Adventure Village Summer Program

During the summer months, the The Charles F. Hayden School at Boys & Girls Village offers a special summer school program for boys and girls ages 6-15 entitled, Adventure Village. Boys & Girls Village operates its Adventure Village summer school program in conjunction with Project Adventure, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Hamilton, MA.

Project Adventure, Inc., has designed and delivered thousands of youth programs since its inception nearly 30 years ago within the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District in Massachusetts. Its interdisciplinary approach includes components in physical education, academics and counseling. The program was granted national demonstration site status in 1974. For decades, hospitals, counseling centers, corporate training programs, camps, universities and schools have implemented one or more aspects of the program.

Curriculum Outline

In simple form, the Adventure Village curriculum seeks to identify and implement task oriented activities that require individuals and their team members to use their existing and acquired skills in planning, analyzing, organizing and communicating. A continual focus is placed upon members not only to solve tasks, but also to develop team and individual skills.

The Adventure Village curriculum offers a seamless approach to the overall curriculum presentation, with the more formal educational and physical educational/challenge activity elements combined and unified, as practical, during all program periods.

For instance, writing, and mathematics are presented in a formal classroom setting using traditional curriculum materials and aids. However, interwoven into the presentations will be the other facets of the adventure-based curriculum, including:

• Model Building
  
• Yoga
  
• Arts & crafts offerings
  
• Ceramics
  
• Photography
  
• Drawing
  
• Silk screening
  
• Batiking
  
• Nutrition
  
• Computers
  
• Creative writing
  
• Storytelling
  
• Biblio-therapy
  
• Adventure Experiences (Challenge physical education)
  
• Rope Climbing
  
• Hiking
  
• Races
  
• Group sports activities

There are many opportunities to combine the common elements of traditional curriculum with related physical activities for the group to learn through hands-on experience. For instance, the study of geometry and math is complemented by model airplane building, with the study of aerodynamics, lift and related science topics.

Program activities also reflect sensitivity to the cultural diversity of group members, an important facet at Boys & Girls Village, where we serve boys and girls classified as children at risk of educational failure, a significant number of whom are minority (mostly Black and Hispanic) clients hailing from Connecticut's nearby urban centers of greater Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury.

The qualities that make up the adventure approach and the learning from experience model include:

• A sense of adventure, unpredictability, drama and suspense
• A consistently high, but accomplishable level of expectation.
  
• A success orientation where team growth and learning is supported and encouraged, and the positive is emphasized.
  
• The creation of an atmosphere of mutual support, where cooperation, encouragement, safety and interpersonal concerns are stressed.
  
• A sense of enjoyment and fun, coupled with the challenges of learning by doing.
  
• An emphasis on group problem-solving where rewards are given for team effort rather than individual success or competition.
  
• The creation of a learning environment outside the traditional classroom that is more complex, more engaging, less predictable and less familiar.
  
• The merging of intellectual, social, physical and emotional learning experiences.

Of course, in designing new courses and offerings, we will take into planning consideration: appropriateness of age; time-of-year; group size; prior physical and/or adventure experiences, and, school-based versus off-campus activity locations. As part of the planning and implementation of adventure-based programming, we continue to send our teaching and professional staff to pre- and post-summer school program seminars and training sessions -- as time and finances permit.