Outdoor Connections For Inner-City Youth
The 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston is home to roughly 300,000 inner-city kids and teens. While these kids easily navigate their urban setting, many are far less familiar with the great outdoors.
Junior Anglers & Hunters wants to help Houston’s kids rediscover nature—without ever leaving downtown. In partnership with the City of Houston, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and other organizations, this group is making plans to build an Outdoors Center at downtown Houston’s new transportation hub. With a four-acre campus that includes city park trails and a fishing pond, the proposed Center will bring nature home. After-school and summer programs include classes in fishing, archery, boating safety and hunter safety.
Already, Junior Anglers & Hunters has a track record in reconnecting kids with nature. Working with the Houston Independent School District, the group has established a physical education course, “Angling and Archery,” and an after-school program to teach hunting safety, which fulfills an education requirement for anyone acquiring a hunting license. Participating kids also enjoy fishing trips across Houston and hunting trips with the organization Texas Youth Hunts.
By bringing nature downtown, this team hopes to reach even more kids in new ways. In addition, it aims to create safe routes that connect the Outdoors Center and urban neighborhoods to the Houston Park and Recreation bike trail network. From light rail to biking, kids will have new access to nature through the heart of the city.
This project could become a model for cities nationwide, so that urban kids everywhere can reconnect with nature—even downtown.
To Learn More
Junior Anglers and Hunters of America
elg@jraha.org
5014 Scotland,
Houston, TX, 77007
713.446.3814
www.jraha.org
