The Kids Can Help Parrots!

The young students at Espoir Youth Programs learned a lot about parrot conservation

One Earth Conservation’s (OEC) Parrot Conservation Corps is all about growing the message, AND the number of messengers, about the global Parrot Crisis through education and awareness and inspiring more people to take action. Kids often can hear messages such as this more clearly than adults and can then become great ambassadors. So, we at OEC have been thinking for a while about expanding the Parrot Conservation Corps to reach children as well as adults.

In February 2026, this idea became a reality with our pilot Students’ Parrot Conservation Corps or SPCC for short. OEC was invited to try out the SPCC with our new partner, Espoir Youth Programs (Espoir), which serves elementary and middle school students in Westbury, New York. Espoir provides students with homework help, recreation and other enrichment activities during after school hours while their parents are still at work. Together with Dr. Samarth Joseph, Founder and Executive Director of Espoir, OEC’s Conservation Project Manager Sylvia Martínez, and I developed a hybrid program of in-person and online activities to engage the students once a month on the topic of parrots and wildlife conservation. The program has been a resounding success, with students voting their approval at the end of each session with unanimous thumbs up!

A page from my children's book, "What Would the Parrot Say?"

 I live about 20 minutes from Espoir and was therefore able to lead some sessions in person, which has been a lot of fun. I opened the first sesson by reading my book, “What Would the Parrot Say?” to the kids and used it to encourage discussion. One of OEC’s new Board members, Stephan Chenault, also attended in person during the May session to speak about the importance of plant conservation for parrots and all life on Earth (he worked for many years at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx). Other sessions featured an online presentation about parrots led by Sylvia, who lives in Mexico, and a rollicking session with LoraKim while she was in Honduras leading OEC’s Unconditional Solidarity Campaign. The kids thoroughly enjoyed learning from LoraKim about how people in the field take baths (in the river with their clothes on to clean both the person and the clothes), cook their meals and go to the “bathroom” outdoors.

LoraKim joined me and Sylvia from Honduras via Zoom to speak to the kids

 Other topics covered in the monthly 45-minute sessions included what is conservation, how do to conservation, what is a parrot and why are they unique and important, human-parrot relationships and why parrots should not be kept as pets, what threats do parrots face and how the kids can help parrots.

Next month will be the last session of this first SPCC. The students will choose to make a poster or write a story, poem, or song on the theme of parrots and wildlife conservation. We at OEC look forward to seeing what these energetic youngsters will create and share with each other!

Dr. Samarth has already invited OEC to continue our program during the next school year and we will also be thinking about how we might expand the SPCC to schools and other community-based organizations to joyfully spread the word about the wonder of parrots, importance of parrot conservation and how kids can help.

"What Would the Parrot Say?"includes suggestions for how kids can help parrots