Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT) a project of Earth Island Institute, was founded with the idea that California’s bountiful wilderness areas are a vast – yet untapped – resource for local youth-serving organizations. BAWT promotes the wise use of these national, state and regional parks through our professional wilderness leadership training. Then, we connect the teachers and youth workers to our outdoor gear libraries. That way, youth organizations and schools may outfit their groups for trips of their own – free of charge!
We believe that well led trips to granite cliffs, isolated beaches and ancient redwoods provide youth with powerful, life changing experiences.
Mission
Helping YOU get Youth Outdoors!
BAWT’s mission is to create opportunities for urban youth to experience wilderness first hand. To meet this mission, we train youth workers, provide outdoor gear loans and transportation, give financial support as needed and leverage our community of peers.
Vision Statement
BAWT exists as a vital, comprehensive and ongoing source of support to agencies that lead youth wilderness trips. We believe that urban youth, once exposed to wilderness, have a broadened sense of themselves, each other, and the world around them. BAWT extends its services to the eight counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. We hope other organizations will take this vision to the rest of the country and the larger world.
With this vision in mind, BAWT has developed a set of four core values:
- Diversity: We promote a diverse community of environmental educators.
- Risk: We foster the virtues of positive, calculated risk taking.
- Environmental Stewardship: We honor and protect the earth.
- Relationships: We nurture a culture of learning through relationships.
Our supporters
Each year, thousands of youth experience the outdoors through Bay Area Wilderness Training’s programs. This work would not be possible without the help of individual donors. This includes our Climbing for Kids fundraiser’s climbers and their supporters, who make up the largest source of revenue for us. Over 90% of revenues are used towards program support, development and fundraising.
Thank you to all our donors, both individual and corporate. We could not have reached all these youth without your support.
Annual Reports
BAWT Annual Report: 2006-2007 (PDF 1.4 Mb)
BAWT Annual Report: 2007-2008 (PDF 1.1 Mb)
BAWT Annual Report: 2008 Fall (PDF 992 Kb)
As BAWT is a project of Earth Island Institute, a nonprofit, we are not legally bound to create annual reports. Whenever we can find the time, we try to create these documents, as we love to keep our donors informed on how we spend your money!
