City Kids Wilderness Project is an incredible non-profit organization that Recreational Habits has teamed up with for our ‘Varsity Collection’ that drops on March 3rd, 2021. We are proud to partner with the City Kids Wilderness Project by donating a portion of our proceeds of sales from our ‘Varsity Collection’ that will go to supporting and providing the youth of DC and surrounding neighborhoods the opportunity to experience enriching life adventures.

City Kids Wilderness Project was founded in 1996 and has positively impacted the children of our local communities ever since. With an emphasis on teaching life skills beyond what is learned in the classroom, the organization offers two programs throughout the year for 130 children in the DC area beginning in the sixth grade and throughout high school. Each year the program recruits 20 sixth-grade students to enter the six-year program with no financial ask from the students’ families. The program is based around three core principles: long-term youth engagement, experiential education programming with a focus on overcoming challenges, and goal setting with a focus on future planning. In the past three years, 96% of their participants have successfully graduated high school! In comparison, DC has less than a 65% graduation rate.

During the school year, the program is based in the DC area and supports their participants with after school and weekend outdoor activities in addition to their college preparation and job training, but in the summer the program has a satellite location in Jackson, Wyoming where they run a summer camp! Activities include horseback riding, hiking the backcountry of the Sawtooth Mountains, exploring Yellowstone via kayak, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and impressively climbing to the summit of the Grand Teton, 13,775 feet up in the sky.

Once kids successfully complete four years of summer and school-year programming with City Kids Wilderness Program, they’re eligible for additional leadership and career development opportunities, called Job Experience Training, or JET, allowing the teens to step in as mentors and counselors-in-training for the younger participants. The learning and support from City Kids Wilderness Project is lifelong. Once the participants graduate from the program, City Kids Wilderness Project continues to support their alumni in assisting them with job hunting or post-secondary education.

Topics they assist with include:

·       Job & Internship Searching

·       Resume & Cover Letter Writing and Critique

·       Interview Preparation

·       Scholarship and Financial Aid assistance

·       Professional Development

Recreational Habits is thrilled to partner with the City Kids Wilderness Project as we believe in the importance of exposing children to all aspects of life, including the great outdoors, and giving them access to tools and programs that will foster growth, great fun, and overall success.