Caitlin McCormick Small, Executive Director & CEO, Project Adventure
Project Adventure is excited to be working with S&S Worldwide to make our products available to you. Whether you run a ropes course, use adventure in your P.E. program, or want exciting new ways to build social-emotional learning (SEL), we have exciting and effective tools to offer.
We are starting by offering a catalog of challenge course equipment and materials, and will gradually build out our offerings for SEL, mental health, and other non-climbing programs.
If you’re curious about ropes courses and how they can be helpful to you – or how Project Adventure can support a program you already run – read on!
Shop All Project Adventure items here >
What is Project Adventure?
Project Adventure (PA) is one of the oldest providers of school-based ropes courses – or, as the industry calls them, challenge courses. Challenge courses include things like zip lines, climbing walls, and other “high” elements that require harnesses and helmets… but can also be all “low” elements, never going more than 24 inches off the ground. The point is how the course provides unique opportunities for groups to work together.
In 1971, Project Adventure started using challenge courses to facilitate “Adventures” with high school students in Massachusetts. These adventures were modeled off the wilderness experiences of Outward Bound, but they took place at schools and, eventually, summer camps and retreat centers. We began building courses for others and training their staff to safely and effectively use them. Project Adventure’s programs were very effective and quickly became popular nationwide.
Over the years we have combined both direct services with youth (facilitating over 7,000 youth each year on our own course in Massachusetts) and building, repairing, and training staff for others’ ropes courses. We also facilitate SEL and mental health programs at local schools, using adventure as a pathway to learning and healing.
The combination of direct service and building/training gives us a unique strength: we have over 50 years of experience in the safe and effective construction and use of challenge courses, and we have real-time, current experience using these tools with young people and teachers. We regularly adapt what we build and offer to others, based on what we learn in the field. We are a nonprofit organization, and we are one of the only challenge course construction companies who also uses the things that we build.
What is a Challenge Course, and Why Have One?
A good challenge course program is a powerful tool for social-emotional learning (SEL) – making it a very relevant and necessary tool for the 21st century!
We build and support challenge courses at K-12 schools, colleges and universities, summer camps, retreat centers, and more. Some of our clients have just one element, like a climbing wall, while others have a dozen or more. Most courses are outdoors, but many are in gyms or other indoor facilities.
The “challenge” in a challenge course can be climbing 30-40 feet up for a thrilling experience in the air, or it can be something much more interpersonal and cognitive: working with others to solve a problem or reach a goal. Sometimes the “challenge” is traversing across a wire strung just 1 foot over the ground, getting all 15 members of your group there safely using only a few select tools. The “adventure” is how a group tackles that challenge together.
Either way, the “challenge” is experiential, meaning that it involves body, mind, and heart. And it always involves a team – it’s never an individual experience, as adventure parks or climbing gyms might be, but rather focused on helping participants work together and support each other.
Challenge courses and adventure programs engage learners – especially those who may struggle with traditional learning and teaching – in practicing SEL skills in real time.
SEL and Adventure
At Project Adventure, we have seen over and over again how a well-facilitated adventure can lead to huge growth in social and emotional skills.
One of our local partnerships is with the schools in a low-income coastal town. Students in their special education program participate in adventure-based therapeutic groups all year long. A Project Adventure facilitator leads a group of 8 high-needs students in games, team challenges, and reflection in the classroom each week, aimed at meeting their therapeutic goals. The year is culminated by a trip to the Project Adventure challenge course.
Every year, that trip is a pivotal moment of growth for students. Counselors and teachers are awed by the changes they observe. As one teacher wrote last year:
Students that usually come across as indifferent stood out as leaders, students that do not like to speak up asked if they could do the zip line, students encouraged each other by clapping when another reached a new height or gave a “you can do it” when another felt like stopping, others owned their fears and either worked to overcome or assisted others from the ground. I left the building yesterday with a smile on my face recalling the gains I witnessed.
Whether it’s a program for high-needs students or an opportunity for all participants at a school, camp, or program, challenge course adventures are transformative experiences.
Learn more about Project Adventure here >
How Do We Start?
If you’re interested in starting to use adventure in your school, camp, or program, a great place to start is training. Project Adventure offers training at our location just north of Boston and we also travel across the country. All offerings can be found at www.workshops.pa.org/
Or, if you’d like to speak to someone on our team about a customized training or about starting your adventure program, our client service representatives are always ready to talk to you about your goals and options. You can reach us at [email protected] or by calling (978) 524-4500.
Lastly, keep an eye on the Project Adventure offerings through S&S! In addition to challenge course equipment, we will soon be offering curriculum, materials, and equipment packs. There are many ways to incorporate adventure without a challenge course.
Supporting a Current Program
If you currently have an adventure or challenge course program, we have vetted all of the equipment provided through S&S and highly recommend it for both safety and ease of use. The products you’ll find here are, we believe, the best in the field and the best for comprehensive adventure programs.
Any questions you have about ordering, using these materials, or receiving training or challenge course services, can be directed to our client services team at [email protected] or (978) 524-4500.
We look forward to working with you!
About the Author:
Caitlin has been Project Adventure’s CEO since 2020. She attended Sarah Lawrence College, received a MA in English from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and a M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts. Caitlin’s early career involved running afterschool and community programs for youth at risk, in partnership with public schools. She then joined The PEAR Institute of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she led a team of consultants and coaches partnering with public schools to enhance social-emotional learning (SEL) programs through data, training, and leadership development. Caitlin is passionate about integrating mental health, SEL, education, and group development in a way that better serves young people and leads to stronger outcomes for underserved communities. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts and enjoys hiking, reading, and sailing with her husband.
