





OPEN ROADS is a creative outdoor community where nature and narrative meet.
Open Roads is a national academy that delivers transformative personal growth programs. Our unique model combines awe-inspiring wilderness adventures with reflective writing and the creative story arts to help young adults discover the enormous mental health benefits of time in nature, while gaining the skills to become leaders of social change and ambitious authors of the own life story.
We design programs in partnership with schools, foundations and youth organizations that serve high-character young adults who show leadership potential. The goal is to equip our youth with the ability to bring the benefits of nature into communities that have been historically excluded, and to exemplify a culture of empathy and compassion. We believe this approach will have a systemic impact by establishing a more expansive network of social change leaders and environmental stewards who will work to make a better world for all of us.
To date, we have provided hundreds of full scholarships to participants from across the country -- most of whom were experiencing nature and travel for the first time. And we are just getting started!
Learn more about our vision here.
CURRENT PROGRAMS


















"Open Roads did miracles for my mental health. I came back motivated, much more than I had been in a really long time. It was as if being in nature and doing the unimaginable had cleansed my soul. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Yazmin, OPEN ROADS GRADUATE
