Purpose: Our Pathfinders-Adjudicated Youth programming is designed to strengthen interpersonal relationship skills, bring out and develop personal assets, and help participants grow into positive members of the community.

Accomplished Through: Pathfinders-Adjudicated Youth programming utilizes both our traditional outdoor experiential education Pathfinders programming as well as expressive arts and community building activities such as group drumming, self-exploration collages, and community meal preparation. Our work with adjudicated youth has been some of our most in-depth programming and in each session we gear experiential activities and related processing around a specific interpersonal theme. Programs are several sessions long with each session being half-day. While our programming is adaptable to meet the needs of specific groups, a list of time-tested themes is below:

Session 1- Tone setting, Icebreakers, and Group Cohesion
Session 2- Team Empowerment
Session 3- Advanced Team Empowerment
Session 4- Risk taking and Trust
Session 5- Trust: Self and Other
Session 6- Goal Setting and Overcoming Challenges
Session 7- Effective Communication
Session 8- Life Skills Integration
Session 9- Community Sharing and Wrap-up

Audience: The Pathfinders-Adjudicated Youth program is designed for adjudicated youth of all ages. Since 2002, Common Ground has collaborated with the Lorain County Court of Domestic Relations-Juvenile Division in providing Pathfinders programming to its residents. Due to its success, the court requested that Common Ground restructure and enhance the program in 2006. The court also requested that Common Ground conduct evidence-based tests, which have demonstrated significant positive change in participants. Common Ground is open to continuing to expand its programming by collaborating with psychiatric treatment centers and juvenile detention facilities on Pathfinders-Adjudicated Youth projects. Please contact our youth program coordinator today to explore possibilities.