Outdoor AfroLeadership Application

Welcome! Thank you for your interest in becoming a volunteer leader as part of the Outdoor Afro Volunteer Leader Program 2025-2026 cohort. We are recruiting enthusiastic, committed, adventurous, and community-oriented outdoor innovators to join us in nature. Before you apply, please ask yourself the following questions to ensure our expectations align with your community, connection, and career growth aspirations:

  • Are you an outdoor enthusiast comfortable with leading accessible outdoor outings in your neighborhood or larger community?
  • Are you at least 21 years old?
  • Can you attend Outdoor Afro Leadership Training from Friday, April 4, to Sunday, April 6, 2025, in West Virginia? 
  • Do you know how to connect outdoor experiences with the local Black history that surrounds your local community?
  • Are you open to receiving specialized training and year-round coaching to help strengthen Black people and Black community connections to outdoor conservation, recreation, and education? 
  • Are you invested in leveraging the outdoors to improve Black family and community health and wellness relationships to our planet?

About Outdoor Afro’s Volunteer Leader Program

What started as a kitchen table blog by Outdoor Afro’s Founder and CEO Rue Mapp in 2009 is a nature movement and national not-for-profit organization nearly 15 years later. Outdoor Afro celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Our organization helps people take better care of themselves, our communities, and our planet. 

Outdoor Afro’s Volunteer Leader Program, formerly known as the Leadership Team, started with 12 outdoor enthusiasts in 2009 who said “yes” to gaining firsthand experience in navigating and leading in nature. Our organization’s annual training, Outdoor Afro Leadership Training, formed to empower everyday people to draw inspiration from Black history, art, music, and activism to become confident and skilled outdoor leaders and innovators. Our volunteer leaders create relationships between our local communities and the outdoors by telling known, little known, and unknown stories about Black connections to land, water, and wildlife.

Outdoor Afro Volunteer Leader Program Requirements 

Volunteer leaders are required to fulfill the following nature activities throughout the 2025-2026 cohort year:

  • Create, host, and lead a minimum of 1 Outdoor Afro network event every month in your local community;
  • Join scheduled bi-monthly and quarterly meetings with Outdoor Afro headquarters and peer volunteer leaders to learn about the latest organizational news and gain professional development connected to our nature work together;
  • Attend the organization’s annual Outdoor Afro Leadership Training (OALT) held April 2025. This in-person training will take place at a secluded retreat location for a weekend of professional development workshops. (travel costs covered by participants; accommodations and food covered by Outdoor Afro); 
  • Use Outdoor Afro’s app, website and/or social media platforms to post and promote your monthly events to educate our audiences about our conservation, education, and recreation activities; and
  • Participate in Outdoor Afro stewardship, conservation, and nature-related campaigns connected to our mission when applicable.

For applicant consideration for this unique opportunity with Outdoor Afro, please fully complete the form below.