Research shows that adults who are interested in hunting but did not grow up in a hunting family need and desire repeated, one-on-one instruction and social support from an experienced hunter to…

Research shows that adults who are interested in hunting but did not grow up in a hunting family need and desire repeated, one-on-one instruction and social support from an experienced hunter to eventually hunt on their own. Learnhunting.ORG provides a platform to allow new hunters to select experienced hunter volunteers and safely and anonymously reach out to them about mentorship. This project will create awareness and interest and drive traffic from 8 pilot states to learnhunting.ORG and encourage them to find a hunting mentor through the platform. The work conducted in the 8 pilot states will allow the program further success with other states in each region upon completion of the grant as the program grows more efficiently through learned successes in 2023. Learnhunting.ORG is managed by ihea-USA, built upon previous mscg funded research, and executed on behalf of state hunter education and R3 professionals in every state. Instructor mentor hours and continued education within the platform are tracked and delivered to state agency teams through personalized state administrator dashboards. Every state is encouraged to take advantage of this program, but this study specifically focuses on two states per region as pilot for widespread marketing and engagement with the public to embrace this national mentoring effort.results will be communicated at afwa summer directors meetings, regional R3 committees, and the communication tools of the R3 community housed by the council to advance hunting and shooting sports to assist states in developing learnhunting.ORG marketing campaigns of their own upon completion of the grant in 2023.