Mission Statement
Latino Outdoors inspires and connects comunidades to the outdoors, centering cultura, celebrating familia and heritage, and uplifting our history and leadership as part of the outdoor experience.
Vision Statement
Latino Outdoors envisions a world where our comunidades experience nature as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space, where we can share and celebrate our stories while fostering leadership and building a vibrant community of people who love and care for the outdoors.
Core Values
- Familia: Support for families and their connections in the outdoors
- Comunidad: Strength in diversity and community
- Cultura: Celebration of unique cultural narratives in nature
- Access: Advocating for equitable access to the outdoors
- Service: A commitment to serving our communities
About
Latino Outdoors is a Latine-led organization that supports a national community of leaders in outdoor recreation, conservation, and environmental education. With an eye towards celebrating and expanding the Latine outdoor experience and bolstering the broader outdoor movement, we provide leadership, mentorship, and professional development opportunities, while amplifying oft-overlooked cultural connections and narratives. LO is a space for our comunidades to be present, share our voices, and showcase how an ethic of conservation and roots in nature have been deeply embedded in la cultura Latina for generations. The programmatic pillars of Latino Outdoors are: outdoor experiences, outdoor narratives, and outdoor leadership.
The Need
The Latino community is one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., yet remains underrepresented in conservation and outdoor spaces. Since 2013, LO has grown from a California-based initiative into a national volunteer movement. Its community-driven, scalable model empowers leaders to bring their unique passions to every outing and event.
Together, the network of LO leaders fosters a culture of responsible recreation, expands access to nature, and builds partnerships that offer valuable education. Rooted in comunidad, connection, and a shared love for the outdoors, it’s a movement offering outdoor access for all.
Statement of Inclusivity
Latino Outdoors strives to make the outdoors a safe and welcoming place for all people, regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, and nationality. This extends beyond our outdoor programming to our core values as an organization, especially one that understands the history and power of public policy and legislation in protecting public lands and landscapes that we enjoy today, but that many times came at the expense of communities that were marginalized and displaced. LO welcomes the full spectrum of people and stands in solidarity with all individuals, organizations, and societies that uphold this value.
We recognize our use of the gendered characteristics of the Spanish language. The use of “Latino” in “Latino Outdoors” is a descriptor of the outdoors, not a reference to Latino males in the outdoors. We acknowledge the intersectional fluidity of language and identity, and we use Latina, Latine, Latinx, and Latino freely and fluidly to refer to engagement and experiences in the outdoors by members of comunidades latinas.