contact us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

We're excited to hear what you're up to!  

P.O. Box 347171
San Francisco

415-385-2103

We are a growing NETWORK of local organizations using training and outdoor gear libraries to help connect kids to the outdoors across America. 

P1010268.jpg

Blog

The Outdoors Empowered Network Blog is a great way to keep up with our work! 

 

Gear Library Webinar Recording is Live!

Guest User

Founder of Outdoors Empowered Network (OEN),  Kyle Macdonald, recently shared the train and support model that OEN seeds and supports around the country during a TYO webinar.  Missed it? No problem.  Watch and share the recorded webinar below to learn about the advantages and challenges of a network approach that is leveraging collaboration to get over 10,000 youth outdoors annually. Also hear more about what you can do to bring this program model to your community.

Additionally, you can access the presentation deck here.  

Outdoors Empowered Network Partners with Every Kid in a Park

Guest User

The Outdoors Empowered Network is proud to make our pledge to support the “Every Kid in a Park Campaign” announced today by the White House, an initiative to inspire the next generation of cultural and environmental stewards and make it easy for parents, teachers, and organizations to plan trips to more than 2000 parks and Federal land and water sites.  The new campaign supports President Obama’s Every Kid in a Park initiative, which provides the Nation’s fourth graders, their teachers, and their families with free admission to national parks and other federal lands and waters.

Every Kid in a Park was launched by the White House as part of National Parks Week 2016 and celebrates the centennial of our national parks system.  EveryKidinaPark.org, a new web portal supporting the campaign, will make it easy for parents and teachers to find resources to plan a visit to any national park and learn about the free Every Kid in a Park pass for free admission to the parks and other federal lands and waters to 4th graders. 

 Camping at the Presidio (CAP) Program in Golden Gate National Recreation Area

 Camping at the Presidio (CAP) Program in Golden Gate National Recreation Area

We are proud to support Every Kid in a Park and its goal of expanding access to our national parks to young students across the country.  The Outdoors Empowered Network is committed to lowering barriers to immersive experiences in nature through free access to gear libraries and wilderness leadership training for teachers and youth workers. It's critical to introduce youth to parks in culturally relevant ways that help them grow their relationship to this living planet we all share.  We are making this pledge to ensure that young people and generations to come will value and protect our national parks and the natural resources and heritage they preserve.

Get Involved!

Pledge: Make your own pledge to get #EverKidinaPark
Share: Spread the word about the the campaign and how Outdoors Empowered Network is supporting the effort. 
Youth Adventures: The very best way to celebrate is to share public lands with the youth you know. See it through their eyes. Inspire them to learn and explore more.

Networks and Including Diverse Communities at C&NN 2016 International Conference

Guest User

In May, we'll be heading to the Children and Nature Network 2016 International Conference in St. Paul, MN. The conference brings together people and organizations from around the world who are committed to connecting youth to nature, which allows us to share ideas, learn from unique and innovative strategies, and at the end of the day, collectively address nature deficit disorder.

This year, we have two members of the Outdoors Empowered Network family speaking at the event along side leaders such as Jon Jarvis and Julie Pierce Williams:

Growing Successful Grassroots Networks - Understanding the kernel and planting the seeds

Founder and Executive Director of OEN will join José Gonzalez, Founder of Latino Outdoors, to share their experiences with applying the Four Network Principles for Collaborative Success as outlined by Jane Wei-Skillern, to grow their own successful networks and discuss simple steps you can take to grow your network. They will discuss the kernel of network weaving and how it fosters effective network leadership as well as the fundamentals of this work and how are the seeds planted? 

Reaching Families with Diverse Backgrounds

Heather Kuhlken, Founder/Director of OEN Member Program, Families in Nature, will join others in this “Pecha Kucha” style panel presentation to share a vast array of first-hand experience working with families from diverse, often underserved populations, will share their stories, successes and challenges, and invite the audience to do the same.
 

When Resources are in the Hands of Educators

Guest User

The Washington Trails Association Outdoor Leadership Training Program launched their first snowshoe training in January with educators and youth workers from the Seattle area. One participant was Don Miller, an ELL Facilitator at Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, WA. After the training, with the skills and gear he needed, Don took his students to Longmire and Narada Falls in Mount Rainier National Park for a winter adventure. 

"My main goal was for my students to have an enjoyable first experience in a National Park and in the snow. Additionally, I wanted them to have access to make a connection with this land since all of them were born in other countries. The minute we pulled into the park I knew these goals had been met. 

It was so great to see students playing and having fun with one another regardless if they spoke the same language or not. The fact that they were all exchanging numbers at the end of the trip so they could share photos really showed me how these students may spend the majority of the day together, but rarely do they get a chance to connect.

Without the help of the WTA Gear Library and Mini-Grant, this trip would have never happened."
- Don Miller

Thank you to Don and all those educators our there taking the time to get their youth outside! 


Photos by Amanda Sandate