Conservation News

The First Hunt Foundation Recieves $120,000 Grant to Develop Free National Online Mentor Training

Most organizations recognize that personal mentoring and coaching of new hunters may be the long term answer to helping save our hunting heritage.  Mentors/Coaches come in many forms and are represented by a wide array of skills and talents. Although there are doubtless thousands of great mentors/coaches across the US, there is no known training standard in the R3 community for developing highly qualified and trained mentors/coaches as ambassadors for saving hunting and shooting as part of our culture.  The First Hunt Foundation has desired for years to pull training together that could fill that gap.  The NRA Hunters’ Leaders Forum is in lockstep with that desire and has granted $120,000 to the First Hunt Foundation to help with development of an interactive on-line training that will help all mentors/coaches in their quest to train the next generation of hunters.

The total cost of the project will be $160,000 and FHF President Rick Brazell says they believe they will easily find national organizations or companies to help sponsor individual sections of the training to achieve the remaining $40,000 and show their support for the R3 effort.  Brazell says, “Our vision is to establish the gold standard for training mentors/coaches in the R3 community utilizing best practices for coaching and mentoring across various demographics and needs”.  By also incorporating “How to talk about hunting” in today’s society the course will enable educators to become effective ambassadors for hunting and shooting sports, but also be able to pass that important information onto the next generation of hunters.

AllenComm, a corporate training and e-learning company, will develop the training modules for the FHF. AllenComm has developed numerous training programs for the NRA and is familiar with outdoor related training efforts.  They will work with the FHF and many subject matter experts to design and test the training before it is released to the public in early 2023.

Brazell adds, “We are even more excited that FHF has been awarded a Technical Assistant grant from the National Mentoring Resource Center to help with development of this training.  Having them aboard insures we are using the latest science and research around mentoring.  Having their seal of approval will validate the trainings credibility.

“The NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum is happy to support the First Hunt Foundation,” said Peter Churchbourne, Director of the NRA Hunter’s Leadership Forum.  “We have been long overdue in having a properly designed online training course to help those teaching hunting and shooting skills that is available to everyone.  I’m excited the training will be free.  Every Fish and Game agency and NGO in the nation will be able to utilize this training to help their people better understand best practices for mentoring and coaching new hunters.  I want to thank the generous Hunters’ Leadership Forum donors for providing the funds that made this grant possible.”

For more information on the First Hunt Foundation visit: https://firsthuntfoundation.org or contact Rick Brazell at rickb@firsthuntfoundation.org or (208) 917-9700.

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