TREKKERS INC
6 years. 360 Degrees of Support.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Trekkers recognizes that navigating the transition from adolescents to adulthood is hard, particularly for young people living in rural America. We also know, from both research and our experience, that long-term mentoring is one of the most effective strategies to build strengths and resiliency in young people. Trekkers has identified a number of strategies that help students develop into resilient, self-reliant, connected, empowered, and engaged adults who are actively realizing their full potential. These strategies include: 1. Prioritize relationships with youth, both formal and informal, and develop a skilled network of caring adults and peer networks 2. Provide expeditionary, experiential, and environmental learning opportunities for youth 3. Promote meaningful engagement and collaboration with youth through consensus-based decision making 4. Identify individual strengths and needs to inform individually focused programming and to link students to other community supports
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
CORE PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Our goal is to be a part of students’ lives from grade to grade and year to year. Trekkers follows students as they “graduate” from one program into the next along a six year journey that starts when they are in 7th grade and continues until they graduate.
Trekkers is a six-year program that connects young people with caring adults. These relationships help young people grow into resilient, thriving, responsible young adults. The key is that trusting bond between a student and a program manager that lasts a full six years, from seventh grade through graduation.
And throughout all those years, program managers spend time with students where they are, meet with their parents, teachers, coaches, and guidance counselors. A network of deeply committed volunteers helps further strengthen this safety net. These steady, evolving relationships provide a stable structure for cultivating growth and keeping kids on a positive course through the precarious teen years. Trekkers’ students are statistically more likely to graduate high school and go on to some form of higher education than an average Maine high school student.
Seventh graders new to the program enjoy an excursion to Acadia National Park in May for hiking and canoeing.
Eighth graders travel in the fall and then in the summer for adventures like hiking Mt. Osceola in Waterville Valley, and educational trips visiting renewable energy facilities.
In ninth grade, students go on a 10-day historical trek to places like Washington, DC.
Tenth graders have gone to the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park, the Florida Everglades, Northwest rainforests, Mount St. Helens, and Redwood National Forest.
Eleventh graders visit colleges, art schools, and trade schools.
Twelfth graders enjoy a five-day winter wilderness adventure.
Students are deeply involved in selecting, planning, and preparing for all of these trips, using Trekkers' five educational components: Service Learning, Cultural Awareness, Environmental Education, Adventure-based Education, and Wilderness Adventure
Trekkers Supplemental Programs
Trekkers provides a two-year Leadership Progression to 11th and 12th grade students who become peer mentors/student leaders for the younger students in the program. We also provide a school-to-career program called SEED (Success through Employment and Educational Development) that connects students with local job opportunities and includes a 40-hour paid internship experience for our 11th graders. Our Short Treks program engages all of our students in local expeditions throughout the school year to help them gain more experience, skills and cohesiveness as a cohort.
Big Treks/Little Treks is a six-week, peer mentoring program for students in 9th through 12th grade who mentor elementary grade children in our area schools.
To connect rural youth from midcoast Maine with inner city youth from the country's poorest city, Trekkers provides a cultural exchange program each summer, called "From the 'Hood to the Woods."
Trekkers Training Institute
The Trekkers Training Institute is dedicated to improving outcomes for young people by providing training, coaching and professional development opportunities that are based on some of the most effective, tested techniques and principles.
With a commitment to meeting young people and the adults that care for them where they are, our work is driven by the idea that relationships are critical in keeping youth on an aspirational trajectory and therefore vital for the future of thriving communities.
Where we work
Awards
Maine’s Outstanding Nonprofit Volunteer Program 2012
Governor's Award
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of high school seniors who graduate from high school on time
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
This is the percentage of Trekkers students who graduated high school.
Percent of students who report more empathy for others because of programming
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Percent of students who report increased interest in learning because of programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percent of students who report increased optimism because of programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percent of students who report increased ability to be assertive because of programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Core Expedition: Direct Youth Mentoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Trekkers mission seeks to make a difference in the lives of local students through immersion in a six-year supportive, educational experience that exposes them to the diversity of people, cultures, and natural resources that exist outside of their everyday lives and simultaneously provides an infrastructure of support though a community of caring adults. The program equips students with the life skills they will need to prepare them for an independent and fulfilling life following high school graduation. The six spring and summer expeditions are the nucleus of the Trekkers' experience and mission.
