About Us

Our Past and Our Future

Founded in Guelph, Ontario, Focus on Nature began with a simple idea: that photography can open young eyes to the wonders of nature. What started as a grassroots program in local schools has grown into a province-wide movement, reaching thousands of students each year with immersive, outdoor learning experiences.

Inspired by Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, Shirley Hunt, co-founder of Focus on Nature, saw a need to get her own children and their peers connected to nature. Seeing a broad social need, and with input from the community beginning in 2008, FoN was conceived and co-founded with Guelph photographer Trina Koster.

As human beings, we need nature. Nature experience is essential to our physical, mental, and emotional health. Unfortunately, this connection, especially in the case of young people, has been lost. For the first time in the history of humanity, kids are spending the majority of their time indoors on screen-related activities. What we need is a cultural shift in all of our systems (for example educational systems who support outdoor experiential learning, and governments who foster urban forestry and naturalized green spaces) so that nature experiences are part of our daily lives.

Focus on Nature sees a critical role for the arts in enticing youth to get outside and explore nature.  We are excited to see the potential for using photography as a means to monitor changes in ecosystems and the possibilities of collaborating with outdoor education centers. We have worked with school boards across Southern Ontario, museums, libraries, art galleries, and more to bring our programming to more kids.

The particular value of photography in enhancing the child-nature connection is its relevance to today’s digitally savvy youth, its capacity to enhance the excitement of nature experiences, and the opportunities it allows for sharing both nature appreciation and creative expression with others.

“Photography is so accessible for young people today… It gives kids new ways to appreciate nature and opens up new windows of possibility in their lives,” says Simon Bell, previous Executive Director.

Today, Focus on Nature is now running in 7 different regions and reaches over 8000 students a year. Our goal is to become a nationwide organization helping students all across Canada to get out in nature.