Our Mission
The outdoors is the door. Belonging is the destination.
To create life-changing outdoor experiences, trusted mentorship, leadership development, and meaningful community for at-risk and disadvantaged youth across Tennessee.
Mission
Our Mission
To create life-changing outdoor experiences, trusted mentorship, leadership development, and meaningful community for at-risk and disadvantaged youth across Tennessee.
Through partnerships with ranchers, landowners, conservation organizations, businesses, volunteers, youth-serving agencies, mentors, veterans, first responders, outdoor professionals, and communities across Tennessee, we intend to provide young people opportunities they may otherwise never experience.
Our programs will use the outdoors as a vehicle for something larger:
Confidence · Responsibility · Resilience · Connection · Purpose · Hope
Our Vision
We envision a Tennessee where a young person's circumstances never determine the limits of their future.
Our long-term vision is to establish a statewide network of outdoor mentors, host ranches, landowners, youth organizations, donors, conservation partners, and volunteers united behind one simple belief:
Every young person deserves someone in their corner.
A future permanent outdoor campus
Eventually, Tennessee Outdoor Hope Foundation seeks to establish a permanent outdoor campus and camp where young people from throughout Tennessee can participate in:
- Hunting
- Fishing
- Camping
- Hiking
- Conservation
- Wildlife education
- Archery
- Marksmanship education
- Boating and water safety
- Wilderness skills
- Leadership development
- Mentorship
- Career exploration
- Educational programming
- Veteran and first responder mentorship
- Life-skills development
Who We Serve
Who We Hope to Serve
Tennessee Outdoor Hope Foundation seeks to serve eligible young people through partnerships with established youth-serving organizations. Potential populations include young people experiencing:
Young people are never defined by the circumstances that brought them to us.
They are participants, adventurers, future leaders, teammates, mentees, and members of our community.
The Model
It Takes a Community.
Tennessee Outdoor Hope Foundation is being designed around a simple idea: we don't have to own every resource required to help young people. We can unite people who already have those resources.
A rancher may have land.
An outdoorsman may have knowledge.
A company may have equipment.
A restaurant may provide meals.
A donor may provide funding.
A mentor may provide time.
A youth organization may know the child who needs the opportunity.
Outdoor Hope brings the community together.
At the center
The Young Person
- Host Ranches
- Mentors
- Youth Organizations
- Volunteers
- Businesses
- Conservation Partners
- Donors
- Veterans & First Responders
- Outdoor Professionals
- Community Leaders
Safeguarding
Safety Is Part of the Mission.
Nothing matters more than the safety and wellbeing of participating young people.
As the organization forms, Tennessee Outdoor Hope Foundation intends to develop comprehensive safeguarding practices in coordination with partner agencies, legal counsel, and youth-protection professionals before programs begin.