Origin, What We Do & How We Do it, and Who We Serve
Our origin:
The Bronze Chapter was launched after our founder, Denice Rochelle, returned from a solo road trip. While camping and hiking in the California redwoods, flying kites on West Coast beaches, and sightseeing on the way back to Washington, she grew acutely aware of the lack of other Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) engaged in these activities. Denice reached out to her Puget Sound area BIPOC community to better understand her experience on this trip. Informed by their lived experiences and valuable insights, Denice founded The Bronze Chapter to help mitigate the lack of BIPOC representation in outdoor recreation.
What we do and how we do it:
Promote safe engagement with and belonging in the outdoors
The Bronze Chapter fosters learning and confidence building for outdoor recreation through joyful connection with the natural world in Washington’s unique land and water ecosystems. Through a diverse program of enriching, experiential, outdoor learning opportunities, we provide increased access and opportunity for BIPOC of all ages and family spectrums to safely engage with and feel belonging in the outdoors. We seek to increase environmental awareness and stewardship among BIPOC communities by prioritizing education and self-sufficiency, key drivers to encourage care for our planet.
Build community and mutual support
The Bronze Chapter connects multicultural and multigenerational communities for skills-, knowledge-, and experience-sharing to further our mission of growing a safer and responsibly engaged BIPOC outdoor community.
Synergize outdoor recreation and environmental education
The Bronze Chapter partners with public lands agencies and publicly- and privately-owned venues to provide outdoor recreation and education to achieve its mission of lowering barriers that have historically limited BIPOC participation in various outdoor activities. We thoughtfully pair unique Washington locations with specific events to offer participants diverse outdoor experiences, knowledge of various ecosystems, and learning opportunities specific to each location. Through valued collaborations, we celebrate and learn from indigenous tribal members, empowering The Bronze Chapter participants with context for the land and water they experience.
The Bronze Chapter offers an array of opportunities to learn safety skills and engage with the outdoors, with a growing program that includes diverse camps, kayaking and sailing, backpacking, Wilderness First Aid certification training, Leave No Trace awareness and instructor training, and outdoor self-defense workshops. For examples of our programming, please see our past events.
Who we serve:
The Bronze Chapter is inclusive of all social identities, but prioritizes diversity and equity by centering BIPOC individuals and communities in our programming. In accordance with our mission of increasing outdoor recreational and education access and opportunity to those groups who have historically experienced barriers, when event space is limited, we affirmatively privilege BIPOC registrants.
The Bronze Chapter encourages family participation in our events to sustain youth interest and commitment and build community.
Check out Our Mission, Vision, and Values.