I am a part-time youth pastor, the director for our churches camp got a hold of me and wants my help designing and running a youth outdoor education program.  The sky is the limit according to him.  I have to come up with program ideas and he is going to apply for grants to fund them. Right now he is thinking 2 two week programs one in summer one in winter one week worth of instruction and up to one week of going out and doing something whether its peak bagging, back packing overnighters, biking or packrafting.  Eventually he would like to see it grow to the point that it could replace my fulltime work.

Sounds interesting. Take it a bit at a time and let it develop however it will.

I have at least a six month window to come up with the initial program ideas.  He is aiming for applying for grants next spring.

Fortunately my wife works for a wilderness medicine training company up here that teaches wilderness first aid, wilderness first responder and wilderness emt courses.  Her boss has led multiple Denali peak expeditions and is a former NOLS instructor so I have someone that I can learn on for info about getting programs running.  My wife's cousins dad is a bush pilot and ran a hunting guiding operation as well as an ecotourism company up here as well so I might be able to get different ideas from him as well as some of my trips I am kicking around his company did.

Yep sounds like a really good opportunity!

I was a camp director and counselor for a program here in Arizona.  We'd do short trips, 3-4 days, with kids from local schools.

I have a few take away a that have stuck with me 15 years later

using established camp camp grounds was extremely helpful, especially if they have a cafeteria.  We'd have 50-80 kids and food prep was very difficult using just camp grills and fires.  We reached out to local camp sites and groups and could frequently get very reasonable rates.

volunteer/staff to kid ratio was very important, this helped a lot.  It also helped that all the counselors had roles and responsibilities laid out.  Cook, medical, transportation, who taught what program, etc.   No confusion.  Worth note-  we were all college students and I think this helped keep us in line and on task.

We made sure to have a laid out program for the kids.  Keeping a schedule helped keep things positive.  We didn't know our kids and only had them briefly though.

Themes for each trip helped come up with ideas on what to focus on and kept the counselors interested.  archeology, Arizona history, wilderness skills are three we had that come to mind

Thanks!  It is going to be at an established camp.  The camp has a 30 room lodge and about 8-10 dry cabins/bunk houses that can house 16 people a piece and a shower bath house.  The camp also has a dining hall and small gym. It is bordered by state land on one side and two lakes.

I am thinking that for the program week one will have a two day wilderness first aid course where the teens will be able to be WFA and CPR certified.  Then a couple days of gear selection going over clothes, packs, sleep systems etc. cook and water filtration systems, site selection and field craft combined with short hikes.  Week 2 will be more the experience portion we will hike the Resurrection pass trail or the  Kesugi ridge trail. Both are similar in length roughly 39 miles with section options if we have to bail and get back to the road due to weather.

ETA: the winter one will be more challenging to come up with ideas for what to do for the experience portion.