MOBILE
The MOBILE (Mindful Outdoor Black & Indigenous Leadership in the Environment) Fellowship is a leadership program for high school youth of color. Serving youth ages 14-17, MOBILE carries its participants through a full year of outdoor experiences. In each season, youth find new opportunities to learn about environmental justice, mindfulness, and Black & Indigenous history and develop their skills and comfort in outdoor community settings through a different activity.
summer: Hiking and Paddling
MOBILE’s summer phase provides an introduction to new ways of being outdoors. Through four weeks of kayaking in July, youth learn about local waterways and do some hands-on learning about stormwater, cleaning the river, and testing water for chemicals. In August, we travel out to Arcadia Management Area for four weeks of hiking. There, youth learn (and create their own) safety practices and shared ethics for being with the land. All along the way, we reflect on the history of the land and how people of color have been excluded from these outdoor spaces, and we practice mindfulness, movement, and breathing as tools for self-care.
Fall: urban hiking and Overnight Camping
September brings 4 weeks of urban hiking! Meeting once a week after school, each city’s cohort gets to dive deeper into the place they call home. Each week focuses on a different site in the city, uncovering the stories of the communities of color that have lived and thrived there. Youth learn about how environmental racism, gentrification, and histories of industrialization and colonization have directly shaped the landscapes they experience every day. At the end of the month, we come together to celebrate what we’ve learned through an overnight camping experience!
Winter: Snow Tubing, night hiking, and snowshoeing
Winter brings more opportunities to challenge ourselves: MOBILE programming through February and March includes night hiking and campfire cooking, as well as snow tubing at Yawgoo Valley when the weather allows. Finally, youth from all four cities have the chance to come together for an overnight trip to New Hampshire, where we try snowshoeing and cross-country skiing and enjoy the snow!
