Where We Work: The Upper Valley Stewardship Center
For apprentices who are ready to fly high, The Trade is connected to the Upper Valley Stewardship Center. Based just down the road, the Center worked for more than 20 years to get people out in nature, stretch their limits and push their boundaries. They split their programming offerings for local schools and the public, offering a mix of ropes courses and high adventure opportunities.
Where We Work: The Glades
At the Trade, our outdoor opportunities for apprentices—both work and play—are one of our greatest strengths.
Of the 2,000 acres that make up The Mountain, over one fourth of them are comprised of glades—ungroomed, wooded areas, either on defined trails or off-trail, for skiers and snowboarders.
Where We Work: The Mountain and The Innstead
For more than 40 years, the Wolter family has owned land in the White Mountains to serve as a wellness outpost—starting at around 200 acres and growing to around 2,000. Today, the Mountain hosts the Innstead Mountain Getaway, miles of hiking, biking, and ski trails, and the Upper Valley Stewardship Center.
Bill and Siobhan Kearney are the primary caretakers on the Mountain and run the hospitality business. They’re intimately familiar with the land, having lived on-site or nearby for over a decade.
Origins of The Trade
The Trade recently interviewed Will Laughlin, CEO, about the origins of The Trade.
Hi Will. So, to start, can you tell me a little bit about the company behind The Trade?
Sure, Sarah. The Trade is a new project of Moosilauke Visions, a non-profit that creates, operates, and supports a network of small, high-quality mental-health, education, and wellness companies. We have been quietly doing this work for about forty years.
We think the best "people" work happens in small autonomous programs with passionate leaders and experienced teams. So, we work hard to create and support programs like that.
The Trade: Helping Young Adults Launch Through Real Work, Mentorship, and Community
Tim Vaughan, Executive Director of The Trade, and Will Laughlin, CEO of The Trade and Mountain Valley Treatment Center, appear on the Fear Less podcast. Together, they discuss The Trade, a new work-life preparatory program for young adults (ages 18–30) who feel stuck, disconnected, or unsure about their next steps. Drawing from decades of experience in education, mental health, and mentoring, Tim and Will explain how The Trade provides meaningful work, mentorship, and a supportive community—all on a 2,000-acre mountain campus in New Hampshire.
When the Work is the Program
Young adulthood is marked by the furious development of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for higher order thinking and feeling—including lofty existential concepts such as personal meaning.
For many, this sudden hunger for meaning only highlights its absence. It is not unusual for young people, especially the most sensitive and perceptive among them, to experience this existential appetite as a painful unsatisfied hunger. As lostness. As boredom. As anxiety. As loneliness or, even, depression. It’s what the French existentialists called “ennui”, and the psychologist Viktor Frankl called “man’s search for meaning.”