NEWS + RESOURCES
Our Publications
The Gray Family Foundation supports and commissions research, documentation and reports to advance outdoor education, environmental literacy and student success in Oregon.
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Article
Building trust, investing, and getting out of the way: Our path to a $1 million gift
Gray Family Foundation’s Executive Director, Nancy Bales, reflects on the foundation’s evolving approach to grantmaking and the path to our board’s decision to make our largest gift to date in support of a long-term, sustainable outdoor school program in the state of Oregon. We believe investments in backbone organizations are key to creating systemic change...
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Guide
Equitable Access Projects in Camp Facility Maintenance Guide
We are pleased to share this documentation created by Empowering Access. It is a guide to considering disability equity when working on maintenance and development projects at camp facilities.
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Evaluation Report
2019 Outdoor School for All! Evaluation Report
We are pleased to share the newly released, Outdoor School for All! Diverse Programming and Outcomes in Oregon, 2019 Evaluation Report compiled by our partner, Dr. Steven Braun and the Oregon State University Outdoor School program. This report is designed to support outdoor school programs in making positive programmatic shifts to ensure that all students are able to have meaningful and culturally relevant experiences in the outdoors that contribute to their academic success.
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Article
The Story of the Gray Family Foundation Fir Cone
It’s a story that Oregon children can hold in the palm of their hand: the story of the mice and the Douglas fir cone. As the tale goes, a great fire scorched the forest, and the mice needed a place to take cover. The Douglas fir took the mice in, providing protection and seeds for food.
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Evaluation Report
Outdoor School in Oregon
The Foundation commissioned a baseline assessment of the state of Outdoor School, which utilized data collected through a survey of 1,135 schools and 20 in-depth interviews.
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Guide
Guideline for Incorporating Health into Outdoor Education
The Foundation funded this Guideline to help K-12 outdoor education providers incorporate human health considerations into their programming, particularly when students face health inequities and lack of outdoor access. The Guideline was released by the released by the Oregon Health and Outdoors Initiative.
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Evaluation Report
Impacts of Outdoor Schools on Building Environmental Literacy
The Foundation funded this Oregon Environmental Literacy Program report compiled by a team led by Steven M. Braun, Ph.D. The report characterizes Oregon’s diverse set of outdoor school programs, their impact on youth and evaluation measures, with the goal of developing assessments that can be implemented for all types of outdoor school programs.
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Evaluation Report
Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan: Standards Integration
The Gray Family Foundation and Pisces Foundation jointly funded this framework, designed by a team of Oregon educators to: define what environmental literacy looks like at each grade level; integrate the OELP with Next Generation Science Standards and Oregon Social Sciences Standards; and suggest classroom activities for K-12 educators to promote environmental literacy.
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