The 2020 SHIFT Summit
HEALTHY BY NATURE
Equity, Access and The Mental Health Benefits of Time Outside
Dates: October 14-16, 2020
Location: Jackson, Wyoming, via Zoom
The 2020 SHIFT Summit will be broadcast virtually from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from October 14-16. Entitled “Healthy by Nature,” the Summit will focus on the mental health benefits of time outside, with a specific focus on health equity and access to nature.
The 2020 SHIFT Summit has three main goals:
The program will be developed around two elements integral to these objectives:
The Summit will be feature a combination of keynote presentations, think tanks, workshops, panel discussions and world café-style breakout groups. An overview of the programming is as follows.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16: THE EVIDENCE
Day 1 of The 2020 SHIFT Summit will focus on the evidence for the mental health benefits of time outside, including research that looks at equitable access to nature and corresponding public health outcomes.
The morning’s keynote presentation will be followed by oral lightning rounds on both new findings and established studies. Following the lightning rounds, audience members will self-select to breakout rooms with researchers on the topics of their choosing. Three 30-minute rounds of world cafe-style breakouts will be followed by a thirty-minute “harvest” that reports out on the findings of each table. The results will then be synthesized for distribution among Summit attendees.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15: INTERVENTIONS
Day 2 of The 2020 SHIFT Summit will focus on interventions: the practical application of the evidence for the mental health benefits of time outside, particularly in underresourced and vulnerable communities.
The morning will begin with feature presentations by five of The 2020 SHIFT Award recipients, who will provide ten-minute overviews of their work, with Q&A from the audience.
Three separate discussions will be then be developed in conjunction with SHIFT Award recipients and 2020 ELP cohort members. Each topic will begin with a panel discussion, followed by world-cafe style breakout groups. Topics are as follows:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16: MAKING IT REAL
Day 3 of The 2020 SHIFT Summit will explore ways to institutionalize nature as a mental-health intervention within practice and policy at the community, municipal, state and national levels.
The programming will feature three tracks:
Each track will begin with a panel discussion with subject-matter experts, followed by world-cafe style breakout groups that focus on transitioning the evidence and the interventions into lasting practice and policy.
Registration for The 2020 Summit will open July 21. Stay tuned for more details.
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Will a virtual SHIFT be similar to an in-person SHIFT?
Similar to “live” SHIFTs, The 2020 SHIFT Summit will use a combination of keynote presentations, think tanks, workshops, panel discussions and world cafe style breakout groups to achieve the objectives noted above.
What technology will the virtual Summit utilize?
Since January, SHIFT has developed its Health and Nature Webinar Series on Zoom. This platform will form the basis for the virtual Summit. Additional technologies such as EventBrite and Whova will be utilized to complement the Zoom platform.
How much will tickets cost?
Tickets will be available at the following rates.
To increase access to the Summit, scholarships will be available for those who would otherwise be unable to attend. These scholarships waive all Summit fees.
How many scholarship passes will be available?
100 All-Summit passes will be made available for those in need of financial assistance. To apply, click here.
Deadline for applications is September 15. Scholarships will be announced by September 21.
How will SHIFT center health equity and access to nature with the 2020 programming?
The focus of The 2020 SHIFT Summit on equity, access and the mental health benefits of time outside will feature research that underscores the connection between access to nature and public health outcomes, particularly as they relate to mental health.
Research will be complemented by “best practices,” i.e., The SHIFT Awards, which are selected on the basis of Impact, Innovation, and Replicability.
For 2020, we’ve added another criterion, Health Equity, to our SHIFT Award evaluation matrix.
This additional criterion allows us to consider work on the basis of the answer to the question, “Does the work enhance access to outdoor recreation, green space or nature for underserved communities?”
By emphasizing initiatives’ work on increasing equitable access to outdoor recreation and green space, with an understanding that such access is directly correlated with public health outcomes, the Summit will be developed around work that addresses structural and systemic inequities in substantive and scalable ways.
Another cornerstone of our programming is The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), which prepares early career leaders to address issues related to public health, conservation, advocacy, structures of oppression and community engagement.
During each ELP, participants gain familiarization with content that will be discussed at SHIFT. They also lead group discussions and explore different perspectives alongside fellow cohort members and ELP facilitators. The experience allows them to discuss issues relevant to their work amongst their peers and provides them with tools they can use to bring SHIFT’s coalition-building model to the programming at The SHIFT Summit as well as back to their communities.
With both SHIFT and ELP, we intentionally engage panelists and participants in programmatic development, which helps ensure authentic representation throughout our programming.
The ELP curriculum sets aside time to talk about equity, inclusion and disparities in all our discussions. The ELP facilitators are selected to provide structure and help navigate challenging discussions. This in turn allows us to discuss the impact of issues such as COVID 19 and how it personifies health disparities, the importance of advocacy during tense times and other topics not regularly addressed in “typical work” environment.
The representative leadership reflected in the SHIFT and ELP teams provide a balanced presence of gender and racial diversity to capture insight from various perspectives.
N.B.: This page will be updated with additional details.
