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You are here: At-Risk Youth Programs

'At-Risk' Youth Outreach Efforts

Click to find out >> What are the benefits??

Our animal-centered programs are based on the concept of "Humane Education" which teaches how and why animals should be treated kindly.

"...The values humane education promotes in children's dealings with animals - respect, responsibility, empathy, fairness and compassion - apply as aptly to their relationships with people." (2001 L. Winiarskyi)

Farm Study Programs
Our Farm Study Programs provide urban children with a unique opportunity to interact with friendly farm animals and access to a working ranch located just minutes from the Bay Area. The program offers children a hands-on experience that is educational, as well as engaging and memorable. The children collect fresh eggs, feed sheep, brush a pony, mingle with pygmy goats and pot-bellied pigs, and gently stroke a chicken in their laps.

The goal of our Farm Study Program is to teach children respect for living things, to use gentle behaviors, and to honor the earth. The stages of the 2-hour program are carefully sequenced to help children work through any fear of animals they might have and explore new learning opportunities in a safe and nurturing setting.

Team Building/Challenge Course Programs
Deer Hill Ranch's Team Building Programs consist of low and high ropes course challenge initiatives, animal interaction activities, and specialized games, all which utilize trust building and group problem-solving exercises. These activities teach kids how to be more inclusive, cooperative and respectful of each other. Our programs aim at improving the social growth and resiliency of at-risk children. Exercises and debriefing sessions are geared to empower participants, teach awareness, help members be supportive of each other, and enable them to discover how to cooperatively make group decisions and carry them out. One teacher noted after a team building with his 7th grade class that "cohesiveness was much greater and the biggest thing was that the kids bonded. The kids were less on their guard...they worked together really well for the rest of the year."

The gentle farm animals at DHR are a distinctive and highly effective element in our program for at-risk youth because the children more readily build trust and become comfortable with animals than humans. The natural setting of the Ranch, coupled with hands-on interaction with the farm animals, provides a safe place to help the children learn to experience trust, improve their ability to communicate,
and build their sense of self-esteem.

Challenge by Choice
Our "Challenge By Choice" High Ropes Course is a series of challenges derived from the Outward Bound program. Wearing belay harnesses, one or two participants climb up a pole to each event. Participants work through their fears with the help of their teammates on the ground, and achieve a new understanding of the importance of teamwork while completing the course events, under the guidance of a skilled facilitator.

Teaching through Nature
"It's a different kind of world to grow up in when you're out in the forest with the little chipmunks and the great owls. All these things are around you as presences, representing forces and powers and magical possibilities of life that are not yours and yet are all part of life, and that opens it out to you. Then you find it echoing in yourself, because you are nature." ~ Josepn Campell

Many "at risk" kids have never had an opportunity to spend time in nature so they are unfamiliar with the many benefits it can provide. Our "Teaching through Nature" program component which we can include in working with "at risk" youth is geared to helping them understand the following:

• The earth is to be honored. When kids who are not usually exposed to this environment are acclimated to ways in which they can connect and interact in mindful and respectful ways with the earth, powerful things can happen to them.
  
  
• In learning respect for the earth, they also learn respect for themselves and other living creatures.
  
  
• Depending on the needs and background of the group, we incorporate teachings from wisdom traditions or indigenous ancestral groups. Or, using experiential exercises, we teach them mindful, walking meditation or how to go to a centered place from which to make decisions.
  
  
• We teach the kids how to be connected with the earth and nature and how to look for these connections in their every day lives, be it a tree or a plant in their neighborhood or a bird flying above.
  
  
• Using natural, found objects from the ranch such as birds' nests or animal tracks or scat, we help connect the kids to the wonder of the natural world. Initially, they might recoil from interacting with these sort of things but after a while, we are able to engage them in the magic of nature's creations which helps them to become comfortable and grounded. Humans seek a connection to the earth and little by little, using sequenced activities, we help these kids attain this connection.
  
  
• The kids learn that they are never alone, that they are connected with the strength and support of nature. They learn that they have a choice in how they act in relation to the earth and its bounties and just knowing they have a choice in their behaviors can be incredibly empowering and lead to wonderful things.
  
  
• We all know that just stoppping for a few minutes and looking at the stars or a hawk soaring above can be relaxing and restorative but alot of kids today have never experienced this kind of peace. Depending on their environment, they may never have been taught that it's okay to stop, to rest, to not have constant stimulation. Studies have shown that constant states of arousal or hyperactivity in relation to one's environment or way of being can lead to violence and disease. Using playful and fun techniques based in a natural setting, the kids experience what it is like to actually de-stress. Once they have experienced this state, they can go back to it on their own. The physiological and psychological benefits to these kids from this one experience alone can be enormous.
  
  
• Our programs are highly effective because we use experiential education techniques. These techniques help the kids internalize the learning they experience at the ranch coupled with frequent debriefings which help them process what they have experienced. They leave with "felt knowledge", something it sometimes takes years to achieve.