A Conversation with Outdoor Education Organizations: What Does Summer 2020 Look Like?

Facilitator: Luis Vergara, Partner, La Piana Consulting

Panelists:

Phillip Kilbridge, President and CEO, NatureBridge

Josh Brankman, Executive Director, Outward Bound USA

Kim Bailey, CEO, Youth Outside

As the nonprofit sector responds to the COVID-19 crisis, leaders of outdoor education organizations face a particularly difficult set of challenges. What does the future look like for these kinds of services? Is there a predictable timeline for a return to normalcy, and what does “normal” even mean anymore? To discuss these issues, we brought together the leaders of some of our nation’s premier outdoor education organizations.

Part 1:

• Panelists discuss what happened to their individual organizations when the current pandemic took hold and shelter in place became the norm for most of us.
• Panelists look to their immediate future to consider what does summer may look like for their organization.

Part 2:

• After discussing the immediate future, panelists take a deeper dive into fall and beyond, 2021. They talk about whether they are considering any permanent changes to their service delivery model for an eventual post-COVID world.
• Panelists discuss how they think all of this is impacting the health, mental health, and opportunities of the young people they serve.