#freshtracksaction

I’ll never forget the first expedition. Two cohorts of aspiring leaders from Los Angeles and Alaska traveled from southern California to the Arctic Circle, climbed the highest peak in the Santa Monica mountains, participated in leadership workshops at USC, met with Mayor Brown at Compton City Hall, flew to Alaska, learned about Native cultures in Fairbanks, and sat together on the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and absorbed into our hearts what it meant to be citizens of the world. Just like I had been, these were young people at a crossroads. I believe Fresh Tracks helped put them on a path to leadership.

Empowering Leaders

I am proud to see the Fresh Tracks Journey continue. Over the next year we are laying the groundwork to reach 100 more young leaders through training expeditions located in different regions of the country. This is where creating a better tomorrow starts. Each expedition will bring together participants from the urban and indigenous communities for 3-5 days of cultural sharing, outdoor exploration, and leadership training provided by mentors from the Natural Leaders Network.

All of this is only possible through collaboration on a national and local level. The My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, Center for Native American Youth, and Generation Indigenous, are all inspirations for this work, and instrumental recruiting partners, connecting Fresh Tracks to young people hungry for the same kind of opportunity that I was given, an opportunity born of empowerment, the chance to give back and move forward through education and career development, and the chance to make a positive impact. When Fresh Tracks talks about empowering young leaders, we mean much more than workshops and certificates. Fresh Tracks means mentorship. It means building a community that cares about the individual. And it means allowing participants to develop the community organizing tools they need to turn their dreams into action.

I have watched our Fresh Tracks participants grow into leaders. I was there when they spoke at a roundtable on youth, diversity, and the outdoors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. I witnessed eight of our alumni reunite in July to pass their knowledge on to a new cohort of Fresh Tracks participants at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia. And I stood with them at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington DC as we reflected on Dr. King’s dream of different cultures uniting to create resilient communities.

Who are these young leaders? They are all of us, from every region of the country. Thanks to our recruiting partners, the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, the Center for Native American Youth, and Generation Indigenous, they are from Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and indigenous communities in Arizona, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. They have come together to learn from each other what it means to be leaders in their communities as they build new skills in advocacy, cultural understanding, community organizing, and communications. 

Facing some of the greatest challenges of our time - poverty, violence, climate change - they are rising up together to say - not I can do this or I will do this, but I AM DOING THIS. In a world where divisive cultural issues are front-page news, here is the future of our country, not divided, but coming together to listen, learn, and embrace new perspectives.

“The summit was transformative for me on so many levels. But it was a personal experience with nature that left the greatest impression on me...I can honestly say I haven’t been at that level of peace in an extremely long time, if ever. Being a 6′3″ young Black man from Chicago, I don’t often have the luxury of being at peace.”

Jarrett Jones, 2017 Trainer Summit

The Journey Continues

Fresh Tracks is now ready to help advance three pillars of the Obama legacy: empowering youth facing opportunity gaps through the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, supporting native youth through Generation Indigenous, and connecting all young people with opportunities to explore and care for America’s public lands.

We know it works. With evaluation led by the USC Marshall School of Business, we have shown that the first Fresh Tracks expedition increased participant knowledge and skills around key objectives, especially civic engagement, cultural competency, interpersonal leadership and communication, and environmental stewardship and justice.