Outdoor Chattanooga provides the students registered in this program the opportunity to explore the outdoors, and supports the project which studies who occupies these public outdoor and open spaces and in what ways. OC staff provide the equipment, logistics and expert staff to facilitate a full learning experience.

The Project for Public Spaces says: “For us, placemaking is both a process and a philosophy. It is centered around observing, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work, and play in a particular space in order to understand their needs and aspirations for that space and for their community as a whole.” What that means in a more practical way is that placemaking is a way of connecting people to their communities and helping imagine how everyone in those communities can work together to make them better. The Chattanooga as Text program starts with the idea of placemaking.