What is it?

Campo de Oeste is revolutionary way to reconnect young people, particularly disenfranchised urban youth, to nature. A relationship with the natural world sounds like an obvious thing, but unfortunately for far too many American children and adolescents today, nothing could be further from the truth.

Many young people have lost this undeniable connection, as children spend more and more time engaged with electronic media, restricted from outdoor play due to inaccessibility to wild areas or confined indoors due to parental concerns over safety. A devaluation of the importance of time spent in nature has led to outdoor recreation being increasingly viewed as an unnecessary activity.

Our increasing awareness about the importance of the environment has developed from a wide variety of influences but ultimately has led us in one uniform goal of reconnecting our generation, as well as future generations, with this beautiful thing called Earth. Campo de Oeste is a two-week summer camp run by the Easter Seals Blake Foundation* based at Campo Urbano - a working urban ranch located on 5 acres in West-Tucson. The camp is an educational outdoor ethics program based on environmental science and sustainability. This free program is for 11-12 year old local youth that are interested in our environment and sustainability.

Through the camp, young people will be realizing for the first time in their lives that their food comes not ready-made in the grocery, but from the earth. They will be learning about water conservation, essential for Sonoran Desert residents as without this change Southern Arizona could easily be without a sufficient water supply within 30 years. They will walk the wash, become working members of the ranch and interact with and care for the 5 rescue horses on the property.

Campo de Oeste is about communicating how important our planet is, and how our generation is going to have to learn to love our world in order to help save it. Because how can we care and love the Earth if we don't know the Earth?

In a recent article in the New York Times about The Sandpoint Transition Initiative in Sandpoint, Idaho, Jon Mooallem describes our present condition and Transition's role in positive improvement.

"Now, maybe because our various crises have escalated, or because it costs so much to disappear into your own parcel of wildness, opting out no longer feels like a possibility. One of Transition's more oblique arguments may be that we can't escape anymore. We have to work together to remake the places where we already live."

'Transitions message is twofold: first, that a dire global emergency demands we transform our society; and second, that we might actually enjoy making those changes.' "



*SAGE / The Easter Seals Blake Foundation has been providing services to children and adults with disabilities in accordance with their mission: to enable each individual served to discover and meet his or her maximum potential for independent, productive living and developmental growth.