City Kids in the Wilderness: A Pilot-Test of Outward Bound for Foster Care Group Home Youth

Abstract

Children in urban foster care settings, rarely have the opportunity to participate in adventure-based wilderness experiences, such as Outward Bound. This paper describes the use of a seven-day Outward Bound experience with 23 youth from four foster care group homes in Atlanta, Georgia. The effort examines data collected before and after the program documenting the perspectives of the youth, their foster parents, and their foster care workers in regard to the impacts on the youth. The research highlights the difficulties of evaluating a field-based experience, and provides data that illustrates the potential effects of Outward Bound on youth in group-home care. Further research is needed to fully demonstrate the effects of such efforts and to identify how to best tailor the experience to the needs of youth in urban foster care settings.

Keywords

Outward Bound foster care adventure-based education

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