New Treks

Despite Denver's proximity to natural spaces, many youth haven't explored the outdoors. Underserved youth face many barriers, such as time, money, transportation, gear, and knowledge, making it nearly impossible to recreate outside. At New Treks, we believe that everyone should have equitable access to the outdoors and strives to lower these barriers. We want to increase and normalize access so underserved youth get to experience all the outdoors has to offer. 

Our primary program is an outdoor elective course at Title 1 schools. Through hands-on learning, mini fieldtrips, and in-class learning, our students learn about rock climbing, backpacking, paddling, survival skills, and more. By being in the classroom consistently, we build strong relationships with our students. This allows them to feel more comfortable trying new things, helps them build trust, and creates a safe space for them to get out of their comfort zone! We incorporate social-emotional learning so that they also gain transferable skills they can use in other parts of their life. Our students are able to build resiliency, practice different communication styles, and learn how to work as a team through various outdoor activities. 

Over the summer, we partner with transitional housing facilities to provide outdoor programming for their families and youth. We like to work with families to promote trans-generational learning. Including parents and guardians of the youth we serve increases the chances of future outdoor excursions happening beyond our programming! We want to give families the tools to safely explore the outdoors so youth are able to continue getting outside after our programs have ended. We take the families paddling, hiking, rock climbing and more in and around Denver so they get to see how many local natural spaces there are. 

Last year was our first year of operation and we more than doubled in programming for our second year. We are excited to continue growing and are grateful for your help and support! You are making a difference in the lives' of many underserved youth.