{"id":70680,"date":"2018-08-01T12:13:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T17:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=70680"},"modified":"2018-08-01T12:13:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T17:13:30","slug":"eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-therapy initiative helps young refugees in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jessica Nieberg<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clearing brush and trimming tree branches may be an Earth Day activity for some, but for\u00a0Muntadher Al Maeeni, it&#8217;s a therapeutic experience. The teenage Iraqi refugee has been in the United States for more than two years, and he&#8217;s found community through a program called REACH, which trains youths like Muntadher to be leaders and gain confidence through outdoor activities.<\/p>\n<p>Shana Wills runs the program which hopes to fill in the gap of resources that the disadvantaged and refugee teenagers need.\u00a0&#8220;I watched a lot of boys fall into recruitment by gangs, become suicidal, become severely depressed,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Eco-therapy initiative gives Chicago&amp;rsquo;s refugee youth leadership skills and a sense of community\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/282000476?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Studies show eco-therapy can improve mental and physical well-being while reducing stress and advancing cognitive skills.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Muntadher Al Maeeni tears down a tree, with Joe Bana a volunteer with the Forest Preserve overseeing the day&#8217;s activity. (Jessica Nieberg\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jessica Nieberg Medill Reports Clearing brush and trimming tree branches may be an Earth Day activity for some, but for\u00a0Muntadher Al Maeeni, it&#8217;s a therapeutic experience. The teenage Iraqi refugee has been in the United States for more than two years, and he&#8217;s found community through a program called REACH, which trains youths like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":408,"featured_media":71749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4227],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2018"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eco-therapy initiative helps young refugees in Chicago - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eco-therapy initiative helps young refugees in Chicago - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jessica Nieberg Medill Reports Clearing brush and trimming tree branches may be an Earth Day activity for some, but for\u00a0Muntadher Al Maeeni, it&#8217;s a therapeutic experience. The teenage Iraqi refugee has been in the United States for more than two years, and he&#8217;s found community through a program called REACH, which trains youths like [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-01T17:13:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/REACH_feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jessicanieberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jessicanieberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/eco-therapy-initiative-helps-young-refugees-in-chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Eco-therapy initiative helps young refugees in Chicago - 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