Earth Day is an opportunity to amplify the importance of protecting Earth’s natural resources, and to be intentional about connecting with nature and spending time in green spaces to restore your physical and mental well-being. To commemorate the day, we’re featuring CultureSeed, a youth outdoor mental health enrichment organization, and its executive director, Yesenia Castro.
CultureSeed is one recipient of Providence Well Being Trust’s (PWBT) Innovation and Transformation grants. Learn about Yesenia and CultureSeed below and learn about PWBT’s grant initiatives.
What do the outdoors mean to you?
The meaning of what the outdoors is to me has changed over time. I was born and raised in Hood River County, home of one of the largest scenic areas in the United States, my childhood homes always being farmworker housing closer to what we would call “the hood” or in other words Mount Hood. I had a childhood full of time outside, mudpies, dirty hands and shoeless feet. I loved playing outside.
As I grew older, I understood the outdoors to be something that needed more gear and expert knowledge. It must’ve been the media I was consuming that “the great outdoors’’ seemed daunting and inaccessible. One of my great friends and outdoor activist, and Latino Outdoor Founder, Jose Gonzales once wrote an article about the nature of simply being outside and I’ve taken that to heart – being outside it’s that simple. It is having that breath of fresh air, access to green spaces, it feels like connecting with the wind, the sun and all the elements of the natural world around me.
Being outside grounds me and is an essential part of my mental health now, it doesn’t have to be a fancy hike or a snowboarding trip but just simply getting out of my house and smelling all those Pacific Northwest smells is important to me and my well-being.
How have the outdoors helped your mental health?
Being outside is grounding, relaxing, and stress reducing for me. When I am outside walking or just getting some sun on my skin I can completely disconnect from the everyday distractions of emails and tech that follows me everywhere I go. I intentionally put my phone in my pocket and away from my face so I can take a break and be outside.
The days I don’t go outside I feel like I have missed an important part of my day. Taking the time to go outside makes me feel at ease and honestly a bit saner. I am a better human when I get outside, I feel it in my body and overall emotional state of mind. Access to safe green spaces and being outside is something I need for my mental health.
What prompted you to join CultureSeed?
I volunteered with CultureSeed in 2018. I went on a hike with the staff and a big group of youth, mostly Latina young women. I saw myself in them and we connected over our nails and laughed and bonded over our burrito lunch! I was immediately in love with the work and wished I had something like that available to me growing up.
I was invited back in 2022 to interview for the co-Executive Director position, I couldn’t believe it and had all the imposter syndrome feels kick in, but the board and executive director were intentional in wanting to recruit a Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) leader that was from the area, and I’ve been here ever since!
What value, from your perspective, does CultureSeed bring to the Hood River community?
So much value but the top thing is access to the outdoors in ways that many local youth have never experienced before, FREE and ongoing mental health services, a connection to trusted adults, stress reduction and coping skills, social connections, leadership development and programming, environmental stewardship and so much more!
The Gorge is known for recreation and is the windsurfing capital of the world (Hood River)! Most folks intentionally move here because of the abundant opportunities to play outside year-round, it is a beautiful community. Our regional zoning laws protect our natural areas and folks are constantly making new parks and talking about more trails and green spaces. It is a community that greatly values nature and outside play.
What do you hope enrollees learn about how nature impacts their mental health?
The youth in our programs are referred to us but more recently they are self-referring. In their second or third year, youth start to really verbalize and learn the language around mental health (which is a huge part of the work we do to destigmatize mental health, is always talk about it) and they themselves have talked about how access to our programming has supported their mental health improvement, social connection, transportation, access to funds and adventures they otherwise wouldn’t have, stress reduction, disconnection from phones and self-care.
Learn more about Providence’s Well Being Trust’s Behavioral Innovation and Transformation Grants.
Learn more about Yesi and how she was connected to CultureSeed.
