In-person R3 programs for hunting and shooting sports are important to help many participants build skills to feel confident enough to participate in the activity on their own

Most states offer R3 programing, however a common barrier is not having enough volunteers and mentors to meet program demand. In addition to needing volunteer instructors and mentors in general, its essential our volunteers better reflect the diversity of the general population. Currently, program volunteers are predominately white males. Its critical to make outdoor spaces more inviting to underserved, nontraditional audiences including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled, and the lgbtq community. One way to do that is to ensure our volunteers are reflective of all audiences and create a sense of belonging for students. The purpose of this program is to increase not only the total number of volunteers in the northeast, but to intentionally work to also increase the diversity of volunteer instructors and mentors so participants can see themselves reflected in the volunteers. To complete this project, the northeast association of fish and wildlife agencies (neafwa) R3 committee, using research and best practices already completed, would work with a marketing firm to identify key messages and ways to reach to new volunteers and mentors. These will be developed into resources for state agencies to utilize. In addition to having proper messaging and imagery to help recruit new volunteers, its important to make sure the process of becoming a volunteer is simple to reduce barriers for new volunteers. Neafwas R3 committee will work with national partners including the council to advance hunting and shooting sports, international hunter education association, aquatic resources education association, and recreational boating and fishing foundation, to develop recommended volunteer and mentor standards, processes, and onboard resources for volunteers and mentors. Once the messages and standards have been developed and shared with neafwa states, a marketing campaign will be implemented in the northeast to increase volunteer and mentor participation. The expected outcome of this campaign will be an increase in volunteers for participating neafwa states, an increase in mentor sign-UPS on the learnhunting.ORG website, and an increase in the diversity of volunteers.