Youth Programs
Connect and Thrive
3 learning domains
4 programs for youth ages 7-18
About
Our four youth programs follow the same yearly structure: 21 lessons per year that pair Experiential Tracking with Narrative Tracking.
Each lesson links land routines and projects so students build skills, cooperation, and perspective across Nature, Prosocial, and Universal domains.
Schools receive full access to the teacher education program, including planning guidance, mentoring supports, and ready-to-use materials for all 21 learning units, so staff can deliver consistent experiential and narrative lessons across the year.
This model is rooted in the 'Connect and Thrive' book and is supported by the educator course that prepares teachers to use the compass, the narrative, and the routines in place.
3 Learning Domains
Nature Connection &
Earth Regeneration
Learning to Read Place and Care for Living Systems.
Youth programs begin by developing steady routines on the land. Through sit spots, tracking, and sensory awareness practices, they learn to notice patterns, relationships, and change in the places they spend time. Attention is trained first through direct experience, then gradually shaped into ecological understanding.
As skills deepen, learners apply what they observe to practical work with soil, water, habitat, and food systems. Field projects turn awareness into action, linking observation with restoration and care. Mapping, navigation, and simple design tasks help youth locate themselves within ecosystems and understand how land systems function over time.
The compass for this domain organizes practice so sensory awareness grows into ecological literacy and hands-on regeneration. The Experiential and Narrative Tracking Paths keep daily work connected to larger patterns in history, culture, and economy. Two-Eyed Seeing supports design choices that respect both local knowledge and regenerative science, forming the ecological foundation for long-term thriving.
Prosocial Connection & Community Regeneration
Learning to Work Together and Care for Shared Systems.
Learning expands from individual practice into shared work. Youth learn to take roles, set agreements, and plan together in small teams and mentoring circles. Decision-making, communication, and responsibility are practiced in real tasks that matter to the group and the place they are in.
Frameworks from evolutionary science and prosocial systems research guide how groups are organized. Learners explore motivation, cooperation, and conflict, including inherited tendencies toward competition and status. These dynamics are not avoided but understood and worked with through clear structure and reflection.
As projects grow in scale, youth collaborate with Elders, partners, and peers to design and maintain local learning sites. Study and action remain linked. The result is practical experience in cooperation, shared leadership, and community care, building the civic capacity needed for durable regeneration.
Universal Connection &
Human Regeneration
Learning to Track Meaning, Responsibility, and the Unknown
This domain brings together the tracking skills developed in land and community work and applies them to meaning, story, and responsibility beyond the immediate present. Youth explore how signs, symbols, and narratives emerge from experience and shape how people act across generations.
Practices focus on disciplined attention rather than belief. Learners notice how meaning is carried through story, ritual, and shared symbols, and how these evolve over time. Two-Eyed Seeing supports the ability to hold uncertainty, compare perspectives, and test understanding through lived experience.
As a capstone, this domain connects personal purpose with shared responsibility. Youth learn to place their actions within longer timelines, wider systems, and future generations. Land practice and community work are aligned with ethical reflection and stewardship, preparing learners to navigate complexity with care, clarity, and shared accountability.
4 Youth Programs
Ages 7-9
Pathfinders - Inspiration
Pathfinders invites younger learners into connection through simple daily routines at home and on the land. Children develop sit spot practice, sensory awareness, and basic naturalist skills while learning to notice, name, and share what they observe.
The focus is inspiration and belonging. Learners explore early questions of identity, mutual essentiality, and kinship with the living world through stories, play, and shared reflection. The program builds the foundations of nature connection, prosocial storytelling, and curiosity about the wider unknown, grounding learning in direct experience rather than abstraction.
At home in the natural world
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Ages 10-12
Bridge Builders - Focus
Bridge Builders strengthens focus, teamwork, and shared responsibility. Learners deepen practical skills related to shelter, water, fire, and food, while practicing planning, cooperation, and group agreements in mentoring circles.
The program introduces regenerative thinking through everyday choices and local care, helping students connect daily practice with simple economic and ecological decisions. Prosocial learning is supported through clear roles, shared tasks, and conflict navigation. Elders and partners guide learning across the three domains, supporting early understanding of reciprocity, responsibility, and collective agency.
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Ages 13-15
Wayfinders - Transformation
Wayfinders turns skills and focus into coordinated action. Crews take on real projects, explore thresholds of disconnection, and practice community-based methods for regeneration. Learners work across all three domains while studying the River System of Human Time, source-evolved capacities, and the Anthropocene.
Rites-of-passage style challenges, adapted to local place, support reflection, identity development, and leadership. The aim is transformation through meaningful contribution, systems thinking, and the integration of story, land work, and social responsibility.
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Ages 16-18
High School - Mastery
The high school program focuses on applied mastery through regenerative economic practice. Students engage with real-world regenerative and circular economy initiatives, including regenerative agriculture, restoration projects, community enterprises, and emerging financing models.
Learners design and test business or project ideas in partnership with initiatives around the world, gaining experience in how economies can meet human needs while restoring ecosystems and strengthening communities. The program develops education intelligences, participatory governance skills, and steward-level responsibility, preparing students to contribute to connected regenerative economies beyond school.
At home in the natural world
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