Washington Trails
Association
Trails for everyone, forever
Washington Trails
AssociationTrails for everyone, forever
WTA is celebrating a major milestone in our Outdoor Leadership Training program. For a decade, we have been helping community leaders get outside with youth and families. By offering training, gear and resources, we have helped make more than 18,000 outdoor experiences possible. By Jessi Loerch and Rachel Wendling
More than a decade ago, staff at WTA kept hearing similar stories from people in our community. They wanted to get outdoors with groups of youth and families — but they needed more resources to make it happen. We saw that problem and went looking for a solution. Now, we’re excited to celebrate 10 years of that solution — our Outdoor Leadership Training (OLT) program.
Since 2013, the OLT program has trained 475 educators and other people who work with youth to get outside safely with kids and families. The graduates of our workshops engage youth and families with the outdoors and inspire the next generation of hikers, outdoor leaders and public land stewards.
Rainier Prep students practice setting up a tent before a camping trip. Photo by Zyanya Alvarez
While participating in an OLT-supported trip, many youth have an opportunity to experience something completely new. For some, that might be strapping on a pair of snowshoes or lighting their first camp stove. For others, it might be as simple as walking a trail. Those experiences can stick with them for a lifetime; they’re also a whole lot of work to create.
“OLT totally supports our vision of trails for everyone,” said Krista Dooley, who was key to starting the program and who now leads our community partnerships and leadership development team.
We’re excited about how far the program has come — from training five leaders in 2013 to 75 leaders in 2023 — and how the impacts of OLT spread far beyond just the people we have trained.
Community leaders, teachers and youth group leaders all have a lot on their plate. And, while we all know the positive impact outdoor experiences can have on youth, sometimes leaders need a little help to make them happen.
“I think it would be a great experience to take my students hiking, but I don’t know where to start.”
“The young people we work with just don’t have the appropriate gear to enjoy the outdoors.”
“Our youth group would love to volunteer with WTA, but we don’t have transportation to get to the trailhead.”
Gear access helps bring youth groups closer to beautiful places, like Mount Rainier. Photo courtesy of Wild Grief
Back in 2013, those were just a few of the comments we had been hearing from community organizations and schools interested in leading outdoor youth trips. While we wanted to help in any way we could, we also realized that we lacked the resources to do so.
The conversations got us thinking: Was there a way we could get those resources? Could we create a program that would break down the major barriers that prevent community leaders from getting youth outdoors?
Krista made it her mission to make that hope a reality. Over the course of many months, Krista made calls across the country, searching near and far for organizations attempting to do similar work. She held dozens of meetings and focus groups with local educators, youth-serving organizations and government groups to dig even deeper into the specifics of their programs.
In her research, Krista stumbled upon the work of Kyle Macdonald, founder and former executive director at Bay Area Wilderness Training, based out of Oakland, California. At the time, Kyle was hoping to shift his focus toward creating a new network of youth programs — a network that fell right in line with the hopes and dreams of WTA’s emerging OLT program. The network, known as the Outdoors Empowered Network, is a collective of programs nationwide that aim to connect all youth to the outdoors by breaking down barriers to access.
It’s safe to say our interest was piqued — and we readily signed on as one of the first members of the burgeoning network, which gave us a wealth of resources for setting up our own program. (And, over the years, our program has served as a model for other programs.)
We now had the network and resources to help kids get outside. The next order of business was to find ways to address the major barriers to leading outdoor experiences for youth, which Krista’s research identified as a lack in four major areas: training, gear, funding and support.
Meeting those needs was paramount in the creation of our OLT program, guiding our work in four interconnected areas: workshops on a variety of trip-leading topics, access to free gear-lending libraries, funding assistance to cover associated trip costs, and ongoing community support to foster connections and crowdsource solutions to common problems.
Many teachers and youth leaders that Krista talked to were excited by the idea of getting kids outdoors, but they said they needed training to feel confident planning and leading safe and fun trips. In our workshops, we wanted to focus on building these skills and include plenty of hands-on experience in the field. We also decided on a training model that focused on training the leaders of youth outdoor excursions rather than taking youth out ourselves.
With this model in mind, we built out a curriculum focused on adult leaders and featuring four distinct workshop topics: hiking, camping, backpacking and snowshoeing. Our workshops are offered all year long and are held at various public lands throughout Western Washington.
“One of the biggest challenges at first was helping people understand that we were helping them lead trips, we were not doing the guiding,” Krista said. “Instead, we had to explain ‘We are empowering you as leaders to do this for your programs.’ A few immediately got it and a few needed time to build up their confidence. The train-the-trainer idea was a new concept to a lot of folks.”
The next step in a successful outdoor outing is getting access to gear that makes participants feel comfortable and safe — and hopefully itching for more adventure. The upfront cost of acquiring enough gear for a day outside is a massive hurdle for many youth-serving organizations. Plus, for groups that take only a handful of trips a year, it often doesn’t make sense to store 20+ sleeping bags.
