Our
Mission
ZHC is a secular and inclusive community of home-educating families. Our members collaborate to share and create opportunities to connect through social and educational enrichment.
About ZHC
Zootown Homeschooling Community
Our members have a shared commitment for enriching our children's education beyond the confines of traditional classrooms. Our homeschool group fosters a vibrant environment where curiosity and discovery flourishes. We provide access to field trips, community service efforts, and other opportunities traditionally not available to homeschool families in the Missoula, Montana area. Since our inception two years ago, we have been able to provide our families access to local collegiate sports games, reading challenges, holiday parties, private gymnastics and swim classes, service with a local nonprofit, among many others. In our private Facebook Group, parents exchange ideas, resources, and experiences pooling their collective expertise to ensure each child receives a well-rounded education tailored to their unique interests and learning styles.
Our
Story
In 2022, our Founder, Katherine Porter, was homeschooling alone. Each homeschooling family she met had different information about what was available in our area. She knew there had to be more homeschoolers out there and wanted to help them find their community. So she created a simple survey and sent it out to inactive local homeschool Facebook groups to see if anyone wanted to help build an active community for park dates and field trips, to help create a database of what is available to homeschoolers, and who was interested in bringing this idea to life. We initially started with 50 families in June 2022 and as of May 2024 we had 308 families who were offered 21 events to join that month. With this growth and excitement for our community we decided to pursue nonprofit status to protect our group in perpetuity and best support our volunteers and members.
​Our families play a central role in creating learning opportunities for their children. This has been through organizing guest lectures and workshops led by local experts to coordinating group outings at museums, parks, and cultural events. Our families harness the power of collective ingenuity to spark curiosity, ignite passion, and deepen learning. Our volunteer team is able to support the ideas brought forth by serving as a sounding board and helping provide logistical insight and community connection.