AORE On Demand Education Content
The Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) is the leading organization in the United States dedicated to serving the needs of outdoor recreation professionals and facilitators. We work to provide valuable content to our members through our benefits, including virtual education and professional development. Below are recording our education offering from 2024. If you are looking for previous years, please log into your member portal for access.
Inclusivity In the Outdoors
When “Woke” Isn’t Welcome: Embracing a Systems Approach to Justice Work
This session, recorded in April 10, 2025, is part of the 2025 Inclusivity in the Outdoors Month.
Presenter: Micah Leinbach
Outdoor organizations are increasingly struggling to navigate how (and if!) to use phrases like “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and “woke.” Once innocuous words have become synonymous with certain politics, belief systems, and principles. As the idea of DEI increasingly comes under scrutiny, it’s a good opportunity to revisit their original meaning, how that meaning has evolved, and the principle at the center of all of them: “Justice.”
This workshop will focus on using a systems-approach to better shape an organizational justice strategy. We will spend some of the time on strategic program development, and some of the time on curricular and training tools that center the concept of justice. There are no easy answers, and even less uncertainty - gather with peers to explore how we can honor our values at the same time we honor the needs of our students, programs, and funders.
Learning credits are available for up to two years after the webinar. Each individual session will have a section after the video with access to a survey and quiz to earn credits. (Not valid after 4/2027)
This webinar is FREE for AORE members and registered attendees for the live session. $10 for not yet members.
Inclusivity In the Outdoors
Nature for All: Redefining Inclusivity in the Outdoors
This session, recorded in April 3, 2025, is part of the 2025 Inclusivity in the Outdoors Month.
Discover how we can break down barriers and inspire connection to nature for communities often left out of traditional outdoor spaces. This engaging panel features Courtney Schultz PhD (Bring it Outside program), Heather West (LOOP NOLA), and Joe Stone (Dovetail Trails Consulting), who will share their experiences and insights on empowering marginalized communities, including young kids, adaptive programming, rural and urban residents, Latine, immigrant, refugee, and BIPOC families.
Explore how outdoor engagement doesn’t always mean epic hikes or far-flung adventures—sometimes, it starts with a simple visit through a neighborhood park. Join us to learn how we can redefine what it means to enjoy the outdoors and make nature accessible for all.
Learning credits are available for up to two years after the webinar. Each individual session will have a section after the video with access to a survey and quiz to earn credits. (Not valid after 4/2027)
This webinar is FREE for AORE members and registered attendees for the live session. $10 for not yet members.
Navigating the Outdoors: Facilitated Recreation, Policy, Permitting, and Partnerships
This webinar series, recorded in January and February of 2025, is through a partnership with The Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals (SORP).
This four-part series delves into facilitated recreation and its evolving role in public land access, visitor experience, and outdoor partnerships. Explore successful collaboration models between outdoor facilitators and land management agencies that enhance stewardship and visitor experiences. Sessions will feature insights from agency leaders, guides, policy experts, and organizations shaping outdoor recreation.
Key topics include addressing challenges like career accessibility in outdoor facilitation, innovative strategies to mitigate crowding, and improving facilitator-agency relationships amid staff shortages. The series will conclude with a policy-focused session examining permitting challenges, reforms for sustainable access, and strategies for equitable outdoor management.
Learning credits are available for up to two years after the webinar. Each individual session will have a section after the video with access to a survey and quiz to earn credits. (Not valid after 2/2027)
This series is FREE for all for the first 6 months.
After July 2025 the series will be free for members and $25 for not yet members.
Unless otherwise noted, access to on demand videos from 2024 and before
are FREE for members and $10 per video for not yet members.
Critical Incident Simulations: Facilitating Training for Effective Response
We already know that practice and role plays make for highly effective training for outdoor educators. Critical Incident practices are no exception and can provide a lived-experience foundation to respond to difficult situations as they occur in the field. In this session, you will learn how to facilitate your own Critical Incident Simulation, including assessment of training needs, crafting of a scenario to actualize learning objectives, logistic organization and outreach, coordination with outside agencies, social media simulation, and debriefing. Examples of actual simulations will be presented and a review of incident command structure will be discussed.
Building Inclusive Cultures and Hiring
Are your best practices "best" for everyone? Sometimes, core policies can be harmful for individuals. Most people believe that diversity and inclusion work can force people to be marginalized. In this workshop, we'll talk about the "Eight Inclusion Needs of All People." We can understand and read policies that can improve cultures and retention across all organizations.
The Science Behind Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace is grounded in science and research and has been since its origins in the field of recreation ecology. This has evolved over the years as recreation-related impacts and associated monitoring has incorporated human dimensions of natural resources, striving to understand how and why humans cause impacts and, ultimately, how to influence behaviors to decrease recreational-related impacts. Leave No Trace continues to inform educational programming through research, and this talk highlights recent studies and associated implications for educating outdoor recreationists.
Understanding Stress & Using Nature for Stress Management
Discover how to distinguish between toxic stress and resilience-building stress. The session will also explore effective strategies to manage stress using the outdoors and local surroundings. Participants will walk-away with further understanding of lifelong stress and strategies to transform stress to enhance well-being through practical, nature-based solutions.
Leave No Trace for Outdoor Leaders: Teaching Tools for Responsible Recreation
The Subaru/Leave No Trace Teams provide proven, research-based skills and education for getting outside in an environmentally sustainable way.
Diversity Education In Nature, The Earth as a Role Model for Building Belonging
The Diversity Education In Nature (DEIN) program uses outdoor education as a classroom for teaching how to build more equitable and inclusive human ecosystems through the design principle of biomimicry. First, the program uses the outdoors to build the skills of attentiveness, pattern-seeking, wondering, and creativity which helps to increase DEIB in all communities.
The Role of Standards in Outdoor Safety
How safe is safe enough? How do we know if our risk management practices are adequate? Who gets to decide? Answering these questions is where standards in outdoor safety come in.