Outdoor Allies: Zenovia Stephens

Ever wondered how you can do more for public lands but you aren’t sure where to start? Outdoor Alliance’s Outdoor Allies series explores how other outdoor adventurers got their start in advocacy work and their advice for how you can harness your passion for the outdoors into advocacy for the land and water you love. Zenovia Stephens runs Black Adventure Crew and Black Kids Adventure Inc, and she co-founded Black Hikers Week. She lives in Alabama with her family.

Tell us about your relationship with the outdoors – what do you like to do outside?

I’ve always had a connection with the outdoors. Whether running track, going fishing with family or attending a festival, we spend a significant amount of time outside and I have always been a fan. I enjoy it because it allows me to clear my mind, be free, and really get in tune with my thoughts and ideas.

What inspired you to start Black Adventure Crew and now Black Kids Adventure Inc?

Black Adventure Crew is my family brand and I wanted to use our adventures to inspire Black families and families at large to become explorers. Our philosophy is there’s always an adventure waiting, you just have to be willing to find it. We have always had a difficult time pulling friends together to participate in outdoor activities and we rarely, if ever, see Black families out hiking. This led to my husband and I wondering why — leading to the birth of our organization, Black Kids Adventures Inc. Black Kids Do Hike is a program under BKA Inc aimed at promoting hiking, outdoor safety and education to Black, Brown and Indigenous families and children. We believe greater outdoor diversity begins with early exposure and we’re ready to get in the community and work for change.

Tell us about Black Hikers Week, and the big issues you’re working on right now.

Black Hikers Week, founded by myself, Debbie Njai and Nailah Blades, is an annual social media campaign dedicated to highlighting individuals and communities working to change the outdoor narrative by encouraging and empowering Black people to get outside.

The week uses carefully curated days to inspire discussions around various topics such as barriers that prevent us from exploring nature, how hiking impacts our overall health, and solutions to help make the outdoors more inclusive and inviting for everyone. We also use it to show off the beautiful views, waterfalls and trails many of us have visited with the hope of attracting new hikers to the community.

After the success of our first campaign, we realized there’s so much more we can do to continue building and connecting with Black outdoor enthusiasts all over the world. We are currently in the process of working on the next steps in bringing the Black outdoor community together in a more permanent manner.

What are the most important things you wish other Black families knew about getting outdoors?

I wish more Black families understood the importance of exposing and teaching our children to appreciate nature at a young age. There are many studies that prove spending time outdoors helps reduce stress, depression, anxiety and can increases focus and confidence. Those are pivotal areas of our overall wellbeing and I believe if more Black families were aware, they would take advantage. As a community that has suffered, and is still suffering, from many injustices and trauma, we need to take to refuge in the outdoors and use it for healing. Nature is a free and limitless resource.

I would also like to bring more awareness to the role nature can play in career choices. If we expose our children to a variety of outdoor activities, we’re fostering a mindset that opens them up to becoming Park Rangers, Environmentalists, Geologists, Farmers and occupying many other fields where Black people aren’t heavily represented. It’s about so much more than simply hiking, it’s literally about changing the world around us in many different ways.

One small step can lead to huge change.

What do you hope the future of the outdoors looks like?

My hopes for the future of the outdoors are that we see greater representation of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) as it relates to outdoor advertising, careers that involve nature and even the featured individuals we see floating around social media. I want to see parks, organizations and outdoor enthusiasts work toward creating a safe and inclusive space for the Black community, fighting the stigma that being outdoors is an elitist activity. The outdoors is for everyone and in order for the industry to continue to thrive, we must see more diversity and inclusion.

Lightning round:

Favorite piece of gear right now:

Hiking stick

The next place you want to explore:

Bankhead National Forest (again)

An Instagram account you love:

@famoutdoors