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Our Speaker Today
Morgan Edwards - SOS Outreach
Morgan Edwards is going into her 7th season with SOS Outreach.After spending 4 years with the program as a youth mentor, she moved into the coordinator position in the fall of 2020. By the fall of 2021 Morgan accepted the position of Youth Program Manager for South Lake Tahoe SOS. A midwesterner in her youth, Morgan spent most of her free time outside, exploring the forests and rivers of Illinois and Wisconsin, before moving to California in the fall of 2011. After falling in love with snowboarding, she knew this was a place she wanted to settle into for a while. SOS is the perfect combination of youth outreach, social and emotional education, positive mentorship, outdoor adventure, and a love for her local community. She's thrilled to be here.
At SOS, we firmly believe in the inherent power of the outdoors. It’s a space where we believe all should be welcome and it provides the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. That’s why for nearly 30 years SOS has been using mountain sports and mentorship as the catalyst for youth to develop positive relationships and a sense of belonging, enhance self-regulation through social emotional learning (SEL) skills, and promote strong character by applying core values and through community service. The outcome is youth feeling equipped and supported to walk through their own opportunities and unleash their full potential.
We are a national youth-development nonprofit that uses mentoring in the outdoors to meaningfully engage over 80,000 young people across 9 states, 15 communities, and 24 mountain resorts since 1993. SOS has been serving the Tahoe Area for 17 years. Locally, SOS engages over 300 kids ages 8-18 in both California and Nevada, with partnerships at both Heavenly and Kirkwood. In addition to six ride days (skiing or snowboarding) on the mountain per season, mentors and youth meet once per month in a “classroom” environment to work on core values: Courage, Integrity, Discipline, Wisdom, Humility, and Compassion. The goal is to utilize Social Emotional education to cultivate a sense of belonging and a self realization that they all BELONG, everywhere, anywhere they are in life. The SOS curriculum has Three Big Goals:
1) Develop Positive Relationships and a sense of belonging.
2) Enhance Self Regulation through Social Emotional Learning - which includes Green/Yellow/Red Zone Activities, Yoga, Breathing, and Centering activities, and MUCH more!
3) Developing Strong Character by applying core values and participating in active community service.
As a new member of SOS, kids show up for community service projects such as picking up trash at local parks and neighborhoods, advocating the reduced use of single use plastic, shoveling snow, clean up of broken sleds at Van Sickle Park, assisting with serving food to the unhoused, etc… As the individual progresses through the program they will be challenged, with the aid of their mentor, to identify new areas of service within our community where they see need and to develop a method of helping out to make a real difference.
New for the 2022/2023 season, SOS will be piloting a Career Development Program, assisting the older youth in exploring possible future careers of interest. This will round out the already existing Industry Day where people in the snow and winter sport industry show up to talk to the kids about careers in this unique area. A focus is placed on inclusion of people of color and women as speakers to demonstrate, once again, that ALL are able to work in this industry which is such a vital part of our community.
Youth are generally identified for participation in the program by teachers or guidance counselors at their school sites. Eligibility is needs and behavior based. Primarily for kids who would not otherwise have these wonderful outdoor opportunities, many of the kids come from single parent households, foster care, low income families, or where a need for outdoor exposure is found. Others may lack motivation or have been subjected to bullying. Although the cost per family is $100 for the Learn to Ride program and $150 for the mentor program per season, many scholarships are available. (This is the area where our Soroptimist donations are so necessary!) The kids are then provided with five days of ski school, a snowboard or ski rental, gear (clothing necessary to participate), helmet, meals and snacks on mountain days, and often transportation. This is all in addition to their six ride days with a mentor, their monthly meetings, and their community service days. What a whopping, well rounded program for the youth of our community!!!
The SOS program currently has 45 mentors signed up to work with our youth. In an attempt to maintain their 1: 3-5, ratio, they are looking to reach a goal of 60 mentors this year. Mentors provide kids with an adult who will be there for them when they need them. In addition to winter sports, there are opportunities for backpacking and cowboy camping (in partnership with Tahoe Rim Association), whitewater rafting, and youth paddle board yoga. If you or someone you know is interesting in volunteering, call 775-298-0261. To find out more about the program visit: SOS Outreach
Finally, during Covid, many of the community service opportunities that the kids participated in dwindled. SOS Outreach is looking for new and existing challenges for the youth to accomplish their service goals. If you know of any that you think would be a good fit, please contact Morgan Edwards at 775-298-0261 email at: kwilkins@sosoutreach.org.
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