Great news!!! The Illinois General Assembly passed a joint resolution supporting the Chicago Wilderness Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights and officially designating June as "Leave No Child Inside" month in the State of Illinois! You can find the full text of the resolution here.

In response to the passage of the resolution, Representative Monique Davis (D-Chicago) declared that, "it is critical that children, both in rural and urban communities, have safe access to nature - through our parks, our forest preserves, or other open and green spaces in our neighborhoods. I am pleased to work with Chicago Wilderness on the Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights and celebrate June as Leave No Child Inside month. I encourage all of us to take the children in our lives outside for a day of exploration and discovery in nature and become active in our communities to ensure safe access to nature."

Also, earlier this month, Marc Miller, the Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, penned an editorial for Outdoor Illinois magazine that called on parents and other caregivers to "unplug" their children and provide them with opportunities to experience the ten activities on the Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights (you can find a PDF version of the editorial here).

These are exciting times for the Leave No Child Inside initiative! Our communications staff will be reaching out to the media on the passage of the Leave No Child Inside resolution starting on June 1. If you have not already done so, email me information on your June youth programs that promote outdoor play and exploration, to be listed on the kidsoutside.info/june page. Also, utilize the LNCI logo and other resources available in the LNCI toolkit, and post the Chicago Wilderness Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights on your website.

From the Chicago Wilderness May Bulletin