About OEN
We seed and support a time-tested model for connecting youth with the outdoors through the adults they trust
Getting youth into the outdoors is an important component of the environmental justice movement. According to the Center for American Progress, “communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in nature-deprived places,” and “seventy percent of low-income communities across the country live in nature-deprived areas.”
Outdoors Empowered Network is on a mission to change this disheartening lack of equity. We are a national network of community-led, youth-centered outdoor education groups that are dedicated to increasing access and diversity in the outdoors through gear libraries and outdoor leadership training. These tools dramatically decrease the barriers to outdoor recreation for low-income communities and communities of color. What’s more, because our model engages local leaders, the whole community is given new opportunities for outdoor access rather than giving a group of youth a one-time experience of the outdoors.