Purpose: Common Ground’s Pathfinders programming focuses on enhancing young people’s sense of relationship with themselves, each other, and with the world. Pathfinders programming builds personal assets, leadership skills, and self-esteem in its participants and challenges young people to see how their actions play a role in the larger community.

Accomplished through: Experiential outdoor adventure challenge initiatives, games, and related discussions and processing. We encourage participants to develop and utilize life skills such as teamwork, trust, communication, problem-solving, and creativity. Healthy risk-taking is promoted and participants are challenged to engage one step out of their comfort levels through their own personal choices (Challenge by Choice philosophy). We are committed to instilling a respect for nature by bringing young people into direct contact with the outdoors and the natural environment.

The following are a few of our specific initiatives:

•    Life Line - Participants must walk tightropes suspended between trees while their peers act as "spotters". Processing on goals, life path and direction with an emphasis on positive vs. negative life "spotters" and awareness of the difference.

•    Spider Web - Participants must work together as a team to pass through a "spider web" which contains holes of different sizes and heights off the ground. Processing on importance of recognizing diverse abilities and working as a team to accomplish a common goal.

•    Human Knot - Participants link hands to form a "human knot". They then must find a way to untie the "knot" and reform the circle. Processing on the interconnectedness of individuals in a community, effective communication, and how one action affects the whole.

Program lengths vary from 1-9 sessions of several hours each session.

Audience: Pathfinders programming is tailored for youth of diverse ages and backgrounds who are dealing with distinct issues. Secondary, middle, and elementary school classes, adjudicated youth, student leaders, vocational students, troubled youth, and others have all benefited from our programming. The Pathfinders program accommodates youth groups from as small as six to as large as sixty participants.

Registration: Please contact our youth program coordinator to learn more about collaborating on a Pathfinders program.