The MANDI Awards selected Our Next Generation’s Outbound Learning Program as a finalist in the PNC Trail Blazer Award category honoring an innovative approach to a community problem.

Our Next Generation’s Outbound Learning Program provides an innovative solution to the problem of poverty by exposing youth to worlds they would otherwise never imagine. In 2003 Our Next Generation (ONG) reached out to the larger community looking for Outbound Learning partners who would welcome ONG’s children to their sites each week. After school, volunteers at each site become one-on-one tutors and mentors, and ONG’s young people  experience a caring and supportive environment and stimulating activities. Partner sites include University School of Milwaukee, ManpowerGroup, St. John’s On the Lake retirement center, MSOE, and UWM. Froedtert Health will soon become an Outbound Learning partner.

“Our Outbound Learning sites provide a special environment, and our partner volunteers help youth with homework, conduct literacy and math programs, explore careers, engage youth in science and technology, and very importantly, help children connect with not only who they are, but who they can become,” said Robert Dunn, president/CEO of Our Next Generation.