Program areas at WAWA
WAWA partnered with the City of Atlanta Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs and other partners to provide environmental stewardship services as well as environmental education and health and wellness programming at the Outdoor Activity Center, Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, the Lionel Hampton-Beecher Hills Preserve, and other West Atlanta greenspaces---engaging over 765 volunteers in nearly 2,300 hours of volunteer service to maintain the trails, remove invasive species, and care for the food and wildlife gardens at the OAC; distributing over 300 bags of fresh produce to Southwest Atlanta families; facilitating over 1,012 hours of outdoor youth and family programs,including hiking 1,884 miles of trail, and engaging over 1,579 families.
WAWA invested in community-led solutions to environmental challenges in urban watershed by co-facilitating the training of 20, Metropolitan Atlanta-based community leaders through the Atlanta Watershed Learning Network (AWLN) and supporting their initiation of community-based Champions projects to address watershed protection, equitable development, and environmental justice issues in their communities.
In 2023, through the Thrive Outside Atlanta Initiative, WAWA led a network of Atlanta area environmental non-profit organizations to engage youth from underserved communities in repeated and significant experiences in the outdoors. WAWA supported over 700 Metro Atlanta youth from Boys and Girls Clubs and City of Atlanta Camp Best Friends sites in engaging in nature-based learning opportunities at a diverse number of sites (City of Atlanta parks and outdoor spaces adjacent to Boys & Girls Clubs, the Outdoor Activity Center, Chattahoochee Nature Center, Nantahala Outdoor Center, and Chattahoochee Riverkeepers Floating Classroom on West Point Lake).
Provided land and water stewardship of publicly forested greenspaces in Southwest Atlanta and waterways in Northwest and Southwest Atlanta through water quality monitoring, trail trail maintenance, creek clean-up activities, and invasive removal. Delivered watershed-based environmental training programs to community residents, conducted community- engaged research on urban heat islands and heat resilience.