we’re getting inspirational! focus on social impact with youRhere Modern Retreats.
Our mission at YRH is to cultivate amazing experiences for members of our broad community whilst helping the world in the process, social responsibility. While we pride ourselves on maintaining safe spaces and secure travel experiences, expanding our clients’ minds and world-views are our bread and butter. Each retreat we design, each virtual event we plan, each experience we present with our trusted partners: they all fall under our three main pillars.
environmental impact. community. lifestyle.
We’re sure you’ve heard the phrase, “leave it as you found it.” There’s also a good chance you’ve heard the modified version, “leave it better than you found it.” Often used to encourage humanity to keep their local beaches clean (a vital practice, if you ask us), this phrase truly applies to… well, everything. We believe our underlying purpose is to affect change in these crucial areas of life.
environment
Through our Modern Retreats and other travel-based experiences, we’re making great strides to improve our surroundings. Every location we visit has its own story to tell—this includes its land! It’s our job, as visitors, to preserve the nature and do what we can to give it a boost.
Each experience is carefully vetted through a sustainability lens—our goal is to cause as little negative change to the environment as possible, while simultaneously making distinctly good changes through group clean-ups, providing reusable travel items, and reliance on each destination’s version of eco-tourism. A wide swath of humanity has gotten used to traveling with a certain level of comfort in mind: while this ideology has produced harmful effects over the years, youRhere aims to prove that you don’t have to sacrifice ease and enjoyment to be eco-friendly.
Learn how we use our mission for positive social impact on the environment through our bi-weekly newsletter (focused on sustainability and earth-friendly travel practices—sign up below), our blog (gifting you various tools to practice self-care in the least harmful ways), and our sustainability events (hosted both in person and virtually).
what youRhere is doing in the community to help the environment?
Even during times of uncertainty, youRhere Modern Retreats continuously re-commits to our core values: the promotion of culture, cuisine, sustainability, and positive social impact. At YRH headquarters in Los Angeles, California, the latter two values have drawn our team’s extensive attention throughout the past year. We’re exceedingly passionate about our home here in LA—which includes keeping it clean and healthy!
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with The Surfrider Foundation: a nation-wide organization dedicated to the protection of the world’s oceans and beaches. With a litany of inspiring programs—including a classic favorite of YRH’s: the Ocean-Friendly Restaurants list—it’s easy to select programs that speak to you… and get involved!
Team YRH is excited to get involved in another campaign of Surfriders: Hold on to Your Butt.
In addition to its name inspiring many “Ooh! What’s that?!” responses, this program has sparked awareness and action items surrounding discarded/littered cigarette butts throughout the city of Los Angeles. Some little-known facts about cigarette butt pollution:
- Around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every single year.
- Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, or thin plastic filaments, with 15-17K strands per butt—irresponsibly discarding butts puts plastic/harmful materials out into the environment.
- Cigarette butts are the number 1 most common piece of litter removed from our public parks, trails, beaches, and community streets.
The Hold on to Your Butt campaign is an ongoing effort: placing & maintaining ashcans for quick and responsible disposal all over the city. The butts are collected and sent off to TerraCycle—an organization specializing in recycling, well, hard-to-recycle items. From there, the butts are transformed into reusable objects (ashtrays, benches, and even elements in functional art… incredibly rad).
Team YRH has installed and begun maintaining two ashcans already—if you’re out and about: both cans are hangin’ in Venice Beach around the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Ashland Avenue… and we have plans to increase our count! The program is growing: currently installed ashcans span the westside from Pacific Palisades to Venice. As restaurants are beginning to open back up, it’s the perfect time to get involved—many smokers discard cigarettes in front of food establishments. Interested in adopting an ashcan? Reach out to the Surfrider Foundation via email: hotyb@la.surfrider.org
community
From youRhere headquarters in sunny Los Angeles, to the tropical and adventurous Bali, to the culturally rich Turkey, and beyond… YRH cares deeply about locals. Locals from anywhere. Yes, we realize how strange that sounds. We design our experiences with fellow human beings at the forefront of our minds to positively impact the lives of others. In the case of our Modern Retreats, we hone in on you (our incredible clients with a thirst for knowledge and adventure!) and our host community (the amazing people living in our travel destination). Our goal is to foster deep, meaningful connections between you and our host community. A hefty portion of the proceeds from each retreat go right back into the destination’s economy: supporting local artisans, chefs and restaurants, tour and excursion guides, privately-owned accommodations, cultural sites, museums, recreational venues, and even host families kind enough to share their time—and often, their table—with our group.
Learn how we use our mission for positive social impact to benefit our fellow humans through our bi-weekly newsletter (we’ll review the trips we’ve taken and the people we’ve met), our experience page (where YRH & our trusted partners host exciting, interactive events), and our virtual events (connecting you with experts and fellow jetsetters around the world).
lifestyle
Whether or not we’re able to traverse the globe right this very second, being a worldly human being requires a certain state of mind. You don’t need to be filling your calendar with back-to-back trips to qualify as a YRH jetsetter! No matter where in the world you may hail from, youRhere wants to expand your mind, promote social justice, create individual social challenges, personal impact strategies and help you maintain beneficial habits. We invariably believe that serving ourselves is just as important as serving the environment and the community. Our staff and our fellow experts are dedicated to bringing you the resources you need to travel the world… and come home to yourself. Through mindfulness exercises, extensive mental health information, and resources to help you express your gratitude, get organized, and achieve your short- and long-term goals: we catalyze your mental journey in tandem with your physical journeys. Self-care make seem like a *buzz term,* but it is a pertinent step toward discovery on all fronts.
Learn how we use our mission for positive social impact to help you develop beneficial habits with our bi-weekly newsletter (we include mindful segments in each iteration), our lifestyle blog (our writing team pair with our mental health experts to bring you helpful tips and tricks to maintain life balance), and our virtual events (where we host educational, entertaining experiences focused on expanding your horizons all year long).