ABOUT THE SHOW
Stories of people doing the
work
Hopeful by Nature travels the world to find the educators, parents, organizers, and community leaders who are connecting young people to the natural world through outdoor learning in ways that build something real. Each episode is a conversation with someone who refused to wait for permission — and built something anyway.
Hosted by Scott Shepherd, founder of Wildward Institute.
LATEST EPISODE
Outdoor Equity in Colorado: Why Access Isn't Enough | Mary McKean
ABOUT THE EPISODE
Outdoor Equity Beyond Access: What Rising Routes' Mary McKean Wants Outdoor Providers to Know
Most outdoor programs can only change what they control: their own schedule, their own sliding scale, their own van. But Mary points to a larger set of forces, including funding instability, thin staffing, and a landscape where providers rarely know who else is serving their community.
When I worked in Southern California, my program removed barriers by providing transportation, food, instruction, and equipment. It still wasn't enough. We had to build trust family by family, with slow, steady, consistent presence. Mary's work at Rising Routes points to the same lesson at a statewide scale: "you have to move at the pace of the community you're working with."
