Trekkers
Cultivating the inherent strengths of young people through the power of long-term mentoring relationships.
Founded in 1994 by youth development professional Jack Carpenter, Trekkers began as a volunteer initiative in Thomaston, Maine, using the outdoors to build relationships between young people and caring adults. Jack's nephew Don Carpenter later joined and envisioned a comprehensive six-year mentoring model — following cohorts of students from 7th grade through high school graduation — which became the foundation the organization is built on today. Don eventually became Trekkers' first Executive Director, growing the effort into an independent nonprofit and expanding the program to serve six cohorts at once.
Over the decades, Trekkers doubled its student capacity, launched the Trekkers Training Institute to share its model with other youth-serving organizations, and inspired the creation of Urban Trekkers in Camden, New Jersey. The Trekkers Youth Programming Principles developed through this work went on to serve as the foundation for the Aspirations Incubator. Now headquartered in its own building in Rockland, Maine, Trekkers continues to serve Midcoast youth while training organizations across the region to do the same.
