said Chavez whose own research focuses on the importance of play to wellbeing and development and on how nature spaces are used to improve health.
“Being together in the park really bonded the group and by the end of camp, even though it was only three days, they were all tight friends.”
Many studies illustrate the physical and mental health benefits from both nature exposure and physical activity. Roberts’ 2021 review of nature-based interventions in the American Journal of Health Promotion highlights the breadth of these benefits: the more time spent in nature, the less likely you are to develop chronic conditions like high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.
Time in nature also improves mood, emotional wellbeing and mental health conditions such as anxiety and attention deficits, as well as positive benefits on spiritual wellbeing and “social cohesion, social interaction in adults and children, social empowerment, and interracial interaction,” per the journal article.
Roberts hopes to offer this opportunity to more young people from Buffalo’s east side, and to continue studying how such programming can expand wellbeing and health outcomes for participating youth. The program was funded by Harvard University’s JPB Fellowship grant.
–Fid Thompson