Over the course of three summers, Sierra Health Foundation hosted a weeklong summer youth development camp for REACH coalitions at its Grizzly Creek Ranch retreat facilities in Portola, California. Located 130 miles east of Sacramento, Grizzly Creek Ranch is set in the mountains of Plumas County and encompasses 1,500 acres of forests, streams and…

Camps have long addressed multiple components of young people's development, including spiritual development. In particular, transcendental communion with nature and the outdoors may provide one pathway for young people's spiritual development. The physical, mental, social, and spiritual growth of young people has been at the core of camps for…

The National Indian Youth Leadership (NIYL) model was created to develop leadership skills for Indian youth to perform their future roles in the family, school, tribe, and nation. The model not only instills leadership skills and values through hands-on learning opportunities, but also challenges youth to apply those skills through projects they…

Both participants in the Ontario Camp Leadership Center at Bark Lake and their sponsoring organizations agreed on the benefits of the leadership development experience and enthusiastically endorsed the program. Researchers conducted a 19-question telephone survey of 202 program participants and a 32-question survey of 40 sponsors and 20…

Camping or other outdoor experience is seen as an alternative to incarceration for youth-at-risk, matching the excitement of the street-gang society or peer group, while simultaneously giving youth-at-risk a sense of the reason for teamwork, adherence to a group-respected value system, regard for skills and abilities of others, plus a…