Partner Highlight: EcoRise and their mapping system Gen:Thrive
EcoRise is a valued partner organization that works at the intersection of environmental education, youth leadership, and workforce development. They elevate youth voices and advance student-led solutions to real-world challenges. They offer a range of curricula and programs for students, teachers, school districts, and partners, designed to advance environmental literacy, sustainable schools, and access to green career pathways.
Gen:Thrive is a very exciting project they are working on. Check it out, it might useful to you and your students.
Mapping the Movement with Gen:Thrive
Gen:Thrive is a free, collaborative platform using data and GIS technology to map and advance environmental and sustainability education in K–12 schools across all 50 states.
The platform includes a provider directory, dashboard, and GIS maps; tools designed to make the environmental education landscape visible and actionable for everyone in this space.
What Gen:Thrive can do for you
• Teachers and educators: Browse the provider directory to find lesson plans, curriculum resources, and programs aligned to your classroom needs, and connect with local organizations ready to support your students.
• School districts: Identify and connect with service providers who can support district-wide sustainability, climate, and environmental literacy initiatives. Use the GIS maps to understand what's available in your region and where gaps exist.
• Service providers and nonprofits: Analyze the environmental education landscape in your region, ground collaboration and partnership conversations in data, and increase your visibility so educators and districts can find your programs and resources. Gen:Thrive is also a valuable asset for funding proposals, helping you demonstrate need and situate your work within the broader ecosystem.
• Funders and policymakers: Use the dashboard and GIS maps to understand where programs exist, where communities are underserved, and how to direct resources where they're needed most, grounded in data.
We encourage you to explore the Gen:Thrive tools at GenThrive.org/tools and add your organization's information to the directory at GenThrive.org/contact so others can find and connect with you.
Gen:Thrive in Action: National School Garden Map
Earlier this year, the School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network and partners, including Edible Schoolyard, Kids Gardening, and the National Farm to School Network, launched the National School Garden Map, built on Gen:Thrive technology. This interactive tool layers school garden locations, support organizations, social vulnerability indicators, and climate risk data into a single view, making it possible to see where school gardens are thriving and where they are not.
Explore the National School Garden Map at https://sgsonetwork.org/national-school-garden-map/. If your school garden isn't on the map yet, you can submit it there too.