Interim WILD, one of WTA’s regular Outdoor Leadership Training partners, on a snowshoeing trip at Snoqualmie Pass. Photo by Britt Le
Free gear-lending libraries were the answer. With the help of Outdoor Empowered Network, we secured enough gear to open our first gear lending library in Seattle in 2013. What started as a small collection of backpacks, jackets and boots has grown to include everything from snowshoes to complete backpacking kits.
In 2021, we opened a second gear lending library in Puyallup, in partnership with Pierce County Parks, to support more groups in the South Puget Sound region.
Gaining access to the libraries is simple. After completing one OLT workshop and gear orientation with WTA, leaders can check out any gear they need for their youth participants. Rain, shine or snow, our gear is available all year long.
Krista says that the gear library is critical to OLT’s success. Early on in the program, partners didn’t quite realize how much we could offer them.
“Concerns about gear kept coming up, until they really understood the basis of the program and the intent,” she said. “I had to explain, ‘We listened to your needs and here is the opportunity to take the gear for whatever you need.’”
MJ Sampang, WTA’s community partnerships and leadership development coordinator, works in WTA’s Pierce County gear library. She says that having access to the gear library provides peace of mind for our community partners. It also gives them more freedom to try new outdoor activities, like snowshoeing, since the gear library is already equipped with all the needed gear.
“Community partners have told me that it is reassuring to tell guardians and families that there is a gear library that can supply additional gear their youth needs,” MJ said. “Having access to the gear library also provides reassurance for youth by allowing them to focus on the program events and having fun with each other rather than worrying about the gear that they don’t have.”
Wild Grief is one of the many partners WTA’s Outdoor Leadership Training programs supports. Photo by Megan Carlisle
Even with access to gear, there are other barriers to outdoor outings that leaders need to figure out before they can go. Transportation, campsite fees, food and permits are just a few of the most common ones. To help minimize the funding barrier, OLT workshop participants who serve priority communities (those where 40 percent or more of youth are low-income and communities of color) are eligible to apply for funding assistance that can
be used on any costs for their trip.
A number of youth-serving organizations are in Washington state, and there’s an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience among them. We heard from many youth leaders that forming connections with leaders in similar positions was a deeply valuable resource for their work. Through our centralized workshops, we provide a space for networking and idea-sharing between leaders across the region. And we keep supporting partners and building connections even after the workshops.
“Our workshops are a space where everyone learns and grows together, even me,” said Erin McQuin, OLT manager. “Often, there are great discussions where one leader may pose a question to the group and another leader is able to answer authentically because they have had a similar experience. By the end of our workshops, I feel a strong sense of connection between everyone in the group.”
Our OLT partners also support each other. Last year, GirlTrek’s transportation for a trip fell through at the last minute. Y.E.T.I. had vans available that weren’t being used. Erin was able to connect the two groups and Y.E.T.I. was able to provide transportation. The trip likely would have been canceled otherwise.
Sometimes our trainings are geared toward leaders of specific communities and to meet specific needs. In 2021, we piloted a wilderness first aid course for leaders who identify as black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). It created a unique learning environment as well as a natural networking space. Since then, we have collaborated with Braided Seeds to co-host BIPOC wilderness first-aid courses on an annual basis.
Now, 10 years in, OLT has the same goals, but the program has grown dramatically.
On any given weekend, we may have up to 11 groups checking out gear. From snowshoeing at Gold Creek Pond and backpacking along the Olympic coast, to giving local STEM lessons and cleaning up debris at Ruby Beach, our workshop graduates are out exploring Washington’s wild places and making lasting memories with their youth groups. When the shelves are empty, we know we’re succeeding.
With the help of supporters and partners, OLT continues to grow year after year. Photo courtesy of Y.E.T.I.
With the help of our members and supporters, our OLT program has been able to grow bolder and brighter year after year. We cannot give enough thanks to the educators and community leaders who are doing the work to make the experiences happen. We’re so proud of the work being done across the state to connect youth with the outdoors, and we’re happy to be a support system for these experiences.
The OLT program was founded on listening to and learning from educators’ and community leaders’ needs. We are continually thinking about how we can innovate to increase our support and reduce barriers to getting kids outside. We’re developing relationships with new partners and expanding our workshop locations across the state.
“I think OLT has been a game changer for who has access to the outdoors and for breaking down those barriers that keep people away,” Krista said. “It helps to change the representation of who is a leader in the outdoors. As I look ahead, I would love to hear about youth that have gone on OLT-supported trips who are now leading trips. I’d love to see youth growing up and seeing themselves as the leader and leading trips and inspiring the next generation.”
You can learn more about our Outdoor Leadership Training program, including upcoming workshops for 2024, at
wta.org/olt.
If you want to help more communities experience the joy of the outdoors, celebrate OLT’s 10th anniversary by renewing or upgrading your WTA membership at wta.org/donate.
