Vashon Wilderness Program

Our History and Legacy

Over a decade ago marked the beginning of a legacy on Vashon; one that would bring a deep sense of place and connection to nature for the children in our island community.  And while that legacy has it’s roots in a school on the other side of the Puget Sound, in a young man from New Jersey, in his mentor who became one of this nation’s most famous trackers, and in a man whose gifted name meant leopard, the Vashon Wilderness Program has carried on traditions and begun to create some of it’s own right here on the island we all call home.

In the Winter of 2000, the Wilderness Awareness School (WAS), founded by Jon Young, began offering it’s programs on Vashon for a small group of homeschooled children once a month at Camp Sealth.  With hundreds of acres of pristine woodlands and shoreline to explore, these children quickly came to recognize the value of learning from the “book of nature” and the transformative effect that “Coyote Mentoring” was having on their lives – they were joyful, peaceful and deeply caring about the natural world and it’s many communities of living things.

Looking to learn more about this way of connecting to nature, several families began commuting off-island to WAS once a week for the next three years.  At the same time, interest among Vashon families was growing, and in 2004, WAS added a weekly program on Vashon.  A year later, the monthly program ended, as many of those children were now enrolling in the weekly offering, and the number of children able to step out of school once a month was too small to sustain the program.

During the next three years, WAS continued to offer programs for children.  Several parents were so invested in this approach to nature connection that they began to volunteer, train with WAS and apprentice during the weekly program.  It soon became clear however, that it was not sustainable for staff to make the long commute from Duvall year after year, and so WAS stopped offering programs on Vashon in June 2007.

This catalyzed the Vashon community of families who had been a part of this growing movement since it’s inception.  After many meetings and heartfelt discussions, a core group of families rose to the challenge of rooting this important work on Vashon, and the Vashon Wilderness Program was born.

During our humble beginnings, we hired staff from WAS to Direct and instruct, along with hiring our first Vashon resident who was trained in Coyote Mentoring.  In that first year we also partnered with the Vashon Learning Community, a local non-profit organization dedicated to supporting interest-led learning experiences for people of all ages, and gained access to the requisite liability insurance to maintain our long-term relationship with the land at Camp Sealth.  Two years later, we officially transitioned to our own 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

Since 2007, the Vashon Wilderness Program has been igniting relationships between self, community and the natural world.  We have been offering nature connection experiences for youth ages 4-12 years covering key areas including: trees and the tools of human survival; aidless navigation/edible & medicinal plants; mammals and the art of tracking; birds and learning to interpret these messengers of the wilderness, and so much more, all woven into the basket of celebrating each others’ gifts within community.

In 2009, we hired our first on-island Director and now have a growing cadre of staff that are Vashon-based, helping to fulfill an important goal of our organization: to create sustainability in perpetuity.

Our programming has also expanded over the years, adding a vibrant program for 4-6 year olds to our well-established 7-12 year old program.  In 2010, we expanded beyond our traditional weekly offerings to partner with local schools, both to support educators and bring our unique mentoring style to more children.  The 2011-12 year marked the addition of teen programming, and our first venture away from our island home as we traveled across the Puget Sound and into our neighboring community of West Seattle.

Our Legacy

The Vashon Wilderness Program was born from a legacy of deep nature connection teachings created by Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School.

It’s called Coyote Mentoring and it centers around instructors asking questions without giving answers – because the emphasis is on inspiring children to look and assess on their own.  With Nature as the living teacher, mentors subtly stretch student’s awareness making learning invisible, effective, fun, healing and empowering.  Kids spend their day learning just like our ancestors did – engaging all of their senses to co-create a living ecology for them to love and sustain.

The VWP is proud to be one of more than 50 organizations world-wide to offer this unique approach to nature mentoring.