Become An Outside Guide
Are you looking to connect with other families when getting outside?
Consider becoming an Outside Guide today!
Outside Guides are volunteer community leaders who host outings and support local families near them in getting outside. In addition to the ability to add outings to the OutGrown event calendar, Outside Guides can make entries into the Family Trail Guide, sharing their favorite places to explore with little ones. Anyone can become an Outside Guide, all you need to do is complete our free training (it’s quick and easy, we promise!). Once you have an Outside Guide membership, you choose how frequently you want to host outings and make entries into the Family Trail Guide for your local community. It's a great way to make connections and contribute while being flexible to your needs and interests.
What's Expected?
As an Outside Guide, you will be the first point of contact for many new families who are joining OutGrown and starting to explore the outdoors with their little ones. Our biggest priority is making sure new caregivers feel welcome and supported when getting outside. As an Outside Guide, your job is to host outings that are accessible and fun for a wide variety of people with different experience levels and abilities. Mostly, this means sharing events that your family enjoys and inviting others in your local community to join you. It also means showing up a little early, leading the welcome circle, and making sure everyone stays together and makes it back ok so no family is left behind.
Our short online training covers our guidelines for creating outings that feel welcoming and inclusive for families with children ages 0-5. It will also walk you through how to add events to our calendar so others can see them and encourage you to share your favorite places to go via our Family Trail Guide. As an Outside Guide, you will also have access to your own special hub of resources designed to support your community outreach and engagement efforts at a local level.
There is no expectation on how often you need to post events or how many hours you need to commit. Raising young children is a season in our lives with lots of shifting and growing, so we’re here to be flexible and help you build community at your speed.
If building community and making new friends locally is something you are passionate about, we recommend starting with one recurring event at the same time and in the same place. It should happen at least twice per month and should go for about three months to really help start a habit. Encourage others to co-host regularly so that you have more than one person willing to lead outings. Share with groups in your local community that support parents and families or post a flyer in the library or your favorite coffee shop. Most of all, have fun and enjoy the extra motivation to spend time outside with the little ones in your life!
