our program
Go Beyond is built of 3 pillars.
Our core program is Go Beyond HOmaha. With a diverse group of new peers, youth ages 13-15 join 15-member cohorts for a full-year and 366 hours of extraordinary experiences, social inclusion and relationship building, incredible adult and near-peer mentors from diverse backgrounds, and the mountain expedition of a lifetime!
Natural Leaders carries the engagement and connections forward through leadership and skill development, amazing regional and national opportunities, and a truly singular job as a part of our leadership teams!
Launched in 2024, Go Beyond Abroad expands access to our blend of life-building and nature engagement programs. An 8-week afterschool program is being built in partnership with Walthill Public Schools 5th and 6th grade as well as experts across our communities. We are partnering with other nonprofit agencies to provide the Go Beyond experience outside of our core program as well, including the Latino Center of the Midlands, the Heart Ministry Center’s Fresh Start program, and Future Kids.
We’d love to visit with you to share more anytime! Our website is only part of the story!
Ian Kimmer, Executive Director, ian@gobeyondne.org, 218-750-0784
Mitch Findley, Program Manager, mitch@gobeyondne.org, 402-332-6545
2024 HOMAHA PROGRAM INFORMATION AND FAQ'S
2024 Go Beyond HOmaha Brochure:
2024 Go Beyond HOmaha Videos:
GO BEYOND ABROAD
In 2024 we were excited and grateful to launch Go Beyond Abroad – taking 45 years of Go Beyond HOmaha experience and bringing it to new communities, new places, and greatly broadening the impact of and access to exploring ourselves, others, and our place in the world.
From afterschool programs and a three-year commitment to Walthill Public Schools in the Umonhon community, to the young leaders from the Latino Center of the Midlands, to the adults rebuilding life thanks to the Heart Ministry Center’s Fresh Start program – the programs, partners and volunteers of Go Beyond made some incredible new stories possible!
History
45+ years | 2 amazing donated Wyoming basecamps | 1300+ campers | 40+ area schools
150+ professional-level counselors | 12+ nominating partner agencies | 12+ program partner agencies
45+ volunteers
Open to all | Focus on trauma-impacted youth
Generous donors from across the community make Go Beyond possible.
All programs are open to everyone cost-free.
Generous donors from across the community make Go Beyond possible.
For our core Go Beyond Homaha program, new campers are 13-15 years old. Open to all. Inclusion is our way. No experience or gear needed. Free of charge. We’ll work with you to make this all possible!
To make our programming possible for all, we are always grateful for help fundraising! Contact our Executive Director Ian Kimmer for more information ian@gobeyondne.org (c)218-750-0784
Together, we explore opportunities for all of us to find an extraordinary new story of ourselves, our community, fortitude, openness, triumph, and resilience.
3 CORE IDEAS WE EXPLORE
HOW WE SEE OURSELVES.
HOW WE SEE OTHERS.
HOW WE SEE OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD.
We don’t pretend to have the right answers here – our lived experience is a bit more real than to let us EVER say that – but with incredible counselors and extraordinary experiences, a new group of peers and a focus on the next right step, we can open a whole new story ahead together. And YOU get to write that! We just open the door and, because we also walked through the same kind of doors in our own lives, we stand together in fortitude.
Adventure and natural landscapes open new paths ahead for us. Our journeys together engage us in new ways with our community and people we’d never otherwise meet. The trip of a lifetime opens us to ourselves and others. And we Go Beyond anything we’ve known before!
Taking on such as extraordinary adventure together, relying on each other and communicating, finding self-discovery and courage, and knowing the freedom to be authentic with a new group of peers can change our lives forever. Through connections to nature we now have the life-long benefits known by both science and art. And we become a community to support the new campers each year, and next, and beyond.
Growing our impact through experience, expertise, community interest and vision, our offers truly world-class opportunities to our campers. Our pivotal experience, the Wyoming summer-camp trip, is an 8-14 day expedition for 12 campers, 2 junior counselors, 4 counselor staff, and support volunteers. Our regional and guiding expertise means our time in the field includes the best destinations and experiences on the planet. Our 2 base-camps, the Centennial Ranch and Alpine Mountain Camp, donated in the 1970’s and 80’s and set in breathtaking spaces, have singular access to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Rock Mountain National Parks, the Wind River Range, and much more.
Our trip leadership teams prioritize youth-service experience, authenticity, and compassion. We provide all needs and costs for everyone involved in Go Beyond and can arrange to outfit a camper who would benefit from that – we want NO barrier between anyone and these opportunities to Go Beyond!
An inclusive group of new peers, our campers come from across all demographics and neighborhoods through partner agency nominations and an open application. Together with our staff, professional-level counselors (teachers, youth-service agency professionals, etc.) and volunteers, we connect to each other as 12-camper cohorts and as a larger past, present, and future Go Beyond community. We connect locally to nature (hiking and camping at Fontenelle Forest, paddling the Platte River) and to outdoor adventure (rock-climbing Northstar and UNO). We connect to access by creating nature-based opportunities for all families and communities. We connect to science, working with agencies to save an endangered species at our Centennial Ranch, and facing climate change’s acute impact with the rest of the Rocky Mountain region. And we connect to opportunities to grow into future Go Beyond leaders through our Natural Leader junior counselor progression.