Thank you so much for visiting our site to learn about the Eco Hero Kids Foundation, our roots, our programs and our platform. Our mission is to educate, motivate and empower kids through arts, performance and classroom activities to become advocates for global change.

Human behavior has had a devastating impact on the Earth’s environment and environmental awareness and responsibility are key factors, but we have a chance to reverse that trajectory. From that awareness Eco Hero Kids Foundation was born in Malibu, California in 2010, by Julia Holland, a music teacher, theater director and environmental activist.

Focused on children 8 to 12 years old, the Eco Hero Kids first became a performing group, traveling all over Southern California and appearing in schools, at festivals, and at amusement parks. They have been invited to perform at press events and special events. Children have loved the fast paced, choreographed music that taught all about the environment and many children wanted to be Eco Hero Kids themselves after seeing this group perform. The difficulty came in trying to figure out how to create more than one performing group. Requests for clubs started popping up around the country, but we couldn’t figure out how to nurture that with the same hands-on approach that we have been using regarding education and the performing arts.

Then with the proliferation of technological programs, we realized that we had much more opportunity to reach unlimited numbers of children, and so began developing a new online curriculum and community to bring this love and awareness of nature to children everywhere with the Malibu stamp on it.

The Eco Hero Kids team knows that nothing is more important than teaching our children well, so we have created 10 initial, engaging learning modules teaching subjects from Plastic Pollution to BioDiversity to Composting and even Bees. Our focus is on kids from 8 to 12 years old. Described as Middle Childhood, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes this developmental milestone as “an important time for children to gain a sense of responsibility along with their growing independence.” Children in this age group also begin to understand the views of others more clearly, have increased attention spans and can face greater academic challenges.

Each module is accompanied by fun videos which are taught by and feature kids under the direction of professional teachers, mentors and climate change experts. We focus on social-emotional development to nurture the real-life skills that support effective activism – empathy, self-awareness, confidence, cooperation, collaboration, and more – all designed to inspire children to become advocates for the Earth, innovators and mentors within their own local neighborhoods and communities, in the USA and abroad. As the platform expands, the possibilities are endless!

A letter from our founder:

“When I was a child in the 70s, I was an Eco Hero. I didn’t call myself that, I actually didn’t even know that’s what I was. I was just concerned about the world. I was a sensitive kid and the things I heard affected me deeply; endangered animals, water shortages, oil embargoes, air pollution, and overpopulation, specifically.. I was worried that there wouldn’t be a place to sustain myself or future children when I grew up.

The life changing event for me was the OPEC embargo that was happening when I was young.. I would wait in long lines at the gas station with my mom in her huge station wagon, hoping to fill up before the tanks ran out. Of course, I had no idea what the political climate was that led to the embargo and the gas scarcity. It just seemed ridiculous that we would have to depend on gasoline. The air pollution from these massive cars was becoming obvious, as well. I had visions of alternative energies even back then – people using electricity to run cars and flying vehicles like in “The Jetsons.” I envisioned myself on my bicycle as I grew older, thinking that I would never have the need to learn to drive.

Even back then, forests were being cut down and species were becoming endangered. I had very small hope that when I grew up anything would be left of the world as I knew it. I was determined to do my part. I made sure to not use too much paper in order to save the trees and was careful with water. I took a trip with a friend to visit her father in Los Angeles, and was so shocked to see the air so polluted that a person couldn’t see the skyline or the mountain tops in the distance. A dirty orange smoky hovered over the palm trees. People were also rationing the scarce water. I couldn’t imagine how it could get worse.

And then it got worse. Yes, California finally got some emissions control and the air cleared up, but then the plastic industry exploded. Suddenly, in the mid 80s there was plastic everywhere. We went from it being a novelty item to producing over 100 billion plastic bags a year. It was distributed in grocery stores as an option for saving trees. Then, people began buying into the idea that they had to have plastic water bottles for their free drinking water, and billion dollar industries were created. Instead of cleaning up our water and making it safe to drink corporations saw the profit in not cleaning it up and finding another profitable petroleum product.

In 1990 I went on my honeymoon to Greece. One of the most beautiful places in the world, and I was appalled to see the plastic waste everywhere spoiling the beauty of this ancient place. Since then, I’ve traveled all over the world, and this phenomenon still exists. How can people look at their environmental, ancestral home and not keep it clean? Why do people let this happen? Why are environmental concerns only supported by a very few large corporations? Don’t they have children, too? Why don’t people see the long term effect?

Children are our most precious commodities. Children need to be fed, loved, educated and nurtured, both emotionally and spiritually. They also need to understand the importance of preserving this earth for themselves and for their children. It is my dream that children find a connection with nature and understand how we are all part of the circle of life. One element out of place, destroys our fragile equilibrium.

In 2010, I came up with the concept of the Eco Hero Kids. Putting together the things that I loved and believed in: music, theater, the environment and children. I wrote and produced a pop album that kids might like and the Eco Hero Kids were born. My dream was to be able to empower children to teach other children about the environment and to have change come from the voice of a child. Children are the future of the world and have the opportunity to influence adults as no one else can. This is a children’s movement. A creative movement that will help shape kids into future conscious adults, endowing them with tools to communicate, educate and inspire others. And most importantly giving them the faith in themselves to fight for something worthy – that being the health of our Earth and us on it. We are Earth warriors and we don’t need to hide it.

Onward with creativity and love,
JULIA HOLLAND
Founder
Eco Hero Kids Foundation