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Youth Programs :: Youth Development
Why are experiential education programs for children and youth important?
Developmental research shows opportunities for active learning that promotes healthy relationships with peers and adults allows youth to gain social skills, build strong community connections and improve self-image.[1] According to parents, children between the ages of 2 and 17 spent nearly 6 ½ hours a day in front of a screen (television, computer, video games).[2] With children and youth exposed to more than 40 hours of screen time per week, mass media may influence self image and social skills more than positive relationships with peers and adults. Outdoor (ed)Ventures programming offers a number of engaging, challenging activities for young people to explore, activities which can be enjoyed well into adulthood.
Youth participants learning how to harness a draft horse, build a battery from a potato or bake a loaf of bread in a solar oven have less time to engage in high risk behaviors such as alcohol, drug and tobacco use, as well as violent and sexual behavior because of their involvement in Positive Energy for Youth Outdoor (ed)Ventures programming.
Because recent studies on brain development confirm that the brains of young people go through critical developmental stages during adolescence, and addiction to drugs, alcohol and nicotine products are more likely to develop during adolescence than in any other time in a person’s life, it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for youth to experience positive behaviors, relationships and activities that mass media and popular culture does not.[3] Youth are natural risk takers—if safe environments for exploration and growth are not provided, youth will find their own opportunities to expand their limits, sometimes with devastating results. Every youth has the potential to experience high levels of success and serious difficulty as they navigate childhood and adolescence—Positive Energy for Youth Outdoor (ed)Ventures maximize opportunities for success by providing challenging learning activities, a safe space to explore meaningful relationships with peers and adults and opportunities for decision making.
[1] Challenging the Potential, Weikart, 1994
[2] Woodard, 2000.
[3] WHY do they Act that Way?, Walsh, 2004
