AORE leverages its national influence to advocate for critical issues impacting membership and ensures that current and aspiring professionals are informed on the latest industry news, research, best practices, and funding opportunities with the goal of advancing the field of outdoor recreation and education as a whole.


Each Spring AORE hosts a multi-day virtual inclusive outdoor recreation summit to provide attendees with a wider recognition of exclusionary practices within outdoor recreation and education and ot help them gain better understanding of how they can actively work to make change as leaders in the industry..  This Summit is designed for people who facilitate outdoor recreation and education programs.  if you guide, train or encourage people to get outdoors, this Summit is designed for you! [Learn More]

AORE is dedicated to ensuring that we continue to have reasonable access to public lands and waterways in order to provide the "outdoor" component that our programs rely upon for educational and recreational missions. The AORE Access and Permitting Committee have created a Member Toolkit to aid both new and experienced members in the area of access to federal lands, which almost always requires a permit. Several resources are available here for public viewing and use, while some are restricted for Member viewing only in the members's only file library. [Learn More]



AORE embraces diversity of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, veteran status, age, socioeconomic status, and outdoor experience and ability. The AORE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee provides advice and recommendations to the AORE Board of Directors on matters relating to diversity and inclusion. They also develop initiatives, events, trainings and more to create a culture of inclusiveness, collaborative practice, and innovation in the outdoor recreation and education field. [Learn More]

AORE is committed to promoting ecologically sound stewardship of the natural environment both internally and externally. The AORE Environmental Stewardship Committee provides advice and recommendations to the AORE Board of Directors on matters relating to environmental stewardship. This includes making AORE and its member programs operate in a more environmentally sensitive way and advocating on environmentally-related public policy issues that affect the operations of AORE member programs. [Learn More]



AORE and its members are leaders in promoting and conducting research on the outdoor recreation and education industry. Whether you are a program director, recreation department employee, trip leader, vendor representative, professional researcher, or student, or you are interested in the latest trends and statistics on outdoor recreation in education settings, you will find something of value here.[Learn More]

AORE is an active participant with Together Outdoors, established to support the recreation economy in raising awareness of equity and inclusion issues in the outdoors.  Open to cross-sector participation, the Together Outdoors coalition will provide training, resources, and other ways for manufacturers, retailers, service providers, stakeholders and individuals in the outdoor industry to support the advancement of inclusion in all all forms of outdoor recreation. [Learn More]



As individual guides, leaders, and educators, AORE members each have a small voice in how we access and use public lands.  We hope to share with our participants a positive experience, achieve an objective, or instill a sense of wonder in the special places that make up our nation's wild lands.  However, communicating our needs to those charged with creating the policies of how we access those lands can be challenging this this small voice. 

Being involved in the Coalition for Outdoor Access (COA), AORE joins other organizations who share the same purpose of educating young people before the backdrop of the outdoors. The work of COA helps ensure that outdoor programmers and educators have a seat at the table to provide their perspective, and ultimately support access to public lands for their participants. [Learn More]

The "Public Lands in the United States" curriculum, created by The Wilderness Society and The Avarna Group, aims to build connections between people and America's natural landscapes.  But beyond that, they want people to have a complete and accurate understanding of the history and context surrounding these places and the movement to protect public lands.  They especially want to reinforce the knowledge that the public lands we love today were once Indigenous lands, and that the actions taken to "conserve" them have sometimes been exclusionary, insensitive or engineered to benefit only a privileged few.

The curriculum is yours to use free of charge and are encouraged to apply it however the information best supports your programs and roles. [Learn More]