About the Young Stewards Program
Launched in summer 2025, the Young Stewards Giving Circle is for donors who care deeply about the youth experience and want to empower the leaders of tomorrow to be lifelong stewards of our shared outdoors.
The Young Stewards Giving Circle provides a meaningful opportunity for donors to invest in the future of our Young Stewards Program with gifts of $1,000 or more. These impactful investments will help secure key youth-focused staff positions and build RFOV’s capacity to serve diverse education partners with hands-on stewardship experiences, both in schools and in nature.
“ In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.”
YSP Mission
To inspire the next generation of land stewards.
RFOV’s youth participants are given the opportunity to make tangible impacts on the land while developing positive connections to the outdoors and one another!
Engaging youth in stewardship education is crucial because it helps develop a sense of shared responsibility for the caretaking of public lands, ensuring the preservation of these special places for future generations. Involving youth in stewardship projects builds confidence, demonstrates the value of civic engagement, and ultimately strengthens our communities. During youth projects, our goal is not to complete a set list of tasks, but rather to foster curiosity and connection to our shared outdoors, empowering youth to care for the places they care about.
YSP Core Outcomes
Young people are empowered to develop a stronger sense of place, collaboration and civic engagement through hands-on stewardship and service-learning experiences.
Young people are instilled with a stewardship ethic, understanding the importance of being active and engaged stewards of the places they care about.
Young people develop a positive association with stewardship, believing that conserving and restoring public lands is important, worthwhile and fun.
Young people, particularly those with limited access, are connected to nearby public lands and healthy outdoor activities.
Current Needs
Help RFOV secure our Youth Education Coordinator as a permanent full-time staff position.
The Youth Education Coordinator (YEC) is a key staff position with a proven significant impact on the success of our youth programs—in its pilot year as a full-time role, this position increased total youth projects by 25% and total youth engagement by nearly 50%. The YEC works directly with youth participants of all ages, maintains close working relationships with our education partners and provides the bicultural and bilingual capacity needed to serve youth of diverse backgrounds across our region, which is critical to the Young Stewards Program vision. With the help of donors like you, RFOV aims to maintain the YEC as a permanent, full-time staff position from 2026 forward.
Gifts of $10,000 or more
Adopt a Spruce Up Your School project
Donors are invited to “adopt” a local Spruce Up Your School project in 2026. You can help RFOV grow the Spruce Up Your School initiative to meet increasing demand for school-based stewardship projects that engage students in the creation of outdoor classrooms, pollinator gardens and other accessible, nature-inspired spaces on school grounds. We hope to facilitate five of these projects with our K-12 partners in 2026.
Gifts of $2,500 to $5,000
Sponsor a Youth In Nature student
Donors like you can help RFOV successfully transition the Youth In Nature (YIN) high school internship program from its grant-funded pilot phase into a sustainable funding model with the goal of 75% donor-driven support. Donors are invited to sponsor one of our YIN students in 2026. A gift of $7,500 covers 75% of program costs for one student, and $10,000 covers 100% of program costs. Now in its 4th year, YIN is free to all participants, and each student receives a $1,500 education award in acknowledgement of their commitment to this internship experience.
Gifts of $7,500 to $10,000
General Support Campaign
General support builds a strong foundation for the Young Stewards Program and its core initiatives, like Spruce Up Your School and Youth In Nature. These gifts help RFOV reduce our dependence on annual grant awards, increase capacity when needed and achieve year-to-year stability for Young Stewards Program operations and administration.
Gifts of $1,000 or more
Ways to Give
There are many ways to make a gift and join the Young Stewards Giving Circle. Please reach out to our Development Director, Kelsey Brasseur, with any questions you may have about various charitable giving strategies and the types of charitable contributions RFOV is able to accept.
Email Kelsey | Schedule a meeting
If you’d prefer to provide general support for RFOV’s broader mission, you can contribute to our Annual Fund at any time by becoming a Member or joining our Sustaining Stewards Program.
