Wildwoods was born from a desire to connect people.
After the Columbine shooting tragedy in 1999, a handful of volunteers with the National Park Service began exploring the possibility of expanding traditional outdoor programming to include the components of character development, personal growth, and community involvement. Wildwoods was the culmination of those efforts. Though our work has evolved over the years, Wildwoods remains true to its roots—the belief that nature can heal, inspire and connect people.
Timeline
LA Stem Collective
Wildwoods joins a partnership of 40+ STEM education organizations, museums and parks to provide STEM education programs to LA schools.
2022
Wildwoods LIVE
Continuing to build our distance learning capacity, Wildwoods LIVE is launched, providing high-definition, virtual field trips, interactive and in real time.
2021
Season of STEM
Wildwoods joins Los Angeles' City of STEM Collective, joining 25 other organizations to provide remote, daily STEM learning opportunities to LAUSD students during the pandemic.
2020
SeedLinks
Inspired by the parent volunteers at the Magnolia Place Learning Garden, Wildwoods launches SeedLinks, an urban home gardener support network with a mission to "Plant it Forward."
2020
Magnolia Place Learning Garden
We partner with the Magnolia Place pre-school to create a Learning Garden for students. The parent volunteer group brings a whole other layer of community-building to the experience.
2018
Eco-X
Eco-X is re-born as a summer camp for youth in the foster care system. A series of field trips exploring the urban ecology of Los Angeles helps to address "summer slide."
2018
Paseo
Launched the Paseo program which provides monthly field trips for families in the Pico-Union community served by the Magnolia Community Initiative.
2017
Seeds of STEM
Launched the Seeds of STEM education program which introduces basic scientific principles to early childhood students.
2016
Magnolia Place
The Wildwoods Foundation opens offices at the Magnolia Place Family Center and joins the Magnolia Community Initiative, a collective impact project of more than 70 organizations serving a 500-block area south of downtown Los Angeles.
2015
A Drop in the Bucket Returns
To address the California drought, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power awards a contract to the Wildwoods Foundation to revive its conservation education program at Vista Hermosa Park in downtown LA. This incarnation of the program features a mobile unit delivering the program to schools.
2015
GEELA Award
Wildwoods is named as the 2012 recipient of the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in the Environmental Education Category for its Full Circle program.
2013
A Drop in the Bucket
Wildwoods launches its water education program at Vista Hermosa Park in downtown LA.
2011
Eco-X
Wildwoods pilots the urban ecology program at 10 sites with LA's BEST.
2010
Oakgrove
The Oakgrove program (active at Venice High School since 1972) joins the Wildwoods Foundation family.
2008
Web of Our World
Wildwoods launches Web of Our World, the online learning component of the Full Circle program.
2007
Environmental Charter High School
Wildwoods helps ECHS launch with Full Circle program.
2001
Full Circle
The pilot for the Full Circle curriculum (Wildwoods' flagship school program) was conducted with Dr. Barbara Moreno of the Los Angeles Unified School District's "Open Magnet Charter School."
2000
Community Partners
The Wildwoods Foundation was accepted as a project of Community Partners.
2000
