New NWTF Education Resources Announced
In February, the NWTF celebrated its 48th annual National Convention and Sport Show in Nashville, and the Education and Outreach team launched new resources and materials to help support our incredible volunteers and members around the country as they host events and leave an impact in their communities.
Over 50 volunteers met, representing more than 25 states, for a two-day training to learn about the new projects and resources coming in 2024. The training included updates from NWTF staff, and presentations from partners such as the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, USDA Forest Service and the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA). Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation (R3) was at the forefront of discussions, with a panel of professionals and volunteers addressing questions from the audience. The conversations and ideas shared over the two days continued far outside training sessions, and the momentum and excitement moving forward is still being felt.
During the training, a new collaboration with the IHEA was announced. The External Learning Network, or NWTF Outreach Hub, is the first of its kind. It serves as an online course and resource for volunteers participating in or interested in understanding more about our Education and Outreach programs. The IHEA is the professional hunter education association affiliated with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the 50-state fish and hunter education programs. This course’s development is charted to provide a course to learn and a platform as a one-stop hub of educational resource materials and social communities for volunteers. The course will highlight five pillars of our programming, including: Our “Why” as Volunteers, Event Registration, Mentorship, Programming Examples, and Resources.
The NWTF Outreach Hub will complement other successful online course materials that the organization has already launched and piloted. Through the partnership with Today’s Hunter, an industry leader in online hunter education, we have developed a Turkey Hunting 101 course, designed to teach you where to hunt, turkey hunting tips and strategies, the best shotgun for hunting turkey and much more. Over 1,500 participants took the course last year. With the development of these new courses, we are committed to providing supporting materials and steps for new hunters as well as our volunteers to be as successful as possible in their efforts.
In addition to the launch of The NWTF Outreach Hub, there were discussions surrounding the new regional priorities that the Education and Outreach team are developing, strategic priorities and areas of focus to deliver our work on a landscape level, ensuring that we align with the unique needs of our national organization. An example of these new priorities addresses the continuing need for increased public awareness and support for hunting and shooting sports. One way we can address this need is through the implementation of the Hunt for Good campaign where states and regions can use the campaign assets in collaboration with federal, state and non-governmental organizations and industry partners. There are now resources available for our volunteers to join in this effort through our Media Toolkit that was also announced in February.