Outdoor Afro App: A Natural Moment of Change Management

Once again we find ourselves in the throes of change—within Outdoor Afro and in our country. At Outdoor Afro, we are driving change in order to get closer to achieving our mission. As you know, our mission is inspiring and connecting Black leaders in nature. And we mean ALL Black leaders and every nature setting. To accomplish our mission, we’ve built the Volunteer Leader Program which you so ably execute and innovate daily in your communities; the Making Waves Program which enabled us to remove barriers to enjoying water and waterways for Black children and their families; and now, the Outdoor Afro App, which will enable us to reach all 47M Black people (well beyond what we can reach with our 128 volunteers and staff).

Our journey has taken us from a single blog to 70+ social media pages and 200,000 followers across all of our accounts. We have the most volunteers in the most markets that we’ve had in our history. We are offering the most diverse set of activities we’ve offered in our history. Yet, we are reaching a small fraction of the 47M Black people who live in America. And that’s at a time when what Outdoor Afro offers as a Black community—and to a Black community—has never been more needed and more valuable. We inspire and connect Black leaders in nature by providing community, expertise, and opportunity to safely and joyously explore whatever interests them in nature. At this time in our country, this is medicine, therapy, wellness, and peace.

It is also rebellion in the opinion of some and revolution for others. It is also the perfect time to own our platform—to create a space where we can continue to be beautifully, peacefully, intentionally Black and connected in nature. Our Outdoor Afro App is our strategic bet on how we can reach and serve every Black person and community, how we can provide community and expertise even where we don’t currently have volunteers, and how we can avail Black people of the resources we’ve cultivated as an organization (free/discounted gear, access to venues, training and certifications, knowledge exchange, etc.).

To make this bet pay off for us and the communities we serve, we need you. We need you to continue to do the amazing trip planning and leadership, to continue to nurture and grow the community, and to share what you’ve learned…on the Outdoor Afro App.

We understand that this is a change—an important change that we as a staff and you as Volunteer Leaders must navigate together. To that end, here are the major curves and milestones on the road to change.