About Take a Hike
Our Vision: All youth receive the support they need to believe in their own potential and follow their own path to success.
Our Mission: To support and empower vulnerable youth with a trauma-informed program combining clinical counselling, land-based learning, academics and community.
Over the past two decades, Take a Hike has walked with youth as they journey through the most challenging period of development in their lives. Today, the challenges youth face have been exacerbated by national job losses, food insecurity and rising living costs, which all cause increasing instability.
Our life-changing, full-time mental health and emotional wellbeing program – embedded in an alternate education classroom – is vital for youth experiencing these mounting vulnerabilities. Thanks to our generous community of donors and partners, we are able to help provide the nurturing, stable and safe environment essential for youth to unlock their unique gifts and talents.
“Before Take a Hike, I often felt invisible—to my parents and within the school system. Take a Hike showed me that there are people who genuinely care about you and want to see you thrive.” – Dillon, Take a Hike alum
Strategic Plan
Take a Hike’s new Strategic Plan aims to catapult the way we support and uplift the mental well-being of vulnerable youth across Canada. Our 2024-2028 Plan is designed to address the growing mental health needs of young people by integrating innovative approaches, fostering community partnerships, and enhancing access to vital resources.
Reflections on Scaling
In partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation, Take a Hike has created a case study that dives into the scaling that our organization has taken on over the past decade. By exploring Take a Hike’s history, policies, and procedures that make scaling into new regions not only possible but successful, Reflections on Scaling: A Case Study in Non-Profit Growth outlines the steps Take a Hike has taken to get to where we are now and where we are headed.
