MOBILE — Movement Education Outdoors

MOBILE—Mindful Outdoor Black & Indigenous Leadership in the Environment—supports Black and brown teens in gaining the skills and experience they need to become leaders and practitioners in the equitable and sustainable management of Rhode Island waterways for the benefit of our communities.

The MOBILE Fellowship is a one-week intensive leadership program for high school youth of color and a space for Black and brown teens to get outside, connect to the land, and connect to each other while building skills for environmental justice leadership and marine industry employment. Through hands-on activities on the water and under the mentorship of local fishermen, scientists, and educators, Fellows learn how marine science, Black & Indigenous history, and food & environmental justice in Rhode Island are all connected.

Program Highlights

MOBILE is all about outdoor, experiential learning! Each day, Fellows are out on the water, exploring different coastal sites across Rhode Island, from the Narrow River to the Narragansett Bay.
Fellows learn about career pathways in Rhode Island’s marine industries—and get hands-on experience in the field as they try activities like clamming, fishing, boat operations, water quality monitoring, and oyster farming and restoration.
Throughout the Fellowship, youth will learn about BIPOC communities’ deep relationships with maritime practices and analyze the systems that have disrupted these relationships over time, reclaiming ancestral knowledge and practices to move us towards an environmentally just future.
Fellows build relationships with marine industry professionals and learn how to advance their interests through training, internship, and employment opportunities. At the Fellowship’s end, they host friends, family, and the public at an intergenerational event to celebrate community relationships with local waterways and share what they’ve learned.