Date

5-2025

Document Type

Capstone Project (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Health, Human Services and Public Policy

Major

Collaborative Health and Human Services

First Advisor

Yulissa Ochoa

Abstract

In Monterey County, youth obesity rates are climbing at an alarming rate. Ventana Wildlife Society, and Wellness Through Nature program seek to help lower these rates. Ventana looks to achieve this through outdoor education and family trips with migrant farm working families in the cities of Soledad and Salinas. These trips attempt to increase environmental stewardship and improve community health. The project aims to evaluate the effectiveness and community engagement in regards to pocket parks. The parks visited were Bataan Memorial Park, Harden Neighborhood Park, Cesar Chavez Park, Joe Ledesma Park and San Antonio Park. The research seeks to increase community use of these parks and propose a program that follows their mission. The evaluation was completed through observation at local pocket parks and surveying of youth. The project did not meet the expected outcomes, but collected sufficient data. The original project proposal involved creating a program plan but did not gather the data to build a strong proposal. This project did find that many of the parks surveyed had the potential for holding programs with 60% having sufficient shade and 80% having tables and benches. The project found that youth do spend a large chunk of time outdoors and it can improve how healthy they feel after being outside, which was reported by the majority in the survey. I recommended that Ventana Wildlife Society continue this research in order to gather more specific data to build a stronger proposal for a program to take place in these green spaces.

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