York University C4 Project
2025-2026
Challenge Question
How might we enhance the integration of immersive conservation experiences — going into the places we’re learning about, rather than just reading about them — into post-secondary education in order to develop the environmental leaders of tomorrow and turn the tide on the climate crisis, shifting the focus of conservation from one of external policy maker to one of community-builder for all of our planet's species?
Applicable United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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#15 Life on Land
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#13 Climate Action
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#3 Good Health & Well-Being
Project Primer
Headwaters Wilderness Program is an educational organization by necessity. We were founded based on graduated research conducted at York University which examined the best way to address the root problem of human-caused destruction of the natural world. While most environmental organizations focus on policy and top-down remedies, we believe that, ultimately, this is a project of deep and profound cultural change: re-creating humanity's way of being in the world. And any project of cultural change, we believe, is fundamentally educational — is concerned with questioning the way in which we raise young people.
Because of this, we at Headwaters start from the following premise:
"If caring for the natural world is a prerequisite not only for protecting it, but for a fully lived human life, and if caring first requires coming to know, then meaningful experiences in wilderness are indispensable for both the future of the planet and ourselves"
If you're interested in any one of the following areas, then our Challenge Question project might be for you:
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Environmental policy and activism
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Climate change
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Environmental justice
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Education
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Cultural change
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The non-human world
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Etc.
Here are some relevant resources to help you gain an understanding of both the problem we are seeking to address as well as our approach to doing so
External Articles
Here are two external articles which draw the connection between relationships with the natural world and care for it
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IPBES Transformative Change Assessment
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"Deep, fundamental shifts in how people view and interact with the natural world are urgently needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and safeguard life on Earth"
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Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years
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"People risk 'extinction of experience' in the natural world"
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Our Website
We encourage you to read and browse through our entire website to gain an understanding of our philosophy and our practice. In particular, here are some of the most relevant pages which we think you should definitely read:
"To love a person or a place is to accept moral responsibility for its thriving."
~ Kathleen Dean Moore