Adaptive Recreation Education Initiative

GETTING FAMILIES FISHING & BOATING INITIATIVE

The Wildlife Initiative for conservation education

ADAPTIVE RECREATION EDUCATION INITIATIVE

ENERGY EDUCATION INITIATIVE

CONSERVATION & SHOOTING SPORTS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Introduction

As you may already know, Into The Outdoors’ mission is to empower all youth, families, and teachers to make informed decisions by offering free educational content that inspires present and future generations to become social advocates and environmental stewards. For over twenty years, ITO has shared countless stories and perspectives by collaborating with subject matter experts to curate informative and inspiring messages that promote a positive appreciation for each other and our shared planet.

To promote and inspire social advocacy for individuals with disabilities, ITO is partnering with Achieve Tahoe and Adaptive Adventures to launch the Adaptive Recreation Education Initiative. If you are an organization or individual that believes everyone deserves to have access to nature, we encourage you to continue reading to learn how you can be a part of shaping the future culture of recreational inclusion.

THE ADAPTIVE INCLUSION PROJECT INITIATIvE

The Adaptive Recreation Education Initiative originally launched to simply educate and inspire our communities about the available adaptive recreation programs and technologies in use today. However, as we collaboratively developed the initial content, a deeper message emerged through literary research and hundreds of conversations with DEI organizations and individuals affected by disabilities. The deeper message–the fundamental hurdle for individuals with disabilities to personally adopt a confident, no-limitations mindset is the surrounding culture of our collective apprehension towards the recreational “risk-taking” of adaptive adventurers.

The initiative’s project aims to educate and inform viewers about these pivotal cultural issues and available adaptive recreation resources by creating educational/informational media content and distributing the content across ITO’s entire educational network. The network will effectively reach communities throughout the nation through broadcast and public television, streaming services, and digital lesson content.

PROJECT GOALS
  •  The first goal of the project is to address and mitigate this cultural phenomenon that creates recreational exclusion for individuals with disabilities. Specifically, we will interview impacted individuals and organizations who can authentically express how the interpersonal misgivings from peers, guardians, and educators evolve to create debilitating personal limitations and self-doubt.
  • The second goal is to inspire underserved individuals by informing them about the exhilaration, enrichment, and empowerment discovered through outdoor recreational activities. Furthermore, we will educate all individuals about the availability of adaptive service organizations and technologies that help people with disabilities deepen their relationship with nature and gain deserved, recreational access. To do so, we will showcase model examples of adventurers, activities, programs, and technologies by sharing the perspectives of inspirational individuals and adaptive recreation organizations.
  • The third goal is to inform everyone about why and how to be involved in outdoor inclusion causes: volunteering, donating, working with/as an adaptive recreation organization, and the simplest way to be involved, being a social advocate for outdoor inclusion. Our third goal and message will resonate throughout the episodes as we interview social inclusive advocates and explore and discover adaptive recreational services and technologies across the country.

Skiing…biking… paddling… hiking… the list of activities has no foreseeable end. The adaptive activities are the center showpiece as dozens of individuals and organizations thread the action by sharing their unique, yet connected perspectives to explain how they cultivate personal confidence and independence through outdoor recreation. By sharing stories from different perspectives, inspirational individuals, adaptive recreation organizations, and funding organizations, the underlying messages will remain cohesive, consistent, and gain cumulative credibility.

As we entertain and educate our audience with thought-provoking interviews, exhilarating action sequences, and philosophical perspectives, we will also focus to creatively intertwine the curriculum standards of STEAM as educational components to engage multiple learning styles and interests in the classroom.

Get Involved

As organizations valiantly serve the underserved, they are socially appointed, by default, to tactfully reframe perceptions of self-doubt, parental apprehension, and peer-delivered misgivings caused by our own misinformed, societal constructs. The easiest way to get involved is to reach out to us and give a nod of approval of our initiative which aims to elevate adaptive recreation by sharing educational ownership to inform our society about these misgivings.

By cultivating an informed and motivational culture together, we will foster an environment where adaptive recreation programs and services can be more efficient and effective as they share precious time to focus on what they do best– instructing, guiding, and sharing the stoke. Get involved by helping us spread this nearly-unheard, social message by sharing your story and perspective on or off the film.

We envision a day where individuals who adapt to get outdoors live in a supportive, inclusive culture, surrounded by recreational encouragement instead of apprehension. Help us achieve that day by getting involved to spread awareness of this message, initiative, and project– if you know of an individual or organization who shares our beliefs and determination to promote a more inclusive culture, please let them know we want to hear their perspective too.
Together we can authentically and holistically share these pivotal perspectives and messages with a seemingly boundless audience that will fundamentally reframe the social perception of adaptive recreation and elevate the future of outdoor inclusion.

Take care, but don’t forget to dare,

–The Adaptive Recreation Education Coalition

Partner With Us

BROADCAST TELEVISION

The Into the Outdoors Education Network airs on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and is shared with public broadcasting affiliates through the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). NETA’s distribution system reaches and presents educational programs to over 277 public broadcasting stations across 46 states. Each month, over 109 million people watch their local public TV stations. This educational television series is the only program to earn 18 Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the top youth educational series in the Midwest. Your show (content funding partners) is aired three times a year for two years. But broadcast television is just part of this story… read on.

NATIONAL DIGITAL & ONLINE CHANNELS

Despite the impressive broadcast television network, this program has stayed on the crest of the digital wave where more of today’s youth and young families watch media on streaming platforms. These “cable cutters” in Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z often watch their media on their smartphones and streaming platforms. That’s why ITO expanded the impact of this GFFB Series by offering their free streaming fishing and boating content via the “Into the Outdoors Plus” app. No kidding, there's really... an app for that!

ONLINE EDUCATIONAL NETWORK - CLASSROOM VIDEOS AND LESSONS

Each half-hour TV program has the opportunity to be supported by classroom education videos distributed to teachers and students along with free classroom lesson activities that encourage hands-on learning.

AGENCY & R3 DISTRIBUTION

All of the educational classroom videos and lesson activities are offered free open-source nationally to every state/federal agency, fishing and boating safety orgs, the fishing and marine industries, and the entire R3 angling community via a dedicated media server 24/7 to use freely to enhance their R3 programs... and to recruit new anglers.

EMPOWER CRITICAL THINKING USING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

And finally, all of the entertainment and educational media content in this program uses key psychological and production elements that empower kids to think critically for themselves using their sensibility and value systems. Research shows that these sophisticated media and educational techniques can be 400% more effective at shaping someone’s perception about fishing as opposed to trying to tell someone what to think.

By now you can see how this program uses three proven pillars that engage today’s generation – television, online videos and peer-learning classroom activities combined with key R3 strategies to create pathways for kids and their families to try fishing while practicing boating safety. And when you look at the partners below, you may notice that one of the most important things missing from this program right now… is you.

So please take a moment to make a pledge below or discover your vital role in recruiting our next generation of safe-n-smart anglers by contacting us for details on how you can join your peers who have already supported the fishing community for the past two years. 

Distribution Partners

Past & Present Partners