Our PROGRAM
The Nodens Outdoors program is unique and requires constant, near-daily contact between Nodens staff and recipients for 8-9 months. Our premise is simple--return our transitioning warriors to their natural state and many of the physiological, emotional, mental, nuerological issues that face that demographic can start to heal. We believe that bowhunting is uniquely able to provide that natural state.
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Bowhunting places the recipient in the wild, outdoors, where they exercise their primal function of hunting and providing food for their families. It requires all the skill they have gained in careers in Special Operations and allows them to transition those skills into a civilian setting. Our use of human performance sensors throughout the program shows that this model works to improve key physiological markers.
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Our program provides the recipient the knowledge, equipment and experience to add bowhunting into their lives as a continual therapeutic measure -- and reinforces this with advanced human performance training and analytics and surrounds the recipients with a new team...a Tribe.
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In the future, we will expand and scale our program to include the family members of our current and alumni recipients. This way we further unify the Veteran with their Tribe. Their family will be invited to a retreat to learn the same skills so that outdoor immersion isn't just another thing that takes their Veteran away from home...they can share in the experience and fortify one another.
01
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
BASELINE
We use an advanced human performance training program that targets the former Operator and uses the mantra.."what got you to the top of the mountain doesn't keep you there." Our recipients receive advanced sensors to monitor their own physiology and key metrics on a daily basis. They learn about their physiology as the foundation of the program and can watch themselves improve throughout the year. They have daily access to a staff of coaches that offer programming, personal training, video chats and responsive triage to whatever the recipient needs.
02
EQUIPMENT
Simply, we remove equipment as a barrier to entry into bowhunting. We have partnered with the best vendors in the bowhunting world to bring the most top of the line equipment to our recipients. They receive everything they need - bows, arrows, sights, cases, targets, rangefinders, camouflage and more. They gave so much to securing our Nation, we only chose the best products available.
03
KNOWLEDGE
Our recipients attend a week long immersion course in the summer to gain knowledge of bowhunting, archery, bow maintenance, wild game processing, wild game cooking and nutrition, scouting and hunting regulations and processes in their home states. This sets the foundational knowledge for each recipient to use once hunting season commences.
04
EXPERIENCE
Each recipient attends a culminating event in the form of a 3-4 day outdoor immersed hunting trip. They take their human performance self-assessment and training gained throughout the year, their equipment, and their knowledge--and complete the full arrow to table cycle in a guided hunt overseen by Nodens Outdoors mentors and alumni. This allows them to graduate the program with equipment, knowledge and, most importantly, experience to return home a bowhunter. They review their human performance data real-time for an objective review of the programs impact.
05
TRIBE
Once our recipients complete their hunting immersion they are forever a part of the Nodens Outdoors Tribe. We do not send them on their way. We do not disconnect. We host alumni hunts and, most importantly, we include them in future classes as alumni mentors. Our intent is to recreate the same supportive team environment that was lost upon leaving the service.
06
CAPSTONE EVENT
In the same year of their initial program completion our recipients are taken on a hunt with Nodens Cadre. This hunt enables them to put their skills to action and learn first hand what it takes to be a bowhunter.
IN OUR FUTURE
Family Program
As Nodens Outdoors scales we will expand our alumni program by fortifying our recipients' home Tribe - their families. The family unit is the first line of fortification in our veterans life beyond service.Strengthening these relationships and building family networks ensures longevity in our veterans lives. We will invite the alumni and their family back for the whole family experience. MORE TO COME!