What We're All About

As our beloved youthers are headed back to school in the coming weeks, Elevate Youth’s schedule is looking a little different. Our mission, though, stays the same. Whether we’re kayaking the Charles and surfing in New Hampshire in the summer heat, or learning about teamwork after school and going on field trips, Elevate Youth stays committed.

Our mission is to empower youth to explore the outdoors alongside mentors, sharing awe and the richness of our natural world. Our vision is to spark a lifelong love of the outdoors through equitable access and routine immersion in nature as a way to foster agency and lead holistic, healthy lifestyles. We work alongside our youth to elevate their voices as the next generation of diverse environmental stewards.

We know that Elevate Youth cannot reach our mission or goals without addressing structural racism and committing to anti-racism. EY stands in solidarity with BIPOC-led efforts to combat racism at the structural and systemic levels. We center our advocacy priorities on racial justice through solidarity. In doing this, we are valuing and uplifting the demands from the BIPOC community, who are most impacted by racial injustices in the outdoors. Most importantly, Elevate Youth knows that for our external work to effectively advance racial justice in the outdoors, we must commit to internal self-transformation. EY supports our leadership, staff, and stakeholders with tools and resources to engage in racial justice work.

EY understands that committing to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are not one-time decisions and buzzwords: we take the time and energy to ensure these principles impact each corner of our work. In our mission to make the outdoors more accessible, we are having active and ongoing conversations about how to incorporate justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything from grant-writing to trip-leading to amplifying youth voice. As our organization grows, we will continue to incorporate these guiding principles into our future.

Moving forward, EY plans to listen to, center, and trust the leadership of pre-existing BIPOC-led organizations, affinity groups, and leaders in the outdoors. We will continue to educate ourselves on the challenges and solutions raised over the years by these organizations and leaders in our field, and center their voices and perspectives in our leadership, strategy, and overall work. We know that we have a responsibility to spend the time educating ourselves to minimize the burden and added emotional labor placed on BIPOC individuals to educate, train, or help us advance our racial justice work, unless the individual expressed a desire to engage in this way.

Justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of Elevate Youth’s mission. When we make the outdoors accessible to kids in underfunded areas of Boston, we are taking steps toward combating systemic issues of income inequality and racism in our community. We are on a committed journey to being an anti-racist organization.

You can support Elevate Youth in our mission by donating or volunteering. You can learn more about how to get involved here.