U.S. Navy veteran Chad Brown talks about his outdoor nonprofit, Soul River Inc., and how the outdoors saved his life.
There are lots of reasons people choose to get outside. For some, the reason has a deeper meaning, like healing from trauma. After returning home from two military deployments, Chad Brown was experiencing PTSD. And he was homeless.
After struggling with PTSD and depression, he founded Soul River Inc., a nonprofit to engage and connect veterans and youth through various outdoor experiences.
“We are a nonprofit focused on bringing veterans as mentors and inner city youth together into the wild rivers of nature. The hope is that it encourages youth participants to grow and become ambassadors of our natural environment,” reads Soul River’s mission.
In this video, Brown talks about how he copes and his passion for the outdoors. “Fly fishing is all about how you present yourself to the river,” he says. Brown is also a photographer and conservationist. He has a service dog named Axe.
You can learn more about Soul River Inc. here.