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MERGING

VETERANS & INNER CITY YOUTH

TO BE LEADERS

FOR ENVIROMENTAL JUSTICE

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THANK you to our 2019 sponsors & partners
SOUL RIVER INC

Youth Leader Advocacy

“National Parks and reserves are an integral aspect of intelligent use of natural resources. It is the course of wisdom to set aside the ample portion of our natural resources as national parks and reserves as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring the further generations may know the majesty of the earth as we know it today!!!”

– John F. Kennedy.

It was such an honor to go to Washington DC with members of soul river and Oregon Wild. We talked to some of the senators and their staff about the protection of the Ochocos National Recreation Area that has been proposed. We also talked about the importance of nature within the United States. It is our duty to help keep wilderness protection of the Ochocco National Forest and the National Recreation Area that has been proposed. We also talked about the importance of nature within the Unites States. It is our Duty to help to help keep wilderness protected for us, For the next generation but also for the sake of the earth.

connecting through outdoors

UPCOMING EVENTS

We are hosting our 2020 gala event at the Community Drive-In in Wilsonville, OR!!!! We will be enjoying recaps of past deployments ON THE BIG SCREEN as well as a feature length film; we’ll hear from Chad Brown, Founder and President of Soul River Inc., and some of the youth participants and veterans; we will have a paddle raise auction and a very exciting raffle! Of course, we will also have a delicious catered dinner, wonderful wine and refreshments. We will be socially distancing while enjoying the show from inside our cars by tuning into an FM transmitting station!

GO to the gala website

Thank You To Our 2019 Sponsors And Partners!

connecting through outdoors

Our Mission

We connect inner city youth and US military veterans to the outdoors through incredible outdoor educational transformation experiences. By engaging U.S veterans as mentors for inner city youth, we believe that rich, powerful opportunities of healing authentically happen in the midst of Mother Nature. We believe that by connecting youth and veterans to our public lands, wild rivers and fresh waters, and beyond through genuine community, we will ultimately establish and inspire a new generation of outdoor leader ambassadors that will advocate for Mother Nature and conservation.

SOUL RIVER INC

Deployment Films

Conservation & Humanitarian Task Force | Venetie, AK

Deployment

Mobilization of youth and veterans from one origin or home to another place of destination, specifically to wild places where wildlife habitat and our wild land or fresh water is under threat. We connect underserved youth to these wild spaces with veterans to observe and implement outdoor education and build our youth into conservation advocacy leaders for tomorrow”

Learn More About Deployments
From SOUL RIVER INC

Chandalar

On a clear morning in Portland, Oregon, fourteen youth with oversized backpacks await a long day of travel. Along with five veterans, a few volunteers and “Axe the Service Dog,” they are headed to Fairbanks, Alaska. From there they will pile into bush planes and fly into the Arctic Circle.This is Soul River, a non-profit organization founded by decorated Navy veteran Chad Brown, and their three-week deployment to the CHANDALAR RIVER is the culmination of outdoor conservation education, collective strengthening, leadership development, healing, and a whole lot of fly fishing.

At first glance this group is an unlikely bunch to be rowing down an Artic River in search of fish but as they pull on their waders and start casting, it’s clear they know a little something about why we all seek out closeness with the river. Many of the participants come from different worlds and while they know that their experience with trauma is what initially binds them together, it isn’t what defines them.

On the river, the tasks at hand require all of their focus, and these mission-driven experiences in wild spaces give them a sense of purpose and provide a new context to understand themselves and their capabilities. This is a story of how U.S Veterans can change lives and find purpose by volunteering their time. It is a story about the bonds formed between the veterans and youth on the river and about the importance of the natural world to mental health. More than anything, it is a story of resilience.

VETERANS FIND HEALING THROW FLY-FISHING

CBS This Morning

In our series, A More Perfect Union, we aim to show that what unites us as Americans is far greater than what divides us. In this installment, we take a look at the healing power of fly fishing. Jan Crawford went to Oregon and pulled on a pair of waders to see how one veteran is inspiring others with free outdoor adventures.

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