Nature Canada

Nature Canada Welcomes Another Group of Young Women From All Across the Country as Young Nature Leadership Grant Recipients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON June 14, 2021—Nature Canada’s Women for Nature initiative is proud to announce our next group of recipients of our Young Nature Leadership Grant. This grant is intended to encourage, foster and nurture young women to demonstrate their own leadership for nature.

In 2017, six young women with unique and complimentary ideas received the inaugural Young Nature Leaders grant. Now, in 2021, we are continuing this project to empower youth and nature lovers alike. The purpose of the grant is to invite youth to develop and implement projects inspired by the Canadian Parks Councils’ The Nature Playbook. Connecting new generations with nature by putting them at the heart of it. 

This year’s recipients include:

  • Miranda Baksh from Brampton, ON. She is developing a virtual “environmental field-trip” video to educate children in schools, highlighting nearby nature 
  • Iman Berry from Laselle, ON. She is developing an environmental curriculum in partnership with the non-profit, Green Ummah to provide educators with a toolbox to teach Muslim youth about nature sustainability. 
  • Leah Davidson from Sherbrooke, QC. She is working on an online environmental “escape rooms” that can serve as  a virtual field trip for schools affected by the pandemic that makes learning about nature fun for kids.
  • Kariena D’souza from Dartmouth, NS.  She is organizing a ‘Women of Colour Leadership in Nature’ pilot Nova Scotia
  • Alana Norie from Squamish, BC.  She is piloting an environmental stewardship program for young girls focused on the themes, “explore, learn and act”.
  • Sonya Suraci from Toronto, ON. She is piloting an interpretive nature program tailored to new Canadians in her community. 

“As the Honorary Chair of Nature Canada’s Women for Nature initiative, I am delighted to see that Canada’s nature is in good hands,” says the Honourable Senator Diane Griffin. “These young women and their projects being recognized today are a step in the right direction to help enable more young Canadians to connect with nature and assist in protecting our precious wildlife and habitats,” adds Griffin.  

I believe this very promising group of young women have the passion, skills and means to fulfill and uplift the youth of today” says Dawn Carr, Women of Nature member and Executive Director of the Canadian Parks Council. “By working together we can conserve, and encourage new generations to connect with nature.”

A big thank you to our inaugural Young Women for Nature mentees, Nina Andrascik, Olivia DesRoches, Jenny Jachtorowicz and Mathilde Papillon who volunteered on this year’s Selection Committee for the $1000 grants along with Dawn Carr, Women for Nature Project leader.

For media assistance please contact:
Scott Mullenix, Director of Communications, Nature Canada
613-562-3447 ext. 230
smullenix@naturecanada.ca

For information on the Women for Nature’s Young Nature Leaders grant please contact:
Jodi Joy, Director of Development, Nature Canada
613-295-6769 | 1-800-267-4088
jjoy@naturecanada.ca

About Women for Nature

Women for Nature is the collaborative voices of Canadian women with vision—women of influence who choose to demonstrate their passion for nature and pass their values on to others to drive change. Our founding members include Senator Diane Griffin, Her Excellency Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Madam Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Minister Catherine McKenna and Margaret Atwood.  For more information please visit: 

About Nature Canada

Nature Canada was founded in 1939 because of the passion and initiative of Mabel Frances Whittemore, a teacher and nature lover whose main goal in life was to share her passion for nature with others. Today, Nature Canada represents a network comprised of 95,000 members and supporters and more than 750 nature organizations across the country. Over the past 80 years, Nature Canada has helped protect more than 63 million acres of parks and wildlife areas in Canada and countless species that depend on this habitat as well as engaging hundreds of thousands of Canadians in nature through its activities.

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