South Park Program working on an exercise in communication and teamwork
This past 2015-2016 school year was a busy one. In total Youth Odyssey had the pleasure of partnering with seven different middle schools in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. Our school programs consisted of after-school and in-school programs where we worked with 6th-8th graders, teaching life skills through adventure education programming.
Life skills programming is a combination of interactive games with the youth, discussions about the activities and what they learned, and worksheets to see how well they are internalizing the concepts. All of which focus on one or more of the six core life skills that Youth Odyssey emphasizes; teamwork, communication, leadership, problem solving, goal setting, and trust.
Martin and Cunningham program on a camping trip
The schools we joined forces with were Baker, Cunningham, Driscoll, Haas, Hamlin, Martin, and South Park Middle Schools. All of our programs spanned the entire school year with the exception of Baker and Cunningham. The Baker program was conducted during the first semester; they were a focused group who enjoyed being in the program. They weren’t exactly sure what to expect in the beginning, but quickly took to it and enjoyed the experience. Cunningham, also after school, took place during the second semester of the school year. It was primarily boys, with one girl. They began the program thinking it was just a recreation program, but as we went on, they were able to focus more on the activities and grew together to become a team.
- Driscoll and Haas program on a camping trip
We had two programs that were held during school hours; Driscoll and Haas. Driscoll was held during the students 3rd period class and would meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the beginning they were a particularly talkative group and getting them to focus was a little challenging. Over the course of the school year, they became less focused on talking to each other and more focused on discussing the activities. It was obvious by the end of the program that they had acquired more of a team mentality and would work together to complete the tasks set before them. Our Haas program spanned two-class periods and met each Monday. It was an all boys group who, with the exception of one student, hadn’t been a part of any prior Youth Odyssey programs. In the beginning, the kids only wanted to run around outside, happy to be out of their class rooms. However, as the program progressed, they began to understand what it was Youth Odyssey was trying to accomplish. They became more focused and were able to complete the activities that were set before them. Over time there was a change in their mentality. They went from being a group of individuals to working as a team to accomplish their goals
South Park and Hamlin working together o our ropes course
The remainder of our programs, South Park, Martin and Hamlin, were all two-hour sessions that met once a week after-school. The South Park program started off with little to no attendance in the first two weeks due to extracurricular activities but after the third week we had consistent attendance. The youth that participated in the program, right off the bat, were focused and respectful. The biggest issue was getting them to calm down during games or after completing an activity so we could discuss what we had taken away from the game. As the program went on there were changes in every participant but in different ways. Some kids who had been quiet and shy in the beginning came out of their shell and spoke up with more confidence while others took their vocal energy into coming up with creative solutions to the problems set before them. These are similar changes that were seen in the Martin programs. There were many kids who were talkative and those who were more shy but throughout the program the talkative ones learned to calm themselves down so they could focus on the activity and those who were more shy started to speak up and give suggestions during the activities. Our Hamlin program, on the other hand, started off pretty rough because there was a mixture of returning kids and kids who were new to Youth Odyssey. The new kids were loud and off the wall which was a source of complaint from the returnees. However, as the program went on, the Youth Odyssey veterans learned how to communicate and use teamwork to help the new kids, which, in turn, created a much better environment for the program and participants to thrive.
Enjoying the view during the Baker camping trip
Overall, our partnership with CCISD was a success. Every one of our programs was able to attend one or more camping trips and ropes courses. Including our Driscoll program which, up until this year, had never been to either a camp or ropes course due to lack of focus. We saw growth throughout every program and both the kids and the facilitators were sad to see the school year with Youth Odyssey end. Though the school programs have come to a close, Youth Odyssey has just started what is to be a fun, full summer schedule of recreation center programs and summer camps . Next weeks blog will have an outline of dates, times, and locations of our summer programs so if you or your youth want to continue with Youth Odyssey programs they can!
