Adventure Challenge
The Adventure Challenge Program for Youth At-Risk
In addition to its programs for independent and public school students, the Boojum Institute has offered, since 1993, outdoor adventure programs for at-risk youth through its Adventure Challenge Program. The 
grant-supported Program provides an environment in which at-risk youth can build the healthy social skills that are critical in the development of their personal, academic and career potential. The primary objectives of the Program are to address barriers to achievement through group and individual exploration and to involve students in dynamic activities that help build self-confidence and self-esteem. We hope to infuse the students with a sense of their roles as productive and supportive adults within their communities.
The Adventure Challenge Program offers a variety of outdoor programs ranging from one-day challenge courses to ten-day mountain backpack expeditions. Each program provides outdoor learning environments with a high instructor to student ratio. Activities that allow students to expand personal boundaries such as challenge courses, rock climbing, route finding and canoeing also challenge students to work cohesively as a group.
Program Overview
With the Adventure Challenge Program the Boojum Institute partners with community organizations to provide economically disadvantaged or at-risk youth an opportunity to participate in wilderness-based experiential education programs. Although some community organizations are able to help cover the costs of these programs, most of the Adventure Challenge Programs are made possible by grants and donations.
Goals & Objectives
The goal of the Adventure Challenge Program (ACP) is to provide an environment and the tools for participants to explore and achieve personal, academic and career potential. The objectives of the Program are to increase at-risk youth participation in partner agency programs, decrease school truancy, improve academic performance, enhance relationships with families, peers and adults and reduce association with gangs and other negative activities within the community.
The ACP achieves these objectives through a progression of wilderness-based programs designed to help participants replace destructive behavioral patterns with a positive vision and new, sustainable, behavior patterns. A variety of themes are stressed in the Program, including healthy life choices, cross-cultural awareness, community skill building, academic success strategies, career exploration, self-discovery and leadership development.
Description
The Adventure Challenge Program has a long-term positive impact on the teenage at-risk youth it serves because it is a thoughtfully designed collaboration between agencies, which serve at-risk youth in their neighborhoods, and the Boojum Institute. Partner agency leadership and staff are involved in the planning and development of the Programs to ensure that the ACP helps further their goals at the agencies. Partner agency staff go into the field with the at-risk participants as co-facilitators with the Boojum staff and are great role models for the youth because they too are often operating outside of their comfort zones on the Programs. The progressive, multiple component structure of the ACP provides youth with the opportunity to participate in several programs over the course of a year.
The Program incorporates cross-cultural themes, such as expansion of racial boundaries, prejudice reduction, interpersonal skill development (communication, self-awareness, self-assessment, etc.), listening, feedback skills and positive community involvement. The physical activities such as hiking, backpacking, tent camping, rock climbing and canoeing challenge youth to work individually and as a cohesive group. This leads to the emergence of self-confidence, a sense of personal responsibility and the commitment to be positive influences in their communities.
All of the Adventure Challenge Programs are run "expedition style" which requires youth to fully participate in all of the tasks and responsibilities of living and building community in wilderness settings. Wilderness camping challenges participants to function cohesively as a group by working together in activities ranging from setting up tents and cooking meals to selecting hiking routes. Using a variety of outdoor venues and professionally facilitated activities, the ACP assists at-risk youth in developing and exploring the following:
• Leadership skills
• Effective goal setting
• Effective communication
• Problem solving tools
• Peer-Peer relationships
• Peer-Adult relationships
• Cross-cultural awareness
• Conflict resolution
• Healthy life choices
• Career potential
Sgt. Nick Aldana
Juvenile Division, Youth Programs Unit, LAPD
Los Angeles
Program Locations
The Adventure Challenge Program uses all Boojum's course areas, from the Colorado River to Yosemite and locations close to urban areas.
Marcia Berman
Los Angeles Leadership Academy
History
In 1993, the Boojum Institute made an institutional investment in the development of programs for the at-risk segment of the youth population. Drawing upon Boojum's history of providing effective youth programs since 1975, the Institute has developed the Adventure Challenge Program (originally called the Up-Rising Program). The Program has grown incrementally as the Institute learned how to provide effective programs for at-risk youth, developed relationships with partner agencies and schools, and secured funding to support these programs.
Juan Suarez, Program Director,
Salvation Army Red Shield Youth and Community Center, Los Angeles
A group of urban students completed a five-day Joshua Tree National Park experience with the Adventure Challenge Program in the spring of 2007. Click here for to view the PowerPoint slide show of the course, which included hiking, talus cave exploration, natural history studies, rock climbing, and a service learning project.