FAQ About Our Experiential Adventure-Based Resiliency Model
Experiential Education and Adventure Theory
What is Experiential Education?
There is no one consistent definition of experiential education. Many point to the definition set forth by the Association of Experiential Education: "a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values." Experiential education and adventure believe and practice that at the heart of all learning is bringing meaning to our experiences. The meaning making process is critical to understanding and learning from our experiences.
What is Adventure?
Adventure is a way of doing; it is not just an activity in and of itself. If the word adventure conjures up images of things like rock climbing, rafting and parachuting, pause for a moment and imagine instead the way in which an activity is performed. A session becomes an adventure for participants if an element of surprise exists, if activities compel them into doing things they have never imagined possible. Adventure exists when there is engagement, and engagement comes from providing participants with experiences that are unique and relevant and, hence, therapeutic and/or educational. These concepts are equally true for and applicable to all SFMC participants, from a youth organizing initiative to one of our therapeutic programs.
Adventure includes challenge—moments when participants are on the brink of both success and failure and where they both succeed and fail. Adventure is about taking risks—not necessarily physical risks, but emotional and apparent physical risks, where participants see the natural consequences before them. Connecting action to consequence is vital; knowing it is one thing, experiencing it is another. For participants to experience adventure, a program must provide physical and emotional safety—a space where participants can speak their minds and push themselves to new limits. While all of this is hard, it should also have a purposeful element of fun/play through which participants become willingly engaged.
Why Use Adventure?
Adventure helps us practice the resiliency and positive values in which SFMC believes. Adventure values who we are and what we know right now as it helps us grow.
- Adventure, when well done, is engaging—it is fun and participants want to take part.
- Adventure learning allows participants to experience a behavior (positive or not), reflect on that behavior, learn to replicate or diminish that behavior (as is appropriate) and learn how to transfer that positive behavior to other settings.
- Adventure requires its participants to be responsible to self, community and others.
- Adventure requires its participants to grow. Participants will not be able to "sit" in their comfort zone, but must learn in their stretch zone.
- The adventure process relies on peers—those from whom the developmentally typical youth seeks approval.
- Adventure is assets-based. While not ignoring those areas where participants need to grow, it focuses on cultivating and developing strengths.
- Adventure, you will find, is well aligned to provide SFMC participants with the skills and perceptions advocated by: the Search Institute, resiliency theorists and researchers, positive youth development theorists and researchers, Stephen Glenn, youth organizing principles and the guiding principles of SFMC.
Resiliency Theory
What are Resiliency and Positive Youth Development?
Resiliency and positive youth development are closely aligned—addressing the person holistically and focusing on individual assets rather than deficits. Research, beginning in the 1980's which focused on children and youth, showed that while some people who were exposed to high risk situations developed anti-social behaviors, the majority did not. For example, research has shown that one in four children who grow up in an alcoholic home will become alcoholics, BUT three in four won't.
Building upon this realization, researchers worked to discover what was preventing people from behaving in anti-social ways. Their developing understanding is that people have strengths which programs and institutions can develop and enhance that will protect them from poor outcomes. Researchers further developed the understanding that people could bounce back from participating in unhealthy behaviors and become competent, well adjusted people. Resiliency and positive youth development both have an approach which says it is vital to build upon strengths people already have. Positive youth development looks not only to how your organization can be an agent for promoting positive youth development, but how your organization can work with other institutions in your community to do so. "The resilient child is one who works well, plays well, loves well and expects well."1 Social competency, problem solving skills, autonomy (a strong sense of identity, an ability to work independently and a belief that you will be effective) and a sense of purpose and future are all commonly identified attributes of resilient children and youth.2
Garmezy, Norman. "The Study of Competence in Children at Risk for Severe Psychopathology." In The Child in His Family, vol. 3: "Children at Psychiatric Risk," edited by E. J. Anthony, 1974, 77-98.
2Benard, Bonnie; Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School and Community; National Resilience Resource Center, University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN; www.cce.umn.edu/nrrc