Build, Share, Grow: National Summit 2014

Outdoors Empowered Network is growing a powerful network of regional programs -- our Program Affiliates -- that GET YOUTH OUTDOORS through wilderness leadership training and outdoor equipment libraries.

We are holding our first National Summit this November, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Staff from programs around the country will gather for the first time to share information and best practices, build knowledge and skills, work on metrics and evaluation for program improvement, and discuss shared goals, priorities, and reciprocity between programs. Summit participants will include long-standing, experienced programs, along with new programs currently in operation, and organizations that are in the process of building their programs or are about to begin.

The goals of the summit are to:

1) Connect the network
2) Share best practices
3) Identify and prioritize key network-wide initiatives for the coming year and beyond

More info about the summit on our website:
http://www.outdoorsempowered.org/national-summit/

We're in the final planning stages for the Summit. This campaign will raise funds for registration and travel match scholarships for participants from programs with limited resources. We've talked with them to assess need, and will award the match scholarships as funds are raised.

The programs and organizations that will participate in the summit are diverse in terms of their resources. We're asking for your help in providing registration and travel match scholarships for those with limited funds. Attendance at the summit will help them, depending on their respective situation, in the following ways:

· If they are brand new to the concept, but have both the resources and the enthusiasm to become a Program Affiliate, this will move them towards a commitment to join the network. (Portland, Denver)

· If they are current affiliates but have just recently launched their program (Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles), they will gain invaluable insight into best practices to implement immediately.

· If they are a mature program (Boston, New York, SF Bay Area), they will meet their respective peers for the first time and help build collective goals and measurable outcomes for our new Network, that will give them both purpose and an ability to effect much broader change than if they acted alone.