The Education & Inclusive Engagement (E&IE) Task Team shares promising practices and resources related to education and inclusive community engagement among current and future trail stewards, leaders, adventurers, and organizations around the world. This session will share outcomes in our current focus areas including World Trails Ambassadors and Indigenous Ways and invite all participants into an exploratory conversation about ideas for other areas of promising practices for education and inclusive engagement.
World Trail Ambassadors: You will get to meet the 2026-28 cohort of WTN Ambassadors, rising trail leaders from around the world, who will share the work they are doing in their home communities and regions as they explore ways to contribute to WTN initiatives over the coming two years. Our Task Team helps secure funding for their participation in the WTN conference and supports their two year commitment to WTN projects through convening and facilitating cohort meetings and mentoring.
Indigenous Ways: Indigenous Ways is a movement within the Education & Inclusive Engagement Task Team that centers Indigenous knowledge, leadership, and cultural authority in global trails work. This session highlights the importance of engaging Indigenous communities not as partners, but as essential leaders and knowledge holders in shaping the future of trails. Participants will hear reflections on how trails can serve as pathways for truth-telling, cultural revitalization, intergenerational learning, stewardship, and community wellbeing when Indigenous and First Nations Peoples are purposefully included. The conversation will also explore how trail organizations, governments, and partners can build more respectful relationships, support Indigenous-led initiatives, and create practices grounded in reciprocity, care, and connection to place.
Future Initiatives: We are interested in your ideas about ways to continue to explore the role that trails-based education, youth engagement programs, indigenous led initiatives and other educational and inclusive engagement approaches can play in advancing trails stewardship, management and use around the world. We invite you to join us in a lively discussion!
Delia Clark, Principal, Confluence
Julie Judkins, Co-Founder / Consultant, Just-Trails
Kylie Ruwhiu-Karawana, Managing Director, TRC Tourism
Ekuri Brian, Program Coordinator, Green Cameroon
