SOLES’ Story.
In the spring of 2013, Ashley Carruth was wrapping up her first year as a Humanities teacher at Animas High School in Durango, CO when ten junior girls approached her and a colleague about facilitating a summer backpacking trip for them to bond and support each other around shared challenges with mental and physical health. This team of young women worked together to plan the route, menu, gear list and curriculum and headed out into the mountains that summer for four days of backpacking, exploring, and meaningful conversation.
Upon return, Ashley knew they had stumbled upon something special and that with the right co-pilot and blizzard conditions, this one-off experience was the kindling of inspiration needed to fuel a bigger idea….
San Juan Mountain SOLES is an outdoor education and leadership development organization that Ashley Carruth and Rachel Landis cooked up on a white-knuckled snowy drive in 2015. As they crested Lizard Head Pass and began the descent down into Telluride, they shared similar stories of their students plagued by self-doubt. They agreed that these students were brilliant, capable human beings that could benefit from more tools and community connection to realize their leadership potential. They reflected on their own adolescence and the crucial role strong female mentors and outdoor experiences played in shaping their identities. As snowflakes pummeled the windshield, Ashley and Rachel decided to offer something similar to the young women throughout the San Juan Mountains. A mission statement was crafted....
SOLES will inspire girl-identifying youth (including cis and trans girls, non-binary, and gender-queer youth) to lead healthy, fulfilling lives rooted in the wild place, confident leadership and authentic community engagement.
Luckily, the youth of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado grow up amongst rugged mountains and wild deserts, amongst a community of passionate individuals who live according to their authentic values and are dedicated to stewarding our environment. However, these youth are also growing up in an era where by high school, only 29% of girls* are “happy about the way that they are” and 7 in 10 girls believe that they are not good enough or don’t measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members. In turn, low self-esteem can lead to depression, delinquency and low performance in schools. We start from the premise that traditional educational institutions rarely teach young women how to cultivate healthy relationships with themselves, their peers, their communities and their environments.
SOLES’ programs are also informed by the amazing accomplishments we’ve seen our students achieve. Our students are incredibly resilient and passionate about bringing about positive social and environmental change. When given opportunities for collective action, supported by adult role models, they do amazing things from creating climate change organizations to making beautiful pottery to climbing peaks and navigating desert canyons!
We believe that every youth deserves to grow up believing in the unique, intrinsic value that they hold, so that they have access to a high-quality life, access and capitalize on their full potential, and ultimately contribute positively to their community. At SOLES, our mission is to cultivate that reality for our participants using the power of positive mentorship, personal challenge, immersion in wild places, and strong peer-to-peer relationships.