Mission: ETC makes the joy and challenge of outdoor adventures accessible to people with disabilities and youth from under-resourced backgrounds, inspiring self-confidence, connection to nature, and stewardship of the environment.

Over the last 50+ years, ETC has served more than 115,000 participants with single- and multi-day outdoor adventure programs. Our Sea Kayak, River, and Youth LEAD Programs serve upwards of 3,000 participants per year.

For many of our participants, an ETC trip is their first experience in the outdoors, and for others it is a continuing step towards independence and a love of outdoor adventure. We hope that each ETC adventure will provide lessons that can be applied to everyday living.

An ETC trip presents our participants with new challenges and opportunities to gain self-esteem and personal strength. Because we believe that people become strong by doing things for themselves, especially those tasks that push our personal comfort zones, we encourage and ask that our participants take part in all aspects of a trip. This participation creates ownership of the experience in a way other approaches cannot. At ETC, we do trips with people, not for people. This is the key to ETC's philosophy and is reflected in our approach to all of our adventure programs.