-With three national parks,
five national forests and countless
trails, rivers and mountains in our own backyard,
Seattle is blessed with
some of the most accessible wilderness in the nation.
But for many of Seattle's youth, that accessibility
is limited, and Mount Rainier may as well be Mt.
Everest.
-We need to separate things by like items.
-So one Seattle
organization is doing its part to change that.
-The Outdoor
Leadership Training program is designed to reduce barriers
to kids getting outside. -And they are doing it
in a whole new way.
-Rather than us directly
leading youth on outdoor experiences,
we try to empower
teachers, educators and program
coordinators in schools and community organizations.
-They are teaching the teachers
how to lead groups into the outdoors.
-This kind of trip
with your youth groups can be really, really safe.
These are the individuals that know those youth
better than anybody
and are set up to succeed in introducing them
to the outdoors.
-Any outdoor thing that you want to do.
-And we start at the trailhead here.
-This group is
able to bring you up to speed
and give you a good understanding
of whether-
whether you been doing this for 25 years
or today, it's day one for you.
-It is a whole different ballgame
to take a youth group out on an outdoor experience.
And so we try to help provide some of that skills building.
-This is the route. -It's new to think about it
in terms of a group experience
and in terms of taking
young people that you're ultimately responsible for.
-The Washington Trails Association or WTA
holds training workshops for both camping
and hiking with youth groups.
-Yeah, let's go wander up that way.
-And they have taken the class out of the classroom
and into the wild.
-We're actually out in the place
where these trip leaders might be taking their youth
and going over all the considerations
that they need to think about
for group management, risk management,
and how they're going to plan and lead these trips.
-That can be a great teachable moment
with the youth that you're working, working with.
-We may dinner did a two and a half hour hike.
We've learned
just general principles of how to set up a campground.
Considerations for who you invite
members and chaperons, pretty,
pretty much everything you need to know
if you're going to take youth camping.
-These monthly training workshops
have attracted
a diverse set of community
leaders from all over Seattle, all with one goal in mind
to connect kids to life beyond their corner of the world.
-Because young people will now begin to see something
that they've always felt was “not for me or my friends
don't do it,
my mom didn't do it,
my dad didn't do it, so I'm not going to do it.”
And my answer to that would be “Correct.
They didn't do it, which is why you're going to do it.”
-It's important for each of us to develop
that internal dialog in the natural world.
-It's a dialog that helped youth
participant Kaylynn Vogele
discover a part of herself she never knew existed.
-It was like, really, like fun, you know?
And it made me like,
realize like that I am a nature girl, you know?
Like, I like playing with bugs and,
like, starting fires and stuff like that.
-Let's pile on right here.
-And group leaders say Kaylynn isn't the only one.
-What they really talk about
are the transformative
experiences that you have when they're out away ♪♪
from their neighborhood, away from school,
bonding with friends, making new friends,
and having a great time, learning
new skills, doing new things,
and really just getting this broad set of experiences
that otherwise they've had limited access to.
-But even with the help of a
freshly trained and eager outdoor leader,
there's still one giant hurdle to jump over.
-My students don't have the gear.
-Never fear.
-Should be ten boots total.
-The WTA has that covered too.
-We have a gear
lending library where we can outfit the group,
including youth and chaperons,
with appropriate gear for playing in the outdoors.
-The WTA has everything a group needs
for hiking and camping
in the unpredictable Pacific Northwest.
-The gear program- -Count up the items-
-is what's going to make or break young people.
Having an opportunity to come on these trips.
-Without the gear would be in jeans and T-shirts, freezing
cold, like not having anything to like,
protect us and keep us warm.
-This is going to break down barriers of accessibility
in some ways
that I'm not even aware of yet,
especially when I just tell the young people,
you know, you guys are ride
the for the three of the seven back and forth down
pass Franklin High School over there's [bus hissing]
the gear shack right there. -And behind those doors.
The WTA hopes that the kids they help today
will return the favor
and help the places that they visit in the future.
-That community needs to be broad and inclusive.
And and for us, it's creating that next generation
of people who really value the public spaces and lands
that we do.
-With the skills that these leaders
have learned in their workshops.
There's no reason
not to take advantage of what Seattle's
backyard has to offer.
-This is just going to be huge.
We're definitely going to
have at least 100 kids out here doing trails
before the end of the summer.
[fire crackles] Let's get in contact with
Washington Trail Association.
Let's help them help us plan a trip.
And let's just go.
Let's plan it. Let's go.
Let's take advantage of the summer and the season
and being this close to all these natural resources.
♪♪ -Watch CityStream
Thursday nights at seven on the Seattle Channel
or get video
on demand and podcasts anytime at seattlechannel.org.