Voyageur Outward Bound School receives $100,000 grant

Funds will triple the number of St. Paul youth to be served in learning expeditions.

SCE (www.scefdn.org) has awarded a $100,000 grant to Voyageur Outward Bound School to increase and augment its outdoor learning expeditions.  The funds will allow the organization to triple the number of youth it will serve in its 2014-15 partnership program with Open World Learning Community School and St. Paul Public Schools.  The program will use experiential learning to challenge participants to understand that they are capable of more.

“If we want our kids to be successful in life, they have to believe in themselves,” said Jack Lee, executive director of Voyageur Outward Bound School (VOBS), the national leader in experiential and outdoor education.  “Life will always be filled with test and difficulty.  Our young people have to find grit and resilience so they can bounce back from adversity, discover solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and handle life’s challenges.”

VOBS was one of eight grant recipients that were chosen from among 250 of the nation’s top youth organizations.  The funds will allow VOBS to have three staff members participate in an 18-month project, broadening the nonprofit’s capacity to serve at least 50 more 6-12 grade students.  The leadership program centers on developing social-emotional learning skills such as determination and collaboration through a process which helps people learn to recognize and manage their emotions to build skills and resilience. 

Students will participate in numerous types of experiential leadership, and team- and confidence-building programs.  These programs include the high ropes course, canoeing, rock climbing, orienteering and snowshoeing.  These programs will be single day experiential programs and multiple day expeditions, where they will travel and camp together for several days, learning to apply their skills and leadership and team skills to successfully complete the expedition.  These programs take place at local regional parks like Lebanon Hills Regional Park, Interstate Park, and national treasures such as the St. Croix River National Scenic Riverway. 

Learning to see challenges as opportunities instead of roadblocks is not an easy task.  The expeditions help students meet and overcome challenges, then, seek out new challenges so they can develop a mindset in which not immediately succeeding doesn’t mean it’s time to give up.  In other words, challenges are more enticing to an individual who has strong social-emotional learning skills.

Within the program’s progression, instructors facilitate challenges and provide motivational coaching so they understand their students’ starting points and how they want to grow and learn, and how they can contribute to the students’ success.

“By leveraging the power of collaboration, the students find the confidence and perseverance to empower themselves, and to make better choices,” said Lee.   “And, by discovering their strength of character, they can become leaders and can develop the determination to serve their community.  It is a revolutionary process that can reframe ‘who I am.’” 

The grant also advances a partnership with the U of M’s Center for Research and Educational Improvement to evaluate the program.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s Outward Bound character-building experience

At a recent conference at the U of M, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman reflected on a 21-day adventure he experienced with Minnesota Outward Bound.  Coleman said leaders must take steps to build the social-emotional skills of children and youth in the community, not only through collaborative support for the schools, but also through afterschool programming, outdoor experiences, and building the skills of staff who work with youth.  Coleman says the experience “helped me build ‘character,’ or, in today’s language, the social-emotional skills of resiliency and self-worth. I doubt that, but for them, I would be the mayor of St. Paul.”

Coleman added that our children and youth need the social and emotional preparation that enables them to be engaged in learning, effectively deal with and learn from failures, work through their conflicts, and become confident, caring and contributing citizens of our communities. To do that, our educational programs — both inside school and out — must focus on the development of the whole child.

About Voyageur Outward Bound School

Founded in 1941, Outward Bound is a national non-profit educational organization that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through challenging learning expeditions that focus on character development, leadership and service.  Its world renowned outdoor programs help individuals and teams discover strength of character and an aptitude for leadership needed to serve others in their community and care for the world around them.  Outward Bound (www.outwardbound.org) serves 70,000 students annually and has a nationwide community of more than one million people.  Locally, Voyageur Outward Bound School (www.vobs.org) serves over 1,200 students a year.