Our Approach
We are a girl-focused and girl-led organization. Our impact is centered on building leadership skills in teen girls, ages 12-18, through outdoor adventure. Our programs combine Outdoor Adventure + Girl Leadership + Community to create engaging and supportive experiences for girls to explore, grow, and lead. We engage the girl voice in our decision-making to best meet the needs of teen girls in our community.
Outdoor Adventure
Hiking
Backpacking
Rafting
Snowshoeing
Rock Climbing
Girl Leadership
Leadership Progression Model
Youth Leadership Board
Outdoor Leadership
Community
Girl-led
Inclusive & Accessible
Generational Mentorship
Our Story
We were created from an idea… “How can we empower teen girls to be courageous and confident leaders?” By connecting with teen girls, parents, youth advocates, and community stakeholders, we learned that girls in our community want more opportunities to experience the vast wild places of Idaho and grow leadership skills for their future. Girls deserve opportunities to truly connect with themselves and others, to take on leadership roles, to experience outdoor adventure, and be their uniquely silly selves.
This is WHY we exist.
Our very first pilot hike to Table Rock in April 2016.
From the beginning, the voice of girls has created who we are. Our first pilot hike launched in May 2016 with a hike to Table Rock in Boise. Six teen girls representing five local schools joined on our first adventure. We focused on goal setting, self-esteem, and identifying as a leader. We asked these girls, “When you think of a name that represents being together with other girls and women, exploring the outdoors, and having lots of fun, what kind of words comes to mind?” They answered..."Wild Hearts." This is how our name was created: by girls, for girls.
In 2017, we offered two additional pilot hiking experiences to Table Rock and Castle Rock. We focused on goal setting, using your voice, team building, identifying as a leader, and introductory outdoor leadership skills. In total, 20 girls participated in our adventures. We gained 501c3 non-profit status in January 2018 and in our first official year of programming we offered 12 adventures for 80 girls! In 2019 we created 7 community partnerships to increase our capacity to provide more adventure for more girls. We introduced rock-climbing and fly-fishing adventures while piloting out first multi-day trips in backpacking and rafting. In total we offered 17 adventure opportunities for 118 girls! We are just getting started!
We are a growing organization that continues to learn from every girl on each adventure. We are determined to break down barriers for girls in the outdoors, to amplify the girl voice within our community and throughout Idaho, and to best meet the needs of our rising female leaders, one adventure at a time.