Objective
Our main Objective is to support at risk youth with Relapse Prevention skills for ongoing success.
Description of Agency Services:
WYCP delivers a non treatment wilderness experience which includes solo camping for at risk youth as our Primary Objective of Relapse Prevention. We target at risk youth anticipating a major lifestyle change like program participation, school or employment. This change in lifestyle often results in a relapse back into high risk behaviour and our intent is to bridge that period and better equip the youth to avoid a potential relapse.
Benefits to our initiative include a respite period for the support persons in an effort to help keep the-safe-home-the-safe-home as long as possible for the youth.
A relapse back into at risk behaviour is often followed by a loss of supports and an entry into petty crime to support the youth’s lifestyle choice. We anticipate a lower community crime rate as a result of relapse prevention.
Activities for the Ten Day Challenge:
Staging out of the Provincial Park at Crescent Falls, Alberta, the group then crosses over the Bighorn River and establish a ‘Base’ camp approximately six kilometers into the Bighorn Wilderness Range along the south side of the Bighorn River. This base camp supports four days of basic wilderness training designed to prepare the youth for their personal four day solo camping effort. For the solo experience individual sites are established and each youth is given an area with sufficient boundaries to provide isolation. While the solo exercise is being conducted staff provides recognizance-only support using an ‘All-Safe’ flag system. On the last day staff closeout the Base camp and collect the soloists for their return to Crescent Falls. That evening their challenge culminates with a graduation exercise involving any guests or family able to attend.
Activities to follow up the Challenge:
Ongoing Parental information Workshops along with Mentored programs for the youth are offered for twelve months following the Challenge. These are delivered by Agency Partners in our office location and provide an opportunity for the youth’s support persons to participate in our evaluation process.
Quote from our Founding Director:
Solo camping requires extreme self awareness and positive body management......recovery from high risk behaviour also demands extreme self awareness and positive body management....we use the solo wilderness experience to teach the youth how to discover these valuable skills within themselves so as to be successful in their personal life plans.