$29,625 raised by 65 donors
100% complete
$25,000 Goal
Since 1962, Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS) has blazed the trail in outdoor education, changing countless lives through challenge and discovery.
Our students learn skills they can draw on for the rest of their lives. Not only outdoor technical skills, but confidence, resilience, and compassion. The lessons students learn - while navigating high ropes courses and whitewater rapids - last a lifetime.
Over the past three years, we have facilitated nearly 100 courses with local schools, youth serving organizations, and groups - bringing Outward Bound to students who desperately need the chance to get outside, disconnect from their devices, and connect with each other.
In 2025 we have a goal to double our school and group programming, and to provide over 1,500 youth with transformational outdoor experiences. We’re excited by this challenge but need your help to make it a reality.
Your support this Colorado Gives Day will be immediately put to use in the following ways:
“My COBS experience not only reduced my anxiety and depression, but ultimately shifted my approach to and view of the world. Overcoming challenges on course gave me the courage to lean into difficult situations back home and has given me an assurance about what I can do, that I did not have before. COBS showed me how to grab onto my life with both hands… I remember saying to myself, ‘Not one more day not fully alive.’ This is a mantra I still live by today.”
- Alissa Kuster, reflecting on her COBS Pathfinder course
"This trip has helped me develop compassion, kindness and vulnerability. This course tests you physically yet even more so mentally at moments. I wouldn't have been able to develop some of these new character traits without this course and my peers."
- Jackson, COBS Alumni
To change lives through challenge and discovery.
Outward Bound’s roots go back to 1941 when influential educators Kurt Hahn and Marina Ewald, developed a survival training program for British sailors. Their philosophy was that training through challenges in the outdoors produced better outcomes in leadership, teamwork, and resilience. They found that these hands-on learning experiences in the outdoors had a lifelong, positive impact on these young sailors.
In 1962, Josh Miner adopted this educational philosophy to found Outward Bound USA in Marble, Colorado. Since its inception, Colorado Outward Bound School has been a leader in outdoor experiential education in the United States. Today, we operate basecamps in Leadville, Colorado and Moab, Utah serving hundreds of students, educators, and professionals each year.
Organization name
Colorado Outward Bound School
other names
COBS
1962
Category
Youth Development, Education, Recreation & Sports, Environment
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
1930 Hwy 300Other
16 Ranch RoadUT, US
CO, US