Who We Are

Steve Cunningham taught high school history in Jersey City for 15 years. Believing that city teens should have an opportunity to discover the wilderness, he founded an after-school outdoors club at Snyder High School. The club experienced massive success with day trips and overnight experiences. It revealed there was a demand for a robust outdoor organization that would allow youth from throughout the county to experience empowering outdoor adventures and character growth together so in 2016 he founded Team Wilderness with a mission to grow teamwork, leadership, and character within urban youth through wilderness excursions and activities.

We are the only organization offering wilderness education programs specifically for underserved youth in Hudson County.

Team Wilderness is a nonprofit organization that uses an experiential educational model to teach urban teenagers teamwork, leadership, and character.

The organization helps to promote confidence in youth, consideration for their peers, passion for the world they live in, and resilience both as an individual and a group. Facing physical and social challenges, they learn to adapt and develop real-life problem-solving skills while at the same time overcoming fears and obstacles.

Our programs are affordable for all income levels; since they cater to the youth from the community, they help positively impact the community itself.

Team Wilderness allows youth to experience hiking, backpacking, and numerous outdoor activities during single-day and overnight trips. These trips require the commitment and collaboration of the entire team. The students understand that and embrace it. The Team’s adult leaders and trip experiences will cultivate reflection to unearth newfound self-confidence, undiscovered interests, and unexplored opportunities.

95% of participants are residents of Hudson Country and the remaining 5% are from NYC.

It is Team Willderness’ policy to serve a minimum of 51% free or reduced lunch population. 79% come from low or low/moderate-income households.

How our participants identify in 2023:

Who We Serve

Race

It is our mission to grow teamwork, leadership, and character within our urban youth through wilderness excursions.

To achieve our mission we emphasize striving to be E.T.H.I.C.A.L. in the wilderness and reflect on its application to life.

• Empathy: Through co-dependence to force youth to develop compassion towards each other.

• Teamwork: To understand and embody a positive team culture.

• Health: Through mental and physical challenges recognizing what is necessary to be your best self and live a healthy and balanced life.

• Inclusive: Through interdependence to learn to value and work to create an environment inclusive of everyone that supports and respects differences.

• Community: Understanding social and environmental responsibility.

• Adversity: Using a foreign setting to compel youth to challenge themselves mentally and physically resulting in increased self-confidence and self-actualization

• Leadership: Out of necessity to demonstrate the ability to collaborate, communicate, problem-solve and resolve conflicts promptly and effectively.