Big Sky Youth Empowerment Project

In 2023, Big Sky Youth Empowerment worked with 141 Youth providing 37,350 hours of programming. 69 mentors and tutors provided 10,320 hours of service. Youth participated in 36 weeks of evening workshops and 29 weekend adventures. The weeknight workshop curriculum focused on a wide range of topics including trust, teamwork, communication, coping skills, goal setting, independent living skills, andenvironmental stewardship.adventures included skiing and snowboarding in winter. Summer adventures included whitewater rafting, outdoor rock climbing,mountain biking, hiking, skateboarding, circus skills, aerial skills, lake days/swimming, plein air painting, stream ecology workshops, yellowstone national park, Missouri headwaters state park, and floating on the madison river. Fall adventures included biking, hiking, indoor rock climbing, horseback riding, archery, ceramics, goat & alpaca farm visits, aerial silks, geocaching, hay maze, jumptime, the run for your life 5k, museum of the rockies, Montana science center, and caving at the lewis and clark caverns.we provided tutoring 2 nights per week during the school season and teens engaged in 16 electives workshops held 1 night per week. Electives included woodworking, cooking, making skis, painting, hiking, martial arts, combat stage fighting with Montana shakespeare in the parks, mountain biking, and snowshoeing. Midweek program offerings make it possible for Youth to come to our byep teen center up to 5 days per week and get further involved with byep. In the fall of 2023, we piloted an expansion of mental health support by having a new, highly utilized byep counselor & resource navigator on-site when teens were in the program.