Background

The Stewardship Council is a private non-profit public benefit corporation, created out of a Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) settlement agreement. The Stewardship Council protects and enhances watershed lands and uses, and invests in efforts to improve the lives of young Californians through connections with the outdoors. The Youth Investment Program provides grants that increase access to urban parks, gardens, wilderness programs and other outdoor education opportunities for underserved youth in urban and rural areas of Northern and Central California.

Strategy

When The Stewardship Council had completed its first annual round of grant-giving to underprivileged youth organizations throughout Northern and Central California, LCI wanted to create a story beyond the traditional grant-giving story; an issue based story that would call attention to the Stewardship Council's efforts on a more human and relatable level and position them as the "go to" expert in the field. LCI launched a survey, the first annual California Summer Youth Survey, identifying how often California youth were getting outdoors during the summer, what activities they were most interested in and what factors influenced their activity or inactivity.

Tactics

Timed to coincide with the first week of fall, the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council (Stewardship Council) announced the results of its first annual "California Summer Youth Survey." Established to monitor youth involvement in outdoor activities over the summer, the survey revealed that California's youth are not getting outdoors. With these results solidified, LCI proactively secured media interest both regionally and nationally.

Results

The survey findings were picked up by print media nationwide, includingSacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Scripps Howard News Service, San Diego Union Tribune, Bay City News, Napa Valley Register, Stockton Record, Deseret News, California Connected Newsroom and more. Online and broadcast coverage ranged from Dadspoint.com and Care2NewsNetwork to KTVU, KHSL, KPBS and KGO.