These twin sisters are teaching Philly kids of color about the great outdoors

When twin sisters Keisha and Tarsha Scovens were preparing to drive cross-country to Utah for an AmeriCorps program, they found that the only way they could afford the journey would be to spend their nights sleeping in tents on park campgrounds. The only problem was, they were “street kids” from urban Connecticut who’d never been camping before, Tarsha Scovens said.

“We didn’t grow up hiking, camping, fishing. We didn’t do any of that,“ she said. “It was like overnight learning.”

They made it out West unscathed, and discovered that they actually loved the outdoors. But as the sisters continued cultivating outdoor experiences and skills over the years, it was clear that they stood out.

“We are Black women. And we were out there doing this, and we didn’t see a lot of people that look like us. We were going to have kids that were of color. So we were like, how are we going to get our kids to do this stuff?” Tarsha Scovens said.

Now, over two decades after their Utah adventure and after becoming mothers, the Scovens sisters are the cofounders of Let’s Go Outdoors. They created the Philly-based nonprofit in 2012 with a focus on engaging communities of color in outdoor experiences, including family-friendly programs, school-based learning, and diversity initiatives.

“We were just two little brown girls who weren’t thinking about much beyond [how] we just want people to see what we see,” Keisha Scovens said.

Let’s Go Outdoors is part of a growing movement of people of color embracing outdoor activities that have traditionally been viewed as something reserved for white people.

From the beginning, America’s national parks were created by the removal of Indigenous tribes and weren’t officially desegregated until 1945. An estimated 100 million Americans currently do not live close to high-quality parks and green spaces, particularly low-income households. According to the National Parks Service, in 2018, less than 1% of National Parks visitors were Black, and Asian and Latino visitors combined made up less than 1%.

But over the last several years, social media creators from diverse backgrounds have encouraged others like them to give the outdoors a try, and new local and national organizations like Outdoorsy Black Women and Outdoor Afro give people of color an entryway to new outdoor experiences.

» READ MORE: The Black Excellence in Birding gala celebrates those thriving in a traditionally white hobby

The movement comes from businesses and institutions as well. The outdoor apparel and gear company REI has donated over $10 million to outdoor equity organizations since 2021. And this week, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration released a Spanish-language recreation guide for Pennsylvania’s state parks.

Next month, the Scovens sisters will receive the inaugural Transformational Partner Award from Friends of the Wissahickon (FOW) for their work exposing Philadelphia kids to the Wissahickon Valley Park and teaching them how to be stewards of the natural environment.

The two organizations have partnered since 2014, including on a program called Little Friends of the Wissahickon, which uses storytelling and classroom activities to teach kindergartners through second graders in the School District of Philadelphia about the park. Then, the students get to visit the Wissahickon and specific locations they’ve learned about, with free busing and other resources donated by FOW. The pilot program launched in 2017 in four schools, and has since grown to include about 65 schools in 2023.

“A lot of kids, it is their first time visiting the Wissahickon,” said Ruffian Tittmann, executive director of FOW. “I think like many of us, our first visit to the Wissahickon, [they’re] blown away that it’s within the city of Philadelphia. We really see this as a first step to engaging with our future city adults who will be stewards of the entire city.”

The work of Let’s Go Outdoors extends throughout the city. The organization leads tours of Philadelphia waterways through Fairmount Waterworks, offers nature exposure therapy for neurodivergent kids, conducts surveys and outreach to boost POC outdoor participation, and other initiatives.

“This is our next generation,” Keisha Scovens said. “Urban kids in Philadelphia, especially our kindergarten [to] second graders, they’ve got lots of years ahead of them to … engage with nature in a way that we got so much later.

“They’re getting it so much earlier, and that’s the impact. That’s the important part for us.”