LEAP
RIVER PROGRAM
OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM
What is the LEAP River Program?
LEAP’s River Program provides multi-day whitewater kayaking programs on Oregon’s Lower Deschutes and Idaho’s Lower Salmon Rivers. Guided by LEAP’s CAIRNS facilitation framework, each program combines progressive river skill-building, reflection, and the shared experience of navigating the river as a crew.
LEAP partners with organizations across Oregon and Idaho, including OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Legacy Oregon Burn Center, Friends of the Children Portland, and others, to bring the youth and adults they serve onto the river.
Every LEAP River Program is offered at no cost to participants.
How the Experience Creates Change
On-River Approach
Participants build whitewater skills progressively as they navigate changing conditions, uncertainty, and challenge in individual kayaks. On the river, the way forward is through. If participants swim a rapid, our guides are there to quickly help them back up, and they continue downstream together. With each challenge, participants discover their capacity to recover, keep going, and do hard things: building resilience, self-efficacy, confidence, and an expanded sense of possibility.
Off-River Approach
Off the river, participants live together as a crew: setting up camp, sharing meals, reflecting on the day, and caring for one another. Guided by LEAP’s CAIRNS facilitation framework, these moments help participants make meaning from what they experienced on the water. Belonging, trust, and reciprocity deepen connections to themselves, others, and nature, creating a supportive community in which individual growth becomes possible.
Connection to Self, Others, and Nature
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CONNECTION TO SELF
Self-efficacy · resilience · awareness
Participants recognize their strengths and expand their belief in what they can do. -
CONNECTION TO OTHERS
Belonging · trust · reciprocity
Shared challenges help participants give and receive support and experience belonging. -
CONNECTION TO NATURE
Awe · restoration · perspective
Immersion in wild places creates space to slow down, gain perspective, and reconnect.
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Each program offers two ways to experience the river: individual inflatable kayak or paddle raft. In kayaks, participants learn to navigate the river independently, guided and supported. The paddle raft offers a shared path, moving together, supported by a guide, and grounded in teamwork. Participants can move between vessels, honoring their needs and choosing how they meet the river.
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Challenge looks different for everyone. Paddling your own boat builds confidence and self-trust; paddling together builds connection and shared strength. By offering both, we create space for growth, courage, and belonging, without forcing a single path forward
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Approaching a rapid naturally awakens the body’s stress response, the same system that activates during moments of fear or overwhelm. On the river, this response is met with care, choice, and support, allowing participants to experience challenge in a safe and guided way.
The river mirrors life: moments of calm, moments of challenge, and everything in between. Through reflection and shared conversation, participants carry the confidence and self-trust gained on the water into life beyond the river, long after the current slows.
LOWER SALMON RIVER PROGRAM PARTNERS
(Partnership Est. 2017) “LEAP inspires students to see new sides of themselves while building friendships, creating an inclusive environment that encourages connection, confidence, and mutual respect.” - Linda Johnson, Edison High School, Dean of Students
(Partnership Est. 2012) “The experience strengthens bonds between youth and mentors through shared physical and emotional challenges, fostering trust, vulnerability, empathy, and connection in a supportive outdoor setting." - FriendsPDX Program Partner
(Partnership Est. 2010) “The energy and support from the community you travel with is phenomenal, and the connections formed don’t end on the river—you carry that sense of belonging home with you.” - Legacy Oregon Burn Center Participant
(Partnership Est. 2011) “Youth navigated class III and IV rapids during the day. In the evenings, they participated in intentional activities and conversations that gave them space to reflect on the day and how those same skills can help them navigate trauma and adversity in their lives at home.” - NAFY Partner
(Partnership Est. 2015) "The program gives patients the opportunity to step outside the hospital setting and build community with others facing similar health challenges. Time spent together in nature offers benefits that cannot be replicated within hospital walls." - Program Partner Staff
(Partnership Est. 2017) “The free nature of the wilderness combined with the welcoming posture of the LEAP staff creates an environment which allows for human connections to flourish in a way that is rare to find in everyday life." – UKANDU Volunteer
LOWER DESCHUTES RIVER PROGRAM PARTNERS
(Partnership Est. 2021) “After a program, our youth truly become ‘CultureSeed Youth,’ and we see a noticeable increase in their participation across all of our programs, resources, and opportunities.” - Andrew Jiminez, Program Director, CultureSeed
(Partnership Est. 2025) Engages Warm Springs youth through culturally grounded water education, whitewater kayaking, and Ichishkín language instruction, reinforced by immersive river experiences that strengthen connection, resilience, and community.
(Partnership Est. 2021) “This mini-community of teen survivors build confidence, face fears, practice advocacy, and gain independence, profoundly impacting each youth in a manner that will remain with them forever.” - Raphael House of Portland Program Partner
How Life Expands on the River
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Participants learn to safely navigate Class III–IV rapids while building confidence, decision-making skills, and trust through shared challenge on the river.
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Guided reflection and group collaboration help participants learn from their experiences and choices, strengthening both individual growth and group connection.
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Participants unplug from daily pressures and engage in well-supported, healthy risk that builds resilience and new tools for managing stress
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LEAP leaders guide through questions, coaching, and deep listening, creating meaningful learning experiences without providing therapy or clinical services.
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Programs honor human differences and encourage participants to claim their sense of self, persevere, and challenge perceived limitations.
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LEAP fosters environments where people feel safe to connect, support one another, and experience joy together.
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By providing supported first-time wilderness experiences, LEAP helps participants develop appreciation, responsibility, and connection to the natural world.
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River programs take place on the Deschutes River in Oregon and the Salmon River in Idaho, offering immersive experiences in powerful and protected landscapes.
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LEAP operates under Leave No Trace principles, modeling respect, care, and responsibility for the lands and waters that make this work possible.