School and Community Partnerships
If your organization is interested in partnering, please contact Sunny Chang, Youth Programs Manager.
Adventure Clubs
Outdoor Outreach facilitates local “Adventure Clubs” in three San Diego County neighborhoods – based respectively in Southeast San Diego, El Cajon, and City Heights. Each club has approximately 50 members, and members have the opportunity to attend over 40 outdoor outings throughout the year. The majority of participants in these clubs have little or no prior exposure to the outdoors; for many, these outings represent opportunities to try and accomplish things they never thought possible, like surfing their first wave in Coronado, or reaching new heights while rock climbing at Dixon Lake.
Rady’s
Outdoor Outreach partners with Rady Children’s Hospital to provide early intervention services through outdoor youth development programs for teens with mental, behavioral and medical health conditions. These programs integrate outdoor recreation as a platform for resilience-development in youth who have experienced, or are at-risk of, behavioral health conditions ranging from anxiety and depression to eating disorders, psychosis, and suicidality.
“When my mom told me about this program I didn’t want to go, but now I know the outdoors isn’t as bad as I thought it was. Because of this program, I woke up on Saturdays excited.”
Probation
Through our partnership with the San Diego Probation Department, Outdoor Outreach works with young men and women currently in custody at juvenile detention facilities through 60+ onsite and offsite activities. The goals of this program are to 1) provide recreational opportunities which will aid in individual skill development, and advance the achievement of individual transition goals; 2) provide opportunities for public interaction in the greater San Diego community that will aid in positive reintegration; and 3) strengthen feelings of self-confidence, self-efficacy and sense of belonging.
“A young woman in the girls program was in detention because of drug related offenses. She got SUPER into rock climbing through our programs, and had big goals to keep getting better.
She was offered drugs after she’d graduated from the detention facility—and she turned them down. She told me she knew that if she did that again, rock climbing wouldn’t be an option for her. Rock climbing was a game changer for her. I was so proud.”
