Youth Environment Leadership Institute

The Youth Environmental Leadership Institute leads educational trips with groups of young people.

The youth leadership groups learn first-hand about the relationship between individual behavior, community health and environmental sustainability, gaining hands-on experience by staying in an eco-friendly lodge, surrounded by rainforest and Hidden Garden’s Ethnobotanical Sanctuary.  Cultural exchanges with local youth groups, wilderness challenges, organic meals and daily wellness practices help open the minds and hearts of participants. It is a magical opportunity to grow and manifest the true adult self emerging. Through collaboration with trip leaders, we customize group experiences, always ensuring that young people are able to bring back a newfound sense of commitment to environmental sustainability and their own personal development.

Mission

To foster leadership, community organizing, personal wellness and conservation skills in young adults through international travel, group work and real-life adventure.

Roots:  The YEL Institute began in the year 1999 with a group of four young staff members of the community center, El Puente, in Brooklyn. The objective was to inspire urban youth into protecting nature by cultural immersion, experiential learning and wilderness challenges, in the beautiful Costa Rican rainforest. The course took place deep in the jungles of Los Santos Forest Reserve and the students reported great changes in themselves and their attitudes towards environmental protection.

The second group brought together six peer educators from 3 NYC organizations – the Prospect Park Youth Council, Outward Bound and El Puente for a similar course, with a new emphasis on creating peer education experiences in NYC. In 2001 programming, was moved to the Caribbean Coast, where cultural diversity and community activism inspired the video, Pura Vida, created by youth from Global Action Project as part of their course with youth staff from Outward Bound, El Puente and the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation.

In 2002, a young men’s course included eight peer educators from Outward Bound, Added Value and Youth Ministries for Social Justice, followed by a group of eleven teenagers from the International YMCA Global Teens program. In 2004, the YEL Institute hosted the first adult’s course, for youth development program directors from Tepayac Association, Friends of Island Academy and The Point. In 2008, a group of two staff and eight students from Global Kids attended the Institute, incorporating their experiences into their work with food justice and environmental activism. Outcomes created by YEL Institute youth participants include conferences on environmental themes, urban medicinal plant gardens and peer education workshops.

YEL Institute finally found its permanent home at Hidden Garden Wellness Center, where it hosts entire groups that come with their own staff from non-profit organizations. The garden provides an ideal location for healthy living – daily yoga, vegetarian meals, research library and an inspirational immersion into the rainforest.

Sample Itinerary:

Day One
7:30-8              Yoga
8-9                   Breakfast
9:30                 Depart for Indigenous Territory
10-12:30          Tour at Finca Loroco
1 – 2:30            Waterfall Tour
2:30 – 6            Presentation from and to Watsi Indigenous Youth Group, with Dinner
Day Two
7:30-8              Yoga
8-9                   Breakfast
9-1                  Chocolate Farm Tour with Lunch
2-4                   Capoeria Workshop
4-7                   Make Dinner with Flora Domenis
Day Three
7:30-8              Yoga
8-9                   Breakfast
9-12                 Jungle hike in Manzanillo
12-1                 Lunch at Hidden Garden
2-3                   Conversation w/ Representative Edwin Patterson
3:30-7              African  Dance & Cooking Class
Day Four
7:30-8              Yoga
8-9                   Breakfast
9-11                 Using Music to Conserve Culture
11-1                Preparing Lunch with Veronica Gordon Crooks
2-4                  Shopping at Artisan’s Market
4-5                  Solos
5-6                  Dinner at Hidden Garden
Day Five
7-8                   Meditation Walk & Beach Yoga
8-9                   Breakfast at Pan Pay
9-11                Cultural Exchange at High School
11:30-1            Jaguar Rescue Center
1-2                   Lunch at Hidden Garden
3-4                   Packing
4:30                Tour Marcus Garvey Cultural Center
5-6:30              Drumming with the Rumberitos
7-8                   Dinner at Lidia’s Place Restaurant

If you would like more information or you would like to register your youth group for a trip to YEL Institute, Costa Rica, please send us your contact information below and we will get back to you shortly.

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