Experiential Outdoor Programs
We Value Adversity & Adventure
Contact Info
coyleoutside@gmail.com
541-760-0774
OUR MISSION
Adventure, Discovery, Inspiration First!
We don't always put safety first at Coyle Outside. That is said with trepidation. Our culture, especially around kids, often values safety above all else. Much of the time this makes the best sense but sometimes this can leave things like good judgement, relationship, trust, connection to come AFTER, when maybe there is room for these to be front in line. Being vulnerable to small and moderate failure provides opportunities to create heroic personal victories and to experience being one's own changemaker. Doing this in the context of a peer group provides validating witnesses to a student's story and endeavors, creating connection and friendship in parallel.
We further believe in a distinction between 'Discovery' and 'Learning' where discovery changes a person forever. So, we endeavor to guide as much as teach, allowing for invention and "Ah Ha!" moments. We believe that wisdom (as well as a beautiful, rich life) comes through failures, taking and learning to manage risks and from entering and passing through what is scary and uncomfortable.
​
"Survival" Skills are the platform and training grounds we use. They provide an elegant and minimalist 'classroom' where a student is immersed in
-
Their own body and mind
-
Their relationship with and to other participants
-
the natural world on its terms
​
What's more, competency with these skills provides capacities beyond surviving any real or imagined emergency or apocalypse. Students leave with skills that bring freedom and confidence to engage in adventure (to say "Yes!") and the seeds to act as leaders in the outdoors (or otherwise really) when surprising or non-ideal conditions present. Our students create a life where they have real power.
Discovery => Transformation
Making a Difference => Connection
Adversity => Wisdom & Confidence
Character
Competence
Team - Interdependence
Consider the saying "We can't have our cake and eat it too". If one wants inspiration we believe they may often pay for it in safety or comfort or familiarity. We want our students to discover the power of distinguishing for themselves the costs and benefits of choosing to follow prescribed rules and policies versus developing and using their innate humanity. Being able to distinguish when for what gives our students the best possible future.
We want to work with families who want to take chances and stretch themselves.
We are more interested in the power that comes from making a difference in the world than what comes from pursuing one's bliss. More interested in developing people who are capable of making sacrifices in the near term that pay off in the long term. We want for students to leave our programs feeling like they had to generate some courage and that they pushed themselves to do something that would not have happened on its own. And we want them to leave with stories to tell.
Finally, we try to remember that we are not here to create epiphanies. These sometimes happen of course and most of the time we don't even know. A child goes home with a new idea of what they want to do with their life without ever us having a hint that this happened. But we ARE here dedicatedly to influence the course our students take. We aspire to move the dial on their compass one degree so that in 10, 20, 30 years they end up in a much different and bigger place. We do this through modeling respect, hard work and curiosity and by providing the feedback and connection that we know students can use.
The Coyle Outside Model
Our model follows our mission including our overarching intention to make a difference for our students and our instructors. We train our team to provide mentorship as much as technical skills and we train our teams with the intention that this work provides a positive personal and professional development opportunity for each instructor. The majority of our programming is through public partnerships (typically Schools and Parks & Recreation Departments) leveraging broad, impactful resources for and access to our programs. These partnerships often mean a percentage of generated revenue goes back in to the city we partner with. Our Instructor Teams are mobile and hired for their capacity to be flexible providing our customers and partner organizations with choices that may not otherwise be available locally. We take pride in the presence we have created in many smaller towns and cities.
.png)
Making a Difference
We shape programs fostering competence, character, confidence, and connectivity.
.png)
Cultivating Connections
Our partnerships with schools, cities, and non-profits comprise 90% of our programs.
Expanding Horizons
Our mobile instructors journey to deliver programs in otherwise unreachable locations.
OUR BEGINNINGS AND STORY
The Coyle Outside Journey
Coyle Outside was founded in 2011 by Daniel Coyle and currently runs programs year round in Oregon and seasonally in Maryland, Washington, Colorado. Predominantly we create public/private partnerships with Parks and Recreation Departments and School Districts to provide Summer Camps, After School and Outdoor School Curriculum. We love opportunities to focus on towns, small cities and small to medium sized school districts where there is demand for quality outdoor programming and outdoor education but may not be resources locally to reliably meet the demand feasibly.
We also directly provide private programs through our online registration. Much of our curriculum and programming has been the result of past and former instructors who have introduced and developed various camps and workshops. We strive to use our basic business platform including our insurance, contacts, online presence and registration to connect ambitious and creative instructors with people eager to learn. We partner and collaborate with several amazing outdoor schools, instructors and programs and are happy to share our network of contacts with folks who want to help people get outside. ​
OUR TEAM
Instructors - Wilderness, Fishing, Movement
Our team consists of active and seasonal staff and changes sometimes faster than the website can keep up with.
Victoria "Vee" Guarnaccia
Instructor - Benton, Summer
Carolyn Kachuk
Instructor - ODS, Benton, Summer
John Waters
Instructor - ODS
Reed Haller
Instructor - Benton, Summer
Randy Bonner
Instructor - ODS, BCCP, Summer
Elet Hall
Instructor - ODS, Summer
Ingrid Gendreau
Instructor - ODS, Benton, Summer
True Barnes
Instructor - ODS, Benton
Robbin Stevenson
Instructor - Benton, Summer
ADMIN TEAM
Melissa McCarney
Admin Support
Andrew Sayles
Instructor - ODS, Summer
Collaborating Organizations
ORGANIZATIONS WE CONSULT WITH OR WORK WITH TO DEVELOP GREAT PROGRAMMING
Coyle Outside has been built on partnerships with cities, towns and schools. Over 90% of our work is collaborative with public organizations. Our collaborations with Municipal Parks and Recreation Departments allow us to focus on the quality of our programming and staff development while relying on our partners for critical administrative resources such as promotions, registration and site access. Where we partner with schools we work with admin and school leaders to develop a program plan and then create relationships with the school faculty and staff team leading up to execution of an integrated program. We rely on our school partner to manage critical student group needs while we surround this with program structure, schedule and curriculum.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Don't miss the adventure!
Join our newsletter to stay in the loop and be the first to hear about our upcoming classes and events.
Location
Coyle Outdoors
PO Box 2389
Corvallis, Oregon 97333
COYLE OUTSIDE
EXPERIENTIAL OUTDOOR PROGRAMS
© 2024 Coyle Outside | All Rights Reserved | Website Design by Medley Elite
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy