2024 Impact Report
2024 Impact: More Time Outdoors for More Youth
The Big City Mountaineers 2024 Impact Report has been released. It contains impressive data, stirring testimonials, and an explanation of measurement methodology. But, in simple terms:
That represents Big City Mountaineers (BCM) providing transformative outdoor experiences to 403 young people who might not otherwise have had the opportunity. Note that 40.4% increase from 2023. “We’re getting better at what we do,” says BCM Executive Director David Taus. “We are more effectively recruiting and are working with our youth agency partners.”
And those 403 youth participated in:
The number of total trips speaks to the success of the scaffolded approach to BCM adventure travel. For a youth participant, a BCM season starts with a day hike, followed by a front-country overnight camping trip, and then the flagship adventure: 5-7 days of backpacking or canoeing (depending on the region). “This represents a deeper approach than BCM took before COVID. We’re not just putting youth on a van to go backpacking as their first camping experience,” David says. “We utilize a gradual progression with more involved experiences and that enables youth to better access all the benefits of spending immersive time on trail.”
The field being the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the forests and waterways of Alabama, the mountains of Colorado, Washington, and New England, and the seashores and forests of California. BCM currently operates programs in 5-6 regions. The 38.4% increase in hours youth spent in the field from 2023 to 2024 is attributable in part to the experienced staff on the ground in those regions, more streamlined systems BCM uses across all regions, and more touchpoints with the participants, according to David.
The personal social-emotional benefits of the hours BCM participants spend in the outdoors are tougher to measure, but BCM programming uses pre- and post-season validated inventories to gauge social-emotional growth of participants. The report explains that BCM filters experiential outcomes through four core pillars—connection to self, community, nature, and joy. The bottom line: 403 youth participants had the opportunity to witness those connections firsthand in 2024.
For more information, read the Big City Mountaineers 2024 Impact Report.