Considering Starting a Youth Program

Mark:

I'm a teacher in Brooklyn, NY, and a few years ago I started a hiking club in my school. I have a few suggestions:

In terms of getting equipment, many manufacturers will offer pro-deals to groups like the one you're starting if you write them a nice letter. I particularly foung Big Anes and Granite Gear helpful here. Also, since you are a teacher, you might try Donor's Choose. As well, you might be able to get something going on Kickstarter. I'm sure there are also a number of grants out there. A good resource for this is http://foundationcenter.org.

Liability: Your school district should have a standard waiver form. Liability is more problematic if you don't do it through your school or another organization.

Logistics: If possible, start out with day trips. This helps one ramp up to more involved trips, and helps you figure out what you need to do for success on the overnighters.

Community involvement: I found that a surprising amount of members of the school community, both teachers and parents, wanted to be supportive in any way they could. Figure out how to get them involved.

Good luck, and please feel free to throw any questions my way.

Eric Douglas

Liability coverage
I have been involved in Boy Scout high adventure programs, a couple different youth soccer programs, and supported some Sierra Club youth outreach. I highly recommend that you get your self under someone else's liability coverage. To organize as a high school club would appear to shortest path to success. Campfire, The Sierra Club and YMCA also have co ed teen age programs that might welcome you as a volunteer.

There are way too many people who like to file lawsuits. In many states like California, if you are trained volunteer leader leading an outing or coaching a sporting event in conformance to the safety standards of the nonprofit group, you have some liability coverage.

Focus on fun, safety and unstructured time
I have taught beginning backpacking to 11 and 12 year olds. In my experience, they are not all that interested in the gear but they can be interested in packing light because they can walk further and have more energy to do fun stuff when they get to camp. They are not so much interested in hiking past dinner and setting up camp in the dark. If you have older high schoolers, they might grow into longer trips. One byword is "Let the kid choose the challenge."

Do not over focus or over spend on the gear. Focus on the outing
Doug Prosser has posted some lists on BPL that have some low cost gear on them. For example, http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/boy_scout_gear_list You could probably start with some inexpensive $110 Slumberjack bags from the web and $50 internal frame Czech army ruck sacks from your local army surplus store. Up until the mid 1970s, people had perfectly fine backpacking trips with canvas ruck sacks, kapok sleeping bags, and coffee can pots.

I'd talk to the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings people at the HQ in San Francisco. GOOGLE it.

They will train you and cover your liability. BUT, they will want you to take kids from existing entities like churches, YM/YWCAs and other recognized youth groups.

Worth a look.

Good suggestions, thanks.

Suppose a school would be an "existing youth program?" I'll check it out.

Hi Mark,

I think the Youth Program that you are trying to implement in your school is awesome! Lucky Bums shares a very similar passion for the outdoors, always trying to encourage kids to get outside and create lasting memories with their friends and family. As a result, we have developed a Junior Pro Team to help them share their stories and in return they receive exclusive deals on our outdoor gear. We would love to help any way we can. I look forward to hearing from you!

Best Regards,
Katie Hughes
katie@luckybums.com