Helping Communities ‘Thrive’ Through Dynamic Outdoor Learning

SEG alumna Shannon Rozea reflects on the lasting impacts of the Accelerator Program and how it helped drive her mission to bring students back to nature.

Since 2007, Social Enterprise Greenhouse has served nearly 2,500 entrepreneurs and businesses. These innovators are dedicated to driving positive social impacts, but many lack access to the critical capital necessary to scale and hone their vision. In fact, due to the unique nature of social enterprises, combining profit-making with a social or environmental mission, additional funding is often needed to achieve impact.?

Shannon Rozea, the Founding Director and Landscape Architect for Thrive Outside was one of those visionaries when she launched her non-profit in 2017. Devoted to giving every child the opportunity to thrive through a joyful relationship with nature, Rozea designs and implements dynamic “outdoor learning zones” in schools, libraries and community centers, and provides outdoor educator training.??

As Thrive Outside’s six year anniversary approaches, Rozea reflects on her journey of self-discovery and how SEG’s “Impact Accelerator” program helped cultivate her mission and gave her the tools to grow the business into the success it is today.

How did you come up with the concept for Thrive Outside?

My parents encouraged me and my brothers to play outside regularly and took us camping.? I had several creative teachers who took us outside for hands-on learning. Through all of this I fell in love with nature and decided that it was my personal mission to help bring others closer to the beauty and wonder of our natural world. This mission led me to pursue a career in landscape architecture and to become an environmentalist.?

I truly believe that I would not be the person that I am today without the opportunity and encouragement to thrive outside as a child. For me, the outdoors was a place of beauty, solace, freedom and spirituality. It also piqued my curiosity and spurred my creativity.??

Fast forward to when I have my own family and I started to feel the cultural shift around us - life becoming increasingly indoor-oriented, the influence of electronic devices, an increased focus on structured extracurricular activities for kids, school days that are planned to the minute, shorter recess periods, and an overall disconnection and lack of knowledge of the natural world. I decided that something had to be done and Thrive Outside was born.?

What sets Thrive Outside apart from other initiatives??

Our holistic approach. For example, when we partner with a school we start with the end in mind - embedding outdoor learning and teaching into the culture of the school. We facilitate the entire process of design, build, teaching, and then what I like to call the “thrive” stage where we stay involved to provide support whether it be maintenance of the Outdoor Learning Zone or additional teacher professional development, or an after school program.?

How has your relationship with SEG influenced your business journey?

I learned about SEG during a pivotal moment in Thrive’s business journey. We needed to scale and the accelerator program really helped me to think through what we were doing and to make a plan of action to grow.? SEG provided a vital lifeline of connection. Being an entrepreneur can be wonderfully exciting, but it can also be a lonely and daunting experience. Sharing three hours a week for five months with twelve other social entrepreneurs, I learned about nonprofit finance, strategic planning, branding and more from SEG’s experts. To my surprise, I also learned about courage, resilience, vulnerability, and just how important it is to support and uplift one another.

After the program ended we were fortunate to take advantage of their “Huddle” program where they connected us to mentors who advised us on key elements of our business. Later, we applied for and were awarded an SEG microgrant which helped us to develop and run our pilot Thrive Teacher Learning Circle.?

How do you go about cultivating partnerships today?

We fund our work through business partnerships and sponsorships, program income, fundraising events, grants and appeals for donations. We hired a development consultant who has helped us to make strategic partnerships/sponsorships with businesses that align with our mission.??

Recently, the State of RI and the RI Department of Education (RIDE) launched a “Learning Inside Out Initiative” dedicating $7.5 million to the creation of outdoor learning areas and teacher professional development in outdoor learning. We aided a couple of schools in ? applying for the grant funding (each was awarded $100,000) and we will work with one of those schools? to create an Outdoor Learning Zone.??

What does your organization need to better achieve its mission and deliver meaningful outcomes??

Funding is a huge challenge, especially for our Outdoor Learning Zone projects as they can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. My dream is to form a “Funders Collaborative,” made up of major donors, foundations, and businesses who wish to support these projects and ? educator training. We have started our work on that, however we have a long way to go!?

As we look ahead to 2024, SEG is launching the Invest in Impact campaign to help raise the funds needed to create a more equitable and resilient economy in Rhode Island and support businesses like Thrive Outside.?

Please consider donating to support this important work! Click here to give.