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Earning Bipartisan Support for Outdoor School
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
Creating Equitable Access to the Outdoors
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center joined forces with Minnesota’s four other accredited Outdoor School providers to champion legislation that would establish a state-wide grant program to support immersive, multiday, accredited overnight outdoor education program experiences for students in grades 4 to 8 to ensure that all Minnesota students have a chance to benefit from outdoor education. Neuger developed and executed a PR plan with three key objectives:
1. Earn Bipartisan Support
We developed educational materials to inform lawmakers of the benefits of outdoor education.
2. Generate Public Awareness
Create greater awareness and understanding of what Outdoor School is and isn’t through media and stakeholder outreach.
3. Highlight Disparities
Bring attention to the access disparity gap and earn broad public support using storytelling to share the value and benefits of Outdoor School.
Broad Support Earned
Statewide earned media included heavy television coverage in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth markets, as well as local coverage throughout greater Minnesota. Multiple bills were introduced during the 2023 Legislative Session and received bipartisan support. The initiative was included in the Environment Omnibus Bill passed by the Legislature on June 9, 2025 and signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz. The law allocates $848,000 to support accredited residential environmental learning centers in offering multi-day, overnight experiences focused on outdoor-based learning.
Client
Wolf Ridge
Category
Education
Nonprofit
Services
PR