Challenge Cost Share Grant Brings Four Detroit Partner Programs to Indiana Dunes National Park
Four overnight programs at Indiana Dunes National Park, including a first partnership with Outdoor Afro, reached 53 Detroit participants across nine partner organizations.
MILWAUKEE, WI – October 12, 2022
A National Park Service Challenge Cost Share grant awarded to Get Outside Bus, then operating as Bus for Outdoor Access & Teaching, funded four overnight programs at Indiana Dunes National Park this year, reaching 53 participants from Detroit.
Nine partner organizations took part. Every youth participant came from a community historically underrepresented on public lands.
The four programs were a summer outing for a majority-Hispanic Scouts BSA troop, who reached the park by interstate train; a multi-day gathering for several chapters of Outdoor Afro; a YMCA BOLD & GOLD leadership program drawing on Detroit Public Schools Community District students; and a trip for a majority-Muslim public school in Hamtramck working to launch its own outdoor education program.
It was the first time Get Outside Bus had worked with Outdoor Afro, partnering with the Detroit and Chicago chapters. The Detroit chapter’s trip was its first overnight camping program for its volunteer leadership.
Forty participants were under thirty and twenty-eight were under eighteen. The programs produced 176 participant field days across four outings.
A Hamtramck teacher reported stronger engagement and participation in class from students after the trip. Those students have since continued the school’s first outdoor club and begun planning a week-long summer backpacking program.
“Every time I go camping, I make new friends. I learn new things. I got connected with nature more deeply. It reduces my anxiety and stress.”
— Hamtramck High School student
Indiana Dunes is among the closest national parks to Detroit, under four hours by road and reachable by train, which is part of why the project focused there. The Sierra Club, the City of Detroit, the YMCA, BSA Unit 1315 and Outdoor Afro Detroit all contributed funding or in-kind support.
“Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was an incredible partner, and I cannot thank their teams enough for making this treasured slice of dunes and shoreline welcoming to our coalition.”
— Micah Leinbach, Executive Director
Media Contact
Micah Leinbach, Executive Director
micah@getoutsidebus.com
(414) 803-7080