Glacier Peak Institute

Success:

Join us in creating innovative outdoor programs in the most distressed and under invested communities in the Puget Sound. Since 2014, we have offered over 2,750 program outdoors in communities where many programs skip over.  This has resulted in over 97,000 hours of youth time in the outdoors!   We offer outdoor STEM to schools, after school, summer and workforce programs to meet the needs of a future where youth, community and ecosystems can thrive together. 

Mission

Glacier Peak Institute (GPI) Empowering youth through action based education to build resilient rural communities and ecosystems encompassing the Glacier Peak region.

GPI bridges the gap between classroom lessons and real world applications. Our interactive programs combine STrEaMs curriculum with learner led research and problem solving in the outdoors to advance youth wellbeing and build reciprocal relationships between youth, communities, and ecosystems in Snohomish and Skagit Counties.

Description

We create opportunity for a future between youth, community and ecosystems in one of the highest distressed communities in the Puget Sound. Our innovative STrEaMs (Science, Technology, recreation, Engineering, art, Mathematics, skill-building) programs build youth's knowledge via recreation, natural resources, and research interpreted and expressed through the creative lens of art and the real-world skills building in the outdoors.
These programs include providing action-based learning opportunities in the outdoors to public school students aligned with NEXT Generation Science Standards, and an in-school Horticultural & Greenhouse program that allows students to use an on-site greenhouse and garden as a living laboratory and learn about sustainable food systems. We also provide STrEaMs education through activities such as white water rafting, backpacking, climbing, plant an animal identification workshops, canoeing, and mountain biking trips in our afterschool and summer programs which are available to underprivileged youth in Snohomish and Skagit Counties. Our partners and community stakeholders include underprivileged youth, community members, tribes, institutions of higher education, businesses, government agencies, and other nonprofits who work with other underprivileged youth and marginalized groups.

Need

Over the last 30 years in the forest mountain communities of the Puget Sound, poverty has risen by 50%, schools cut by 1/3 and youth were no longer getting outdoors despite being surrounded by forests. In the wake of the tragic 2014 Oso Slide that took 43 lives of community members, the community came together to create Glacier Peak Institute as a solution to heal and thrive through using the outdoors and forests as an opportunity. We do difficult work in under-resourced populations where the resources of the Puget Sound often do not reach. State, Federal, County, business and nonprofit development programs rarely reach our service area. Today, these communities are ranked as the most distressed, lowest income and lowest serviced areas in the rgion. 

Recognition

Even in times of economic crisis, there is a deep reserve of generosity and kindness that can be given in a variety of ways to make a difference--your time, your skills, and your voice to bring awareness to our work and mission within your network are all things you can give in addition to charitable donations. Thank you again for supporting outdoor access and STrEaMS educational opportunities for rural youth and communities in need during this season of challenge. Your support makes all the difference for the communities we serve!