Driving Change: The Vision Behind the AHTA ‘Growing Impact’ Youth Wellness Campaign
Research across psychology, education, and youth development reveals a consistent truth: young people are searching for connection, emotional safety, and environments where they are truly heard.

The ‘Growing Impact’ Youth Wellness Campaign is AHTA’s national response to this imperative. The campaign spotlights programs across the country — led by AHTA members — that are driving measurable change in youth development.
Our Mission
Through intentional and professionally guided engagement with plants and the natural world, the AHTA community creates powerful paths for youth to nurture emotional regulation, agency, life skills, connection, well-being, and hope.
The AHTA Growing Impact Campaign cultivates important conditions that empower young people to thrive — across classrooms, communities…and the trajectory of their lives.
A Pediatrician’s Call to Action
An AHTA member and pediatric physician has issued a compelling call to action. Read his perspective on why plant-rich approaches to youth wellness are urgently needed.
Rising mental and physical health challenges among children require preventive, whole person approaches that meet youth where they are.
The Impact We Are Growing
What becomes possible when youth are engaged with plants and the natural world in supportive, professionally guided environments? Here are some of the outcomes we expect to see:
Improved stress resilience and nervous system balance
Enhanced attention, learning readiness, and executive functioning skills
Increased agency through the nurturing of living systems
Enriched emotional expression supported by non-stigmatizing pathways
Heightened social connection and community belonging
Improved physical activity, coordination, and balanced nutrition
Enhanced optimism, resilience, and a sense of hope for the future
These outcomes are just the beginning — plant-rich environments and professionally guided engagement with plants can nurture many more pathways for growth and well-being.
Growing Impact: Spotlight Series
Throughout this campaign, AHTA spotlights member-led programs making a difference on the front lines of youth wellness. Across diverse settings, we are showcasing how skillfully applied horticulture and therapeutic-based practice fuels holistic health.
Green Classrooms, Growing Minds
Incorporating plant-rich engagement and biophilic principles into classroom settings is gaining momentum across the nation. Green Classrooms, Growing Minds reimagines the traditional learning environment by integrating both indoor and outdoor plant-rich spaces that support student well-being, focus, and stress resilience.

This series demonstrates how nurturing well-being through plant and natural world engagement can fuel academic engagement, learning, and life-long success.
Serving Our Ecosystems
Empowering youth as environmental stewards through native plantings, restoration, and ecological literacy. Launched in 2025 with Veterans and youth working side-by-side, this collaboration has demonstrated strong impact, prompting other community sectors to join the movement to strengthen local ecosystems — with everyone building leadership skills, deepening environmental literacy, and embracing shared responsibility for the environments they serve.
Generations in Bloom
Creating intergenerational horticultural experiences where youth and older adults share experiences, grow, learn – and laugh— side-by-side. These plant-centered spaces strengthen communication, belonging, mutual respect, and meaningful connection across generations.
Fuel to Flourish
Connecting youth to nourishment and food systems through hands-on growing experiences that build health literacy and practical life skills. From seed to harvest, participants cultivate responsibility, competence, and confidence.
Resilience Lab
Exploring what it means to be resilient and how resilience connects to strong human health. Through guided plant engagement and reflective learning, youth across the country are cultivating adaptive skills, emotional steadiness, and the capacity to grow through challenge — taking cues from the many systems in nature that quietly model resilience every day.
Resources
The Growing Impact Campaign invites you to explore the following resources to deepen your understanding of the people–plant connection and youth wellness. We will continue expanding this collection as the campaign grows. Please check back for new and emerging resources.
Kids Need Nature Now: Integrating Horticulture into Pediatric Practice
Dr. Andrew Zeiger explores how horticultural therapy and therapeutic horticulture can seamlessly fit into pediatric wellness care across all ages. He provides a wealth of evidenced-based research and compelling insights, along with an impassioned call to move these approaches into healthcare settings at a much greater pace for the benefit of youth and their well-being.
Sponsored by Ball Horticultural Company
Nature Nurtures: How Gardening and Outdoor Play Support Kids’ Mental and Emotional Well-Being.
Charlie Hall, B.S., M.S., PhD. | An inspirational and research-grounded look at how horticulture and plant-based therapeutic settings can support children’s mental health and physical well-being. He highlights the importance of biophilic design and the emerging movement towards extending these biophilic principles into academic settings, not just healthcare environments.
Sponsored by Ball Horticultural Company
Join the Movement
The Growing Impact Campaign is building momentum nationwide and globally. There is a place for you in this work.
- Interested in collaborating on a Spotlight Series site event?
- Looking to sponsor the campaign and expand its reach in advancing youth wellness?
- Want to donate in-kind to help fuel the impact of this growing initiative?
We welcome partnerships across education, healthcare, environmental, and community sectors. To explore collaboration, sponsorship, or in-kind support opportunities, contact us at partnerships@ahta.org.
“Gardens remind us that small acts of care can grow into something much larger.”
– Jennifer Jewell