An Inside Look at Our Approach to Equitable Outdoor Access

At the Onion Foundation, one overarching goal guides our programs: to ensure that everyone from every corner of the state can access meaningful experiences in the arts and the natural world. Our Equitable Outdoor Access strategy lays out our part in this vision and how we aim to make progress toward universal outdoor access.

Universal access is about designing systems, programs, and structures for maximal inclusion. For our Environment Program, it’s about ensuring everyone — regardless of their ability, background, or identity — has equitable access to outdoor programs. Even in Maine, with its relatively small population, universal access is a big, ambitious goal — and it’s not one we can achieve alone.

At the Onion Foundation, we focus our universal access efforts on the individuals most impacted by barriers, primarily people of color, Indigenous communities, and people living with disabilities. Here’s why.

Two Essential Components of Environmental Access

In our Environment Program, we zero in on people and place, employing two approaches to improving access to the outdoors.

Place

“Place” refers to the lands and waters in which we explore, learn, recreate, and connect with the earth and one another. To make sure that natural places are protected, thriving, and accessible to all Mainers, we support the lake and watershed nonprofits and land trusts that care for them and create opportunities for people to enjoy them.

Our partner, Momentum Conservation, provides thought leadership and funding to land trusts as they work to serve their local communities and create more opportunities for more Mainers to enjoy the natural resources they protect. We are also fortunate to have statewide and local watershed protection organizations dedicated to safeguarding the health of lakes while working to create more welcoming, inclusive spaces.

People

But just opening up places to the public doesn’t necessarily make them accessible. Even in a state where natural resources and outdoor activities seem abundant, there are many people who face significant barriers that keep them from taking advantage of Maine’s outdoors.

The “people” side aims to eliminate the seen and unseen barriers that make it difficult for some people to enjoy those places, including:

• Lack of materials, resources, and equipment: Many families can’t afford transportation, footwear, warm clothing, or other equipment needed to experience the outdoors.

• Lack of information: Many natural areas have been developed with local, English-speaking, able-bodied people in mind and are therefore less accessible to others. It’s often difficult to know where to look for information about trail locations and conditions, required equipment, and water access, which can be particularly challenging for non-English speakers, people living with disabilities, and people new to the area.

• Lack of safety and belonging: People who don’t know Maine’s environment or weather, or those historically excluded from outdoor activities, might not feel safe or comfortable in environmental spaces.

• Lack of gear access and knowledge: Outdoor activities often demand lots of gear, which first-time users may not understand or may find difficult to obtain, transport, use, maintain, and store, especially large and seasonal equipment such as kayaks, snowshoes, and bicycles.

• Physical distance: Some Maine residents are physically distanced from green spaces. In the U.S., 74% of non-white people live in a nature-deprived area, according to the Center for American Progress.

In our quest to make progress toward universal access, we focus on the people in Maine who tend to face the most barriers to enjoying the outdoors: people living with disabilities and people of color. We apply a targeted universalism approach, which is a framework that holds the same end goal for all people, but recognizes that people take diverse paths to outdoor experiences and that approaches tailored to their circumstances are needed to help them gain access. This approach can reveal and address the inequities that have kept those barriers in place.

Universal Access and Our Grantmaking Process

When evaluating grant proposals in our Eliminating Barriers to Access program, we don’t require or expect that a program or organization exclusively serves people of color or people living with disabilities, though there are times when that makes sense.

Instead, we keep a close eye on how programs are built to be inclusive and create a spirit of belonging. We ask three key questions about each proposal:

• Does this program address specific barriers that keep people of color and people living with disabilities from accessing the outdoors?

• Was this program designed with the guidance of people who are BIPOC or live with disabilities, be them staff, consultants, or close partners?

• Is program outreach conducted in a way that specifically makes BIPOC and people with disabilities feel welcome?

Asking these questions of each proposal helps ensure we’re prioritizing inclusive programs and not drifting away from our Equitable Outdoor Access strategy.

Targeted Universalism in Action

Portland Trails

Our grantee, Portland Trails, also has a universal goal: trail access for every Portland resident. To achieve this objective, the nonprofit uses a targeted universalism approach to understand what different communities need for trail access, and it focuses its energy on the communities that are not taking advantage of the local trail system.

Portland Trails’s Healthier Neighborhoods for All program works neighborhood-by-neighborhood in areas with diverse populations and concentrations of low-income housing and shelters. In these communities, people might not realize that trails are nearby, know how to use them, or feel comfortable and safe doing so. Portland Trails works with community partners to raise awareness about the trail network and identify the unique barriers keeping people from using the trails. Then, they join forces to make accessibility improvements while building community and a spirit of stewardship.

SailMaine

SailMaine, another Onion Foundation grantee, also recognizes that people take many unique paths to access the ocean. For people who are ready to get out on the ocean without much additional support, it runs a high school racing team, offers boat rentals, and provides skipper certification. For people who have a harder time getting out on the ocean, SailMaine runs two key sailing access programs:

• City Sailors partners with other nonprofits that work with underserved youth. Together with those nonprofits, the SailMaine team designs specific activities that will be meaningful to and meet the needs of each unique group. Then, they make it happen at no cost for participants, with all gear, transportation, and food included.

• Its award-winning Horizon Sailing program is a close partnership with the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center (AOEC). Every week in the summer, SailMaine provides the boats and the sailing expertise, and AOEC provides the accessibility know-how to get people with disabilities out on the ocean.

Deepening Connections to Maine

At the Onion Foundation, we focus on the people for whom barriers to the outdoors are the greatest, because that’s where dedicated grant resources and long-term partnerships are essential to making a meaningful impact.

But it’s also a strategic step in service of the universal goal. Eliminating barriers for the people who are furthest from the opportunity tends to make it easier for many other people along the way. We all belong, and we all have a right to feel connected to special places throughout the state.