Portland Outdoor Explorers provides year-round child-led and teacher-facilitated indoor and outdoor adventures for kids ages 5-12
The Ethos and the Environment
At Portland Outdoor Explorers, our ethos goes beyond academia. We believe in nurturing the whole child, promoting resilience, creativity, and global awareness. As a place-based education group, we strive to provide an environment where students are inspired daily, both by the lessons we teach and the serenity outside.
We work educate our students on the importance of caring for the environment and the communities we all live in by emphasizing three core values…
Knowledge
As an outdoor education group, knowledge is one of our most important assets. Is this plant safe to touch? How do we build a shelter to stay out of the rain? What can we do about invasive species? These are just some of the questions we address daily. Our knowledgeable and experienced staff are ready to educate!
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” –Warren Buffett
Compassion
Empathy is a learned skill. That’s why we make a conscious effort to extend the same grace and compassion we, as adults, need to our students. After all, big feelings can sometimes be hard to navigate. Compassion isn’t just something we need, though. It is also something we must have for others.
“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
-Albert Einstein
Accountability
We’re all in this together. P.O.E. encourages kids to be introspective and honest about their thoughts, words, and actions in order to be their most authentic selves. This is accountability to oneself. We encourage students to show respect and kindness to others and the planet and to be active participants in their communities. This is accountability to others.
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”
– Molière
As one of our initiatives to help the environment, Portland Outdoor Explorers is working with BottleDrop Give to reduce, reuse, and recycle bottles and cans. Every donation goes to helping us maintain the gear we use to provide excellent outdoor education to our students. To learn more and donate your BottleDrop funds to POE, click the link below.
A Safe Learning Environment
As a company owned and operated by neurodiverse, queer, and predominantly female-presenting people, Portland Outdoor Explorers has created an environment where children of all races, genders, creeds, and ages can feel safe and welcomed. Safety is our number one priority for our staff and our students, including physical, emotional, and mental safety. As such, we have a strict anti-bulling policy in place, and make time to educate students on the importance of consent, communication, kindness, and mindfulness.
Portland Outdoor Explorers 