Refugee Education & Adventure Challenge (REACH) Programs
Refugee Education & Adventure Challenge (REACH), PO Box 59035, Chicago, IL 60659
About
Refugee Education & Adventure Challenge (REACH) Programs offers a wide range of activities such as hiking, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, paddle boarding, surfing, and whitewater rafting. Participants may also take part in archery, horseback riding, skiing, snow tubing, ice skating, ziplining, high and low ropes challenge courses, bouldering, top-rope climbing, crate stacking, and trampoline jumping. The program includes indoor and outdoor experiences like coding, improv skits, storytelling, nature and science museum visits, theatre visits and tours, college tours, and activities such as gardening projects, forest restoration, river clean-ups, and water quality inventories.
REACH’s mission is to inspire leadership, academic success, and connections among refugee youth through active dynamic learning outside the traditional classroom. REACH’s first pilot project was launched in summer 2015, and REACH became an official nonprofit in January 2016. REACH is recognized as a 501c3 tax exempt nonprofit organization, and its founder is Shana Wills. The program includes experiential learning focused on STEAM education and adventure sports, ecotherapy and the healing impact of the outdoors, and outdoor education opportunities and connections for refugee youth at high risk for academic failure, social isolation, and school bullying. REACH offers peer mentor visioning and training sessions and youth leadership training, and it emphasizes leadership, academic, and social-emotional learning supports. The program develops awareness and a sense of stewardship for public lands among newcomer populations and provides stepping stones for higher education and careers in natural resources, the arts, or the sciences. Integration programs like REACH’s are described by UNHCR as essential for helping refugees find belonging and build connections, and CBS Mornings with Gayle King shared the stories of five REACH youth and how the nonprofit changed their lives.
REACH partners with organizations including the Middle Eastern Immigrant & Refugee Alliance (MIRA) and Friends of the Chicago River. One volunteer, Imran Mohammad, describes REACH as a place to belong and a home where young refugees and asylum-seekers can connect with people from many parts of the world, share meals, and care for each other. Laura Youngberg, former Executive Director of the Middle Eastern Immigrant & Refugee Alliance, states that MIRA has partnered with REACH since its founding and that REACH provides programming that has made a difference in refugee youths’ self-esteem, connections, communications, and comfort with new experiences.
Last updated April 18, 2026.
REACH’s mission is to inspire leadership, academic success, and connections among refugee youth through active dynamic learning outside the traditional classroom. REACH’s first pilot project was launched in summer 2015, and REACH became an official nonprofit in January 2016. REACH is recognized as a 501c3 tax exempt nonprofit organization, and its founder is Shana Wills. The program includes experiential learning focused on STEAM education and adventure sports, ecotherapy and the healing impact of the outdoors, and outdoor education opportunities and connections for refugee youth at high risk for academic failure, social isolation, and school bullying. REACH offers peer mentor visioning and training sessions and youth leadership training, and it emphasizes leadership, academic, and social-emotional learning supports. The program develops awareness and a sense of stewardship for public lands among newcomer populations and provides stepping stones for higher education and careers in natural resources, the arts, or the sciences. Integration programs like REACH’s are described by UNHCR as essential for helping refugees find belonging and build connections, and CBS Mornings with Gayle King shared the stories of five REACH youth and how the nonprofit changed their lives.
REACH partners with organizations including the Middle Eastern Immigrant & Refugee Alliance (MIRA) and Friends of the Chicago River. One volunteer, Imran Mohammad, describes REACH as a place to belong and a home where young refugees and asylum-seekers can connect with people from many parts of the world, share meals, and care for each other. Laura Youngberg, former Executive Director of the Middle Eastern Immigrant & Refugee Alliance, states that MIRA has partnered with REACH since its founding and that REACH provides programming that has made a difference in refugee youths’ self-esteem, connections, communications, and comfort with new experiences.
Last updated April 18, 2026.
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