The 2019 SHIFT Festival, a 3-day conference held Oct. 16-18 in Jackson Hole, WY, is developing a revolutionary concept in the fields of public health and conservation.
Entitled “Nature as Medicine: The Business Case,” the event is convening industry leaders around the advancement of nature as a social determinant of health—an invaluable addition to the movement to protect the natural world.
As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social determinants of health are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. They are increasingly recognized by government, agencies and public health officials as invaluable factors in overall health outcomes.
Nature as a social determinant of health is scientifically supported by leading researchers, many of whom will be at SHIFT. They will be joined by healthcare executives, physicians, land managers and conservation advocates in a working conference that promotes the public health benefits of outdoor recreation with business models, methodologies and strategies.
Over the course of three days, stakeholders from complementary sectors will participate in intimate workshops and think tanks that advance the health benefits of nature in mainstream society.
Public health is the last frontier of ecosystem services. This October, don’t miss this singular opportunity to join the innovators, early adopters and thought leaders at the forefront of the “Nature as Medicine” movement as we use the public health benefits of nature to strengthen the argument for nature itself.
The 2019 SHIFT Festival is informed by the Center for Disease Control’s determinants of population health.
The 2019 SHIFT Festival will be developed around two elements integral to our goal of facilitating networking and the showcasing of best practices:
Public health as an ecosystem service is a nonpartisan issue that has the potential to revolutionize our appreciation for both public and planetary health.
In the midst of the sixth mass extinction, as diseases such as obesity, diabetes and mental anxiety adds billions of dollars to health care costs, this year’s SHIFT will make the business case for nature as medicine—and in so doing strengthen the argument for nature itself.
SHIFT is a national convening of cross-disciplinary influencers eager to network, learn and interact with others. We like to think of it this way: we coalesce natural allies—who may not yet know they're natural allies—in ways that foster collaboration, innovation and bold new ideas.
“SHIFT attracts the top thought leaders in the space in a way that I have not seen another conference even attempt.”
We spend hundreds of hours each year researching the organizations and individuals who are finding innovative, bold new ways to protect our public lands and improve public health—and then celebrate them with The SHIFT Awards by building our programming around their work.
It's one thing to come together. It's quite another to join a band of people brimming with ideas, in a forum designed for collaboration and blue-sky thinking. (Literally—outdoors under real blue skies!) (Unless it snows.) At SHIFT, you may find yourself collaborating and sharing challenges and opportunities with people you’d never have met, from completely different fields and walks of life—and find that their experiences cross-pollinate your thinking in ways you never would have imagined possible.
Read The Highlights and Recommendations from The 2018 State Offices Of Outdoor Recreation Workshop
We've all been to the conferences that load you with data and information you’re not quite sure what to do with. Not here. SHIFT goes both wide and deep, zeroing in on critical, industry-specific issues and focused topics that give you replicable strategies you can put into action. Best thing? By the time it’s over, you’ll likely have some new friends to help you along the way.
Learn how the 2018 Public Land Managers’ Meeting helped land managers incorporate public health objectives into their planning.
The stakes are high. Improving public health while protecting our planet is a win-win that cuts across partisan divides. Leave your despair, discord and differences at the door, and join us at SHIFT as we hit the ground running to forge new alliances, strategies and ideas for a better future.
SHIFT attracts a diverse cross-section of stakeholders from the outdoor recreation, conservation, land management and public health communities, all of whom are united by a fierce passion to protect the natural world in a time of unprecedented threat.
The American outdoor economy represents a $887B/year industry. At SHIFT, industry leaders gather to discuss ways to reinvigorate the protection of our natural resources while engaging the advocates of tomorrow.
Thought-leaders, early adopters, champions and influencers from the health care community have been advocating for the prescription of time outside for more than a decade. At SHIFT, they gather to discuss ways to make “Nature as Medicine” the next big medical revelation.
City, county, state and federal policy makers convene at SHIFT to address ways to leverage natural resources for public health and wellbeing.
Federal and municipal land managers gather to discuss opportunities to introduce a generational, socioeconomic and cultural diversity of people to the idea of the outdoors as a place for improving one’s health.
Grassroots organizations convene at SHIFT to create networks, share best practices and connect the theoretical with practical, on-the-ground solutions that advance and promote the health benefits of time outside.
Traditional conservation organizations built the historical foundation of the environmental movement. By connecting their institutional knowledge and resources with the energy and perspectives of tomorrow’s leaders, we enhance the effectiveness of both.
Professionals working on the health benefits of nature contact gather in an open forum to share their respective work, explore progress to date and identify knowledge gaps and how and with whom to fill them.
Avid users of our public lands and waters offer unrealized potential for the future of conservation. At SHIFT, they explore how to balance our love for outdoor recreation with the greater need to preserve the place in which it occurs.
Since its inception in 2013, SHIFT has evolved into a convening space for natural allies to address issues of common concern related to conservation. Topics we’ve explored include the outdoor recreation / conservation partnership (2015); the relationship between outdoor recreation and public lands (2016); the business case for public lands (2017); and the connection between public lands and public health (2018).
Significant outcomes include the following (click here to see what else we've SHIFTed):
In 2018, SHIFT focused on the public lands/public health connection. The results, as documented in the May 2019 cover story in Outside, represent one of the most important opportunities of our lifetimes. By highlighting the health benefits of nature, we can raise its value proposition in a time of unprecedented threat.
For the past four years, SHIFT’s State Offices of Outdoor Recreation Workshops have provided outdoor recreation leaders a roadmap with which to advance and promote priorities related to outdoor recreation, conservation and public health
Since 2014, The SHIFT Awards have recognized the most innovative, impactful and replicable initiatives at the intersection of outdoor recreation, conservation, land management and public health
Catalyzed by the 2014 SHIFT Roundtable on Land Conservation, Wilderness Advocacy & Human-Powered Outdoor Recreation, The Principles for the Advancement of Outdoor Recreation and Conservation (aka “The SHIFT Principles”) were developed to help guide recreation and conservation decisions in North America
Founded in 2016, The Emerging Leaders Program prepares exemplary early career leaders to help facilitate the outdoor recreation/conservation partnership at SHIFT and in America
The SHIFT Rx Challenge provides daily, weekly, monthly and annual “doses” of nature as it encourages adults aged 18–64 to take The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Recommendations for Physical Activity outside
In 2017, our Outdoor Business Alliances workshop developed a template for the creation of outdoor business alliances that states around the country can use to provide industry support for public lands
Made possible by a grant from Patagonia, the annual $10,000 SHIFTx Fellowship Fund grant helps ELP alumni address outdoor recreation/conservation issues in their communities
Meaningful change doesn’t happen in a silo. Or in an echo chamber. It happens when diverse stakeholders come together with a common interest in protecting our natural world.
The SHIFT Festival — now in its 5th year — is sparking a forward-looking national movement unlike any other. SHIFT convenes visionaries, innovators and influencers from complementary sectors and unites them around the desire to realize change. To hatch new ideas. To re-imagine systems. To leverage the public health benefits of nature as an argument for its protection.
SHIFT is where natural allies gather to create strategies for a better future.
