Our Ongoing Commitments

Cincinnati Nature Center welcomes everyone to be a part of our visitor and member community. Our natural spaces are for every color, ethnicity, gender, religion, ability, age, and economic status. A diverse ecosystem is a healthy ecosystem. Likewise, a diverse community is a healthy community.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We believe that diversity brings strength, innovation, and cultural insights. We strive to retain a diverse team of employees and board members and we work hard to ensure that they preserve an empathetic mindset.

We maintain 20 miles of hiking trails and more than 1,700 acres of land to provide unique and personal experiences for everyone. Nature is not biased. Nature provides significant enhancements for everyone’s physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health.

To provide an accessible and welcoming atmosphere for everyone, we strive to connect people to nature in effective, authentic ways. We aspire to be OF/BY/FOR ALL our community. What that means to us:

• The more we can be representative OF our community, the more people feel seen and heard.
• The more programming is created BY our community, the more people feel ownership.
• The more programming is FOR our community, the more everyone wants to participate.

OF/BY/FOR ALL is a global movement. For more information, visit www.ofbyforall.org.

Actions We’ve Taken

Employee Trainings and Internal Committees

• Employees receive LGBTQ Cultural Competency Training from Lighthouse Youth & Family Services (since May 2019).
• Employees received Empathy Training from the Department of Jobs and Family Services of Hamilton County (June 2019).
• Employees and board attended the “Of/By/For All” keynote presented by Nina Simon at the 2019 Association of Nature Center Administrators (ANCA) Summit. Cincinnati Nature Center was the host site and conference programmer for this annual event (August 2019).
• Employees and board members govern a OF/BY/FOR ALL Committee to intentionally mitigate and proactively plan for diversity in our audiences, board, staff, and people we serve (since December 2019).
• School Programs employees receive ongoing training on teaching students with exceptionalities from various expert consultants and speakers.

Economic Initiatives

• We provide “Nature for All” admission and membership discounts for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women Infants and Children) card holders.

Initiatives for Community Members of All Abilities

• We provide volunteer opportunities for LADD and Stepping Stones clients.
• Every day, our school programs host children with special needs or exceptionalities.

Opportunities to Serve Underserved Youth

• We partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati to provide BBBS Access Passes for Bigs. Our passes allow these valuable mentors to spend valuable and healthy time in nature with their Littles. This program is funded by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
• Through our EarthKids Summer Day Camp program, Cincinnati Nature Center partners with Boys & Girls Club of Clermont County and New Path Child & Family Solutions to provide nature camp experiences for underserved youth.
• Through our field trips, we serve students and faculty from schools all over the region.
• We collaborate with organizations that bring inner-city youth and young adults to the Nature Center including Adventure Crew, Inner City Youth, and Our Daily Bread.

We welcome your feedback!

How we can we do better? We are listening. Send us your thoughts to membership@cincynature.org.