What started out as a creative solution to mentorship waitlists has become a staple of 10 Roaring Fork Valley schools. The Buddy Program’s Leadership through Exploration, Action and Discovery (LEAD) courses began in 2013, offering additional support and mentorship to local teenagers. There is always a need for more adult buddies to fill one-to-one matches, but by offering school-based courses at Carbondale Middle School and Roaring Fork High School beginning in 2013, the Buddy Program laid out another avenue for such mentorship. Today, LEAD serves almost 200 young people, from Aspen to Rifle, each year.
From the beginning, LEAD has taught communication, leadership techniques and other life skills. This is more than just outdoor excursions, because the processes of planning and negotiating are facilitated experiences too. LEAD high school programs include a backpacking trip in September, a hut trip in early April and an end-of-year trip in late May or early June. Middle school programs meet only once each month, but include a similar curriculum: two multi-day backcountry excursions, and single-day field trips.
From 2013 through 2015, transportation capacity limited the size of the program to one facilitator and 13 kids from each of the Carbondale schools. When LEAD Program Director John Brasier joined the organization in August 2015, the Carbondale programs were experiencing enough success that the courses were expanded to Basalt Middle School and Basalt High School. LEAD was proving so popular in the district that Aspen Middle School approached the Buddy Program. In 2016, LEAD was introduced at the upvalley middle school.
In 2017, the Buddy Program received a grant through Greater Outdoors Colorado to start programs at Rifle Middle School as well as Rifle High School. That expansion went into effect in 2018. In 2023, the Buddy Program expanded to Glenwood Springs High School, Glenwood Springs Middle School and Riverview Middle School. With the addition of the Glenwood schools, LEAD is now in four high schools and six middle schools throughout the Valley. Almost 200 youth each year grow and learn with LEAD.
Brasier shared more about the structure and value of LEAD. “First and foremost, [the] Buddy Program is a mentorship organization. With LEAD we really focus on social-emotional growth,” he said.
Before Brasier joined the Buddy Program, he spent years leading Outward Bound courses. He was used to the intensive immersion of four to six week courses. In joining LEAD, he recalls asking himself, “How are we going to condense curricula into three to five days trips?” The answer to that question, he discovered, is: “We are not a one-and-done program.”
A crucial piece of LEAD is longevity. Extending its experiential curriculum over the course of a school year offers a different kind of transformation than the pivot-point of short, intensive trips. The focus, according to Brasier, is on consistent mentorship. Each cohort is “in it for the long haul,” he stated. “There’s something special about running into families at the grocery store and getting warm greetings and life updates from LEAD graduates or participants,” he added. That’s thanks to the continuity of the curriculum.
Brasier and other facilitators have noted that teens today have increasingly high pressure to be fully scheduled with extracurricular activities: sports, volunteer work and more. This can make it difficult for teens to commit to the full-year course. Given the value and applicability of the skills taught, to Braiser, it’s well worth the commitment. LEAD courses “build up young people into active members of society,” he continued. “We really focus on giving kids voice and decision making opportunities.”
For the high school programming’s end-of-year trip, teens plan the entire experience down to budgeting, planning meals and buying groceries. For the most part, facilitators do not interfere with the planning and orchestration of that third trip for the sake of developing leadership skills.
Program alumni have told Brasier how the logistical element prepared them as leaders, whether they are planning outdoor adventures with friends or working within collegiate clubs. “I get goosebumps when I think about having witnessed kids mature from 12 to 18 and then go on to thrive in college,” Brasier added.
The outdoor experiences are Miyagi-type lessons — hard things aren’t always physical challenges, afterall. The life skills transferred through the LEAD programs and experiential education overall, Brasier shared, are really “about building better human beings for our planet.”
High school students are eligible to receive school credit hours as well as post-secondary credits through Colorado Mountain College. Any students at participating schools can apply to enroll.
LEAD courses have zero cost for participants. Many youth also join summer programming, like the week-long high school Youth Camp in Moab or the week-long middle school Dream Day Camp in the Valley.
To learn more about Buddy Program opportunities, visit www.buddyprogram.org/programs