I worked as a Teacher in Residence at Slide Ranch in 2020. I am a Black queer woman. The way me and some of the other BIPOC staff were treated by the management of the organization was racist. I and several other "diversity hire" staff felt so uncomfortable and unsafe at Slide Ranch that we left early. I would not recommend this org to anyone of color. They use black and brown children for grants while paying well below state minimum wage to the teachers ($9/hour) while expecting the teacher in residence to carry the weight of the org. We never got to meet with the all white board to voice our concerns. Any qualms with Slide Ranch were immediately shut down. Be warned, this is a white supremacist organization!
Review from Guidestar
Five starts for good old Slide Ranch, which is more than a "non-profit" or a collection of programs, more than the sum of its parts. It is way of thinking, of being in the world, utterly bound in space and time to there and now.
As a former staff person, I have seen the value of Slide Ranch on both the clients served as well as on the residential teacher training program for the teaching interns. These teachers are the "face of Slide Ranch." When participants disembark from their bus or car, they are embraced by the expansive view of the ocean, the breeze on their skin, the wild land beneath their feet. Then they meet a warm-hearted guide for the day who teaches about what and where they live. The experience arises authentically from the land, and by the end of the day most children are so touched they never want to leave. The impressions last for a lifetime. I have seen many parents bring their children to family day programs because they remember their personal experience of Slide Ranch from their own youth, remember being touched to their core with appreciation for this planet and our role in it, and want to share that very same experience with their own children. For myself, and for countless others, my time at Slide Ranch is one that has changed who I am in the world.