Program Graduate receives Outdoor Retailer Inspiration Award
Outdoor Outreach Leadership Program graduate, Tatianna Butte, has an especially inspiring story of personal resilience that she connects to her healing experiences in the outdoors.
Tati was a participant with our 2019 Leadership Program cohort and has since grown into a fierce advocate for increased outdoor access for diverse youth, both on a local and state-level. Last year, Tatiana was invited to tell her story and introduce the First Partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, at the California State Parks Foundation’s first-ever Policy Forum on youth outdoor access and health outcomes. Tatiana used her powerful voice to inform the conversation and ground the audience and decision-makers in the room in why equal access to the outdoors is so important.
She also met with the California Natural Resources Agency Secretary, Wade Crowfoot, as we discussed the importance of collaborating with community-based organizations to increase access to state parks. Through youth-led advocacy efforts like these both locally and at the State Capitol we saw significant legislative and regulatory decisions this year that have prioritized community access. These include the state’s designation of $5M of Prop 64 funding for youth-focused outdoor engagement programs and $20 million to establish an Outdoor Equity Grants Program to enable underserved populations to participate in outdoor environmental education experiences at state parks.
We’re so honored to announce that program graduate Tati Butte was the winner of the 2020 Outdoor Retailer Inspiration Awards Youth Category! We’re so proud of Tati’s work as an advocate for outdoor access to ensure the outdoors are accessible and welcoming, and for inspiring others to get outside and embrace the freedom nature provides. Watch her acceptance speech, along with the other award winners here.
Tatiana is now attending San Diego City College where she’s studying Administrative Justice in a hope to build a more fair and equitable San Diego. She also acts as co-host for our weekly Leadership Circle Live Streams on Facebook.