120 Pageviews Read Stories
- EIN 84-1332544
- 970.926.9292
- P.O. Box 2020 Avon CO 81620 USA
- http://www.sosoutreach.org
- sosoutreach
- Add to Favorites
Promote This Nonprofit
Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Camps, Children & Youth, Children & Youth Services, Sports, Winter Sports, Youth Development Programs
Mission: Inspiring youth to make positive decisions for more successful lives. SOS Outreach is a youth development nonprofit with the goal of fostering self-confidence, leadership skills, and positive decision making in underserved youth. SOS programs are unique in their use of adventure sports to engage participants for future success. Underserved youth face many risk factors that make them more likely to use drugs and/or alcohol, more prone to suicide or teen pregnancy, and more likely to drop-out of school or resort to violence. Risk factors include single parent households, low-income families, family conflict or substance abuse, behavioral or academic struggles, or involvement in the court system. SOS programs increase protective factors for these children by helping them find value in achievement, hope for the future, and the ability to identify caring adults in their local communities. These protective factors assist in combating the risk factors they confront daily.
Results: Founded in 1993, SOS Outreach is in its twentieth year of serving underserved youth by integrating a leadership development curriculum with outdoor sports. Over the years, SOS has grown in numbers, expanded across winter and summer adventure sports, and incorporated a youth development, leadership training, and adult mentorship curriculum. In 2009, SOS finalized a merger with Meet the Wilderness, a 34-year-old organization that taught life skills, teamwork, and leadership to youth through summer programs. The merger ensured that SOS could provide its programs year-round, increasing positive touch points with youth. SOS continues to increase available program days for each participant. Since 2009, SOS has seen total national participants remain consistent at 5,000; however, the organization has increased total program days from 17,175 to 20,967. The organization continues to increase the number of program days available for participants through additional service learning projects, leadership development workshops, and the implementation of year-round programs. The program growth is in response to evaluation results demonstrating that it is the consistency and length of relationship that is creating SOS’s most significant results.
Target demographics: underserved youth
Geographic areas served: 15 of the United States and New Zealand
Programs: Academy programs are multi-day programs in which a new SOS core value is introduced and coupled with an outdoor activity daily. Academy programs empower students by making concrete connections between the outdoor activity and the meaning of the SOS core values. University requires students to commit to a four-year program as students engage in mentor-based leadership training, service learning and life skills workshops as well as participate in skiing or snowboarding. In many locations, SOS winter participants now have the opportunity to continue University year-round with the addition of summer wilderness activities and service projects. Masters is an intensive year-round peer mentoring program that is building a generation of leaders committed to social justice. The curriculum includes mentor-based leadership capabilities, self-directed goal-setting, and the ability to initiate change in their communities.