Expeditions fulfill Trekkers' mission by:
1. Deepening meaningful connections between students and caring adults through pre-expedition planning and skills acquisition.
2. Collaborating with the larger community acting on behalf of youth, specifically connecting students to local businesses and community service non-profits.
3. Offering young people a safe place to be heard, trusted, and respected throughout the turbulent adolescent years.
4. Exposing students to the earth as educator and cultivating a commitment to environmental awareness through life-changing outdoor experiences.
5. Expanding tolerance, appreciation, understanding and respect through exposure to new cultures outside the focus of students' everyday lives.
6. Teaching the discipline of self-determination, responsibility, communication, and commitment.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Built on the principle that “programs don't change lives, relationships do," Trekkers uses a long-term mentoring model, combined with outdoor-based initiatives, to connect students with caring mentors from the community. Trekkers' successful philosophy relies on an established community-based “safety net" of support for students. This “safety net" is comprised of volunteers and other community representatives who help students navigate through the often difficult transitions in their young lives. By combining experiential learning, academic support and mentoring relationships with a community of caring adults, Trekkers creates an educationally rich, developmentally supportive climate where students find encouragement, meaning and guidance at a critical period in their young lives. Our well-established and growing safety net includes teachers, school administrators, pastors, churches, law enforcement, court officers, town managers, youth/service club leaders, alumni Trekkers and members of a variety of community service organizations across the region.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Trekkers is fortunate to have a stable, skilled and supportive Board of Directors who promote and advance the mission of Trekkers. They do this by serving on committees, participating as volunteer mentors on expeditions, sharing their resources and professional expertise, and helping Trekkers make meaningful, essential connections within the community we serve.
Trekkers has a committed, qualified staff. Amie Hutchison, Trekkers Executive Director, has over 15 years experience in youth development and provides leadership, and a strategic vision. We have 4 program managers who each oversee cohorts of 60 students and move from grade to grade with their students: affording the development of deep relationships with each student.
Trekkers trains and supports over 100 volunteers who collectively donate at least 10,000 hours of service. Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. They attend planning meetings and participate in expeditions.
Trekkers staff work hard to maintain strong relationships with school personnel including administrators, teachers and counselors. They attend meetings and have a Memorandum of Understanding that helps both parties facilitate productive, focused work on behalf of our students.
We have strong connections in the community that help Trekkers staff and our students in a number of ways. Our students provide community service, a component of Trekkers objectives, at a number of area organizations, and use the facilities at others to develop the outdoor and leadership skills they will need on expedition.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Trekkers was founded 25 years ago in response to an observed need for adult interaction in the lives of adolescents who had relocated to Thomaston, Maine because of a parent incarcerated at the state prison there. Trekkers began simply as an organization that premised its mission on the belief and that "programs don't change lives, but relationships do" and seeks to connect young people with caring adults through expeditionary learning, community service and adventure-based education.
Trekkers now serves 200 seventh through twelfth-grade students in six midcoast towns as a result of a successful six-year expansion program completed in June 2016. We have established fruitful business and organization relationships in the community and beyond that help support our students as well as the everyday functioning of Trekkers.
Perhaps among Trekkers greatest achievement was being chosen by the Lerner Foundation recently as the training arm of their new $7 million, state-wide Aspirations Incubator Program, a mentoring-based initiative aimed at raising and sustaining the aspirations of middle school and high school students in rural Maine communities and small cities. We are honored and thrilled to know that the Trekkers model will be used throughout the state to make a difference in the lives of youth, as we have seen it do here.
GOALS:
As a result of the expansion, our operating budget has grown significantly. We are focusing our efforts now on developing a formal major gifts program.
We now have a new development software program, eTapestry that will help us keep better track of alumni and especially their post-Trekkers educational persistence rate. We plan to begin publishing an alumni news report as well as our first formal annual report to better communicate the success and affect of Trekkers on the lives of our students.
We will also establish an Alumni Steering Committee to help engage alumni and keep the relationships Trekkers was built on thriving.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
TREKKERS INC
Board of directorsas of 01/18/2024
Kathleen Meil
No affiliation
Term: 2017 -
Alyssa Landrith
Bryson King
Kathleen Meil
Matthew Graham
Leah Nickerson
Laura Miller
Fletcher Smith-McNaboe
Eric Waters
Suzanne Luzius
Makaila Hickey
Evelyn Isom
Kaylee Chiaramonte
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Not applicable -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: