Choosing their own adventures, now more than ever

Adventure Crew has always been a challenge-by-choice experience for teens; students voluntarily take part in our gateway program each Saturday, newly re-dubbed “Explorer.”

We have a lot of exciting and ambitious program development going on behind the scenes this school year. The goal is to deepen the offerings and impact of our four progressive Crew Pathways programs, where students choose their own adventures as they rise through each successive program, from Explorer to Discoverer, Pathfinder and Trailblazer. Through the Pathways, teens have access to increasingly specialized training to advance skills in their adventure sports of choice; gain greater self-sufficiency in accessing natural spaces on their own; prepare for employment now and in future careers spanning environmental and outdoor recreation fields; and dive into hands-on experiences in sustainability, ecology and stewardship.

Along with this foundational work necessary to build the capacity of our programs, we set a modest growth goal for the Explorer Saturday program this year: To increase participation numbers by 10 percent. Adventure Crew’s program team, led by Director of Programming Paige Young, worked with school partners this past spring to identify ways we could meet this goal by building stronger relationships with students and staff at our 27 public schools in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Based on what we learned, our team launched a new effort to engage with as many prospective students as possible. We met them in person at their schools at the beginning of the academic year to raise awareness, build community and generate excitement about outdoor adventuring.

And WOW, are we seeing a return on these efforts! So far this year, we’ve seen a 41 percent increase in participation over last year. An average of 72 teens are choosing to get up early each Saturday, find a way to get to our central meeting spot at Fountain Square in the early hours of the morning, jump on a bus to a new destination — sometimes not knowing anyone else signed up for the excursion — and dive into what is often their first time experiencing that adventure. This is an exciting and compelling trend that we anticipate seeing across our upper three Pathways tiers as well, once they are in full swing in early 2024.

In the words of one of our Explorer teens, “It was exciting and very outrageously fun.” We can’t imagine a better start to a new relationship with nature.

Sustaining this growth also means a significant increase in investment in the staff and financial resources necessary to accommodate this young generation’s desire to get outside more often. Thanks to your support, we can ensure more exciting and outrageously fun adventures for what we now anticipate to be more than 900 Crew teens this year.

End-of-year giving is just around the corner. Stay tuned for opportunities to support our growth!