A program that takes an outdoor approach to help at-risk students achieve their potential is set to begin in the Delta School District.
Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation has partnered with the district to start a program next month at Delview Secondary that will have about 17 students, aimed at helping them develop social and emotional skills as well as improve physical and mental well-being.
Take a Hike began in Vancouver in 2000, a full-time alternate education program that uses the outdoors to engage students.
“Our goal is to help students build the skills and resilience they need not just to graduate, but to navigate life as they become young adults,” the foundation’s website states.
Embedded in each classroom is a full-time registered clinical counsellor who provides intensive support, helping students to build social and emotional skills and address mental health concerns. Take a Hike is one of the few educational or outdoor programs in B.C. that has dedicated mental health services woven into the program.
“Students spend all day, every day with the same 20 students and four staff members. The classroom quickly feels like a tight-knit family. The classroom is built on a foundation of safe and caring relationships, a safe and predictable environment, tailored supports and strategies aligned with attachment-based and trauma-informed approaches, continuous and intensive shared time and learning among staff and students, and high expectations for student success,” the website states.
The program has students outdoors one day each week with three multi-day wilderness trips each year.
Recently having made a presentation to the Delta board of education, Pete Prediger, director of operations with Take a Hike Foundation, told the Optimist that Delta has many incredible outdoor spaces for students.
“In many cases, they don’t even know what’s right outside their door, so it gives them an opportunity to experience those places. We also go further afield, so we spent some time on the North Shore mountains, for example,” he said.
Prediger added one of the therapists who will be in the Delta program is already in the district and knows students who will be taking part in Take a Hike. Those students got to learn about it ahead of time and all agreed they wanted to be part of it.
According to the Take a Hike Foundation, which has expanded to several other school districts, on average, 80 per cent of its students graduate from high school. In 2018, the number was as high as 97 per cent, even higher than the provincial graduation rate.
