Cascade Leadership Challenge is a non-profit organization in Kent, Washington. We are small and focused. The primary program of CLC is Cascade Challenge. Cascade Challenge brings teenagers together to overcome racism and alienation in their high school. We do this through adventure travel.
As travel companions, our youth use trust and teamwork to overcome challenges together "out there." Back at school, new bonds of friendship and common experience help students to be more open with other people, regardless of their differences.
Young people are naturally curious and social. To these qualities we add skills, vision and leadership. With confidence and experience, our members broaden their perspectives while challenging their own internal preconceptions about other people. The goal is to make world citizens who organize locally and engage globally.
The effects of real life experience are cumulative. Every adventure makes our youth stronger, more confident and more aware.
Purposes of Cascade Challenge
- Develop Insight
- Inspire Confidence
- Lead Effectively
- Be Graceful in Adversity
- Embrace Diversity
Our Values
- Be inclusive, open and trustworthy
- Show compassion for people and the environment
- Strive for constant improvement
- Be curious and aware of the natural world
- Develop self-reliance and generosity towards others
- Understand people as whole persons
- Be leaders who go first
Our Methods
- Travel in natural and built environments
- Teamwork
- Teen empowerment and leadership
- Healthy adult-teen association
- Skill building, application of learning, recognition of achievement
- Seek out and include a diversity of people
- Challenging experiences that stretch, test and validate participants