Jerran Givens took the reins on a recent wilderness backpacking trip in Idaho. His group was scaling the backside of the Tetons. Some of the kids in his group were scared of heights. They wanted to turn back.
“I told them not to look down. I got them to play some games on the hike up. You know, distract them,” the gangly 15-year-old sophomore at Manual High said. “When we got up there, it was so beautiful. They all said, ‘I can’t believe I made it up here.’ I said, ‘I can.”‘
Givens is a leader, though he wasn’t always that way. Three years ago, he says, he was a troublemaker, with lots of attitude and spare time, heading down a dangerous road. But today, after three years of being involved with a group called cityWILD, the Denver native from Park Hill is trying to be a role model for younger kids.
“I’m hoping I get to pass along what I’ve learned,” he said.
Born from a dream by a backpacking rafter and outdoor educator named Read McCulloch, cityWILD turns 7 this year. More than 750 kids have passed through cityWILD’s outdoor-oriented youth development and leadership programs, logging more than 10,000 student days.
The nonprofit organization operates three distinct programs, focusing on underprivileged middle school students in northwest Denver where parents struggle to forge a future for kids threatened by poverty, drugs and gangs. The Leadership Program operates 150 days a year with after-school programs three times a week and weekend adventures once a month. The Case Management program provides support and advocacy for kids and their families. The organization’s Ventures program offers other nonprofit and advocacy groups its services with river rafting and other outdoor adventures. The group gleans a few dollars from its Ventures program and the rest is solicited from individual donors and grants.
A recent informal survey of cityWILD graduates revealed 96 percent view themselves as leaders; 95 percent say they can accomplish things they once would never have considered possible; 77 percent see themselves as role models. The same survey showed 93 percent of participants’ parents say their child is more confident in tackling new challenges; 85 percent say their child takes more responsibility for their actions and 100 percent say cityWILD is a positive influence in their child’s life.
The philosophy behind cityWILD is experiential education and peer leadership. Kids go rock climbing, camping, river rafting, backpacking, mountain biking and skiing. As kids progress and grow through the program, they are given more and more responsibility. Hard work earns coveted paying jobs as crew leaders. The crew leaders have the credibility to influence younger kids that adults don’t and won’t have.
“We believe these guys are better leaders than anyone we could hire from outside the community,” said McCulloch, a youthful, fun-loving father figure to many cityWILD students. “The outdoors is just a context for what we do at cityWILD, which is teach leadership.”
Crew leaders guide rafts, set up rock-climbing anchors, teach camping and teamwork skills and lead by example. They become big brothers and sisters. They inspire.
“I feel like when I’m in cityWILD, I’m planting a seed in each student. Maybe I’ll never get to see what that seed grows into, but I know it will grow into something the world will see,” said Jeffery Steed, a 17-year-old senior from East High who has been involved in cityWILD for more than six years and hopes to study film and medicine in college. “Someday I think that student will come back and thank me.”
The responsibility bestowed on teenage leaders such as Steed and Givens fosters as much confidence as successfully climbing a mountain or paddling down a rumbling river. Success in the outdoors opens eyes to opportunities that weren’t visible before. That’s the underlying premise of McCulloch’s dream: Use the Rocky Mountains to help expose and develop the potential inside every child.
It’s an approach that works, said Denise Rodarte, whose son Jose Escorza has been involved with cityWILD for three years.
“He has become a real leader. He’s really independent. He’s a man now,” she said. “Without cityWILD he would never have been involved in any of that backpacking or camping or any of that stuff.
“It’s opened up a whole new world to him that he can carry on to his own family someday.”
Learn more — Get information about cityWILD’s events and volunteer opportunities at www.citywild.org.
