DEI Commitment

BCM’s Commitment to Organizational Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Updated Nov. 3, 2023

We believe that all young people deserve to experience the transformative power of nature to positively improve their connections with themselves, with their community, with nature, and with a sense of joy, as well as their mental and physical health and social-emotional well-being. We simultaneously recognize the inequity of access and opportunity for people from disinvested communities to experience these benefits, and the history that has perpetuated this inequity.

Since 1989, BCM has intentionally chosen to work within communities that experience the biggest material, economic, and social barriers to equitable access to nature, and have dedicated ourselves to reducing such barriers to outdoor access faced by youth from disinvested communities. We strive to do this through continuously improving our work to:

• Meet young people where they are in their outdoor and lived experience 
• Work in community with local youth serving agencies to mutually advance shared goals
• Deliver curricula that creates brave and inclusive outdoor spaces that build community and strengthen life skills, and that create the conditions for an ongoing connection with the outdoors
• Provide all the specialized or technical clothing and equipment and address all logistics youth need to feel supported in outdoor spaces.
• Recruit and train professional staff and instructors to lead all outdoor experiences from a culturally responsive lens, and support them with thoughtfully selected and similarly trained volunteers.

This work is essential to our mission and requires intentional and ongoing thought and action. Our commitment to this work extends beyond our programs and touches all aspects of our organization’s functioning. We strive to create an inclusive and equitable internal culture, and embed these concepts into the fabric of our organization at every level. 

Acting to live out our values is an ongoing process and we commit to this work. We commit to listening to and seeking feedback from our youth participants and the internal and external stakeholders with whom we work, and to take specific care to center voices and identities who traditionally have not held power or who are often left out of decisions. We further commit to creating comfortable spaces for individuals who hold marginalized identities to contribute to our organization and work.  We encourage everyone in our community to join us in this pursuit and work with us as we continue to evolve and grow as an organization that provides transformative experiences in nature for youth from disinvested communities.

This statement was drafted by a DEI working committee made up of BCM staff and board members, including key input and insights from community-based focus groups.