Our vision for the future here at NorthWoods includes a campus and facility that is accessible to all people – even and especially those we’ve historically missed. With that in mind, one of our ongoing priorities is to invest in improvements to our home campus and ensure our mission and facilities are welcoming to all members of our community. With that in mind, we are excited to embark on the latest campus update—the Access for All Initiative.
As a first step in this initiative, we will renovate the NorthWoods main lodge and relocate the main entrance to the west side of the building, providing a more obvious point of entry and an improved approach for those of all mobility levels. The public bathrooms in the lodge will also be renovated to bring them to the latest ADA specifications.
In addition to building upgrades, we are very excited to begin the process of sharing our outdoor campus space with a wider audience by developing our first on-site all-persons trail. NorthWoods crews have worked on Universally Accessible trails at locations across the region, but this will be our first time implementing those practices on our home campus. We are currently working with trail accessibility experts on the feasibility stage of the project to determine the best scope and location for the trail. We are soliciting feedback from a range of stakeholders and are particularly interested to learn from those who may not have previously been able to access our trails. If you have an interest in accessible trails and haven’t heard from us yet, please reach out if you’d be interested in contributing to this effort!
Funding for this projects is provided in part through a Rural Business Development Grant from USDA-RD.