Every child needs access to a quality public education that gives them the opportunity to reach their full potential, but not everyone fits into the mainstream school system.
Take a Hike partners with public school districts to engage vulnerable youth in a full-time mental health and emotional well-being program embedded in an alternate education classroom.
Our mission is to empower vulnerable youth with the skills and resilience they need to graduate high school, build healthy relationships, navigate the challenges of young adulthood, and achieve success - however they define it. We do this by engaging youth in intensive and continuous clinical counselling, regular outdoor adventures, and supporting youth in a safe and caring community.
Over the past twenty years, Take a Hike has developed a proven, trauma-informed, evidence-based program model that has transformed the lives of hundreds of youth in B.C. along with their families.
Academics
Self-paced, individualized education plans and a focus on experiential learning give youth the opportunity to relate to academics differently and take all the courses required to graduate high school.
As well as spending 4-days a week in the classroom, youth spend one day each week learning outdoors where they can test and apply knowledge to real-life situations. Youth report increased engagement in academics and course retention by learning experientially and in the wilderness.
Youth take all courses with the same teacher in the same classroom and they are supported by a team of volunteers, ensuring they receive more time, attention, and encouragement than larger schools can afford. Small class sizes of 12 to 20 youth also allows for a close community feeling in a safe, inclusive and caring environment.
Counselling
Embedded in each classroom is a full-time registered clinical counsellor who provides continuous, intensive support, helping youth develop social and emotional skills, work through challenges and address mental health concerns.
Take a Hike is one of the few educational or outdoor programs in British Columbia that has dedicated mental health services woven into the program. For many of our youth, Take a Hike is their first encounter with mental health services.
Whether checking in for ten-minutes between classes, or taking the time to work through a personal crisis, youth have access to full-time mental health support both in and out of the classroom.
Our clinical counsellors use a trauma-informed approach and a range of evidence-based theoretical models tailored to the individual student’s needs and the needs of their family. Clinical counsellors engage in regular clinical supervision and their work forms part of almost twenty years of practice-based research.
Adventure
Spending time in the outdoors engaged in fun and challenging adventures provides youth with regular opportunities to disconnect from technology and social media, as well as substance use and other habits. while developing resilience and self-awareness that help them navigate the challenges of life and achieve their goals. Physical exercise and mindfulness practices improve mental and physical health, and working in teams helps youth build and test relationships that are supported by a team of trained staff.
The Take a Hike program involves one full-day field trip each week and three multi-day wilderness trips ranging from 3 to 10 days depending on the student’s grade level and the season. Spring and fall actives include hiking, kayaking, canoeing, mountain biking and indoor rock-climbing, while winter activities include snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, and ice-skating.
Around half to three quarters of our youth will leave the city for the first time with Take a Hike.
Community
Every week at Take a Hike our youth engage in service-learning and volunteering in their community in the spirit of giving back in gratitude for the support they have received. Through this volunteer work youth also experience first hand the value and significance of their own contributions.
Youth are supported in the classroom by volunteer tutors and mentors who offer specialised skills to help them with different courses, and encourage them with their academic work. Through this community in the classroom youth learn to realise they are surrounded by safe and caring adults, and to trust that they belong to a community that cares about them and who can support them.
At the heart of the successes we see in youth is a unique program community. Youth spend all day, every day with the same twenty youth 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, inclusive, 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.
Learn more about our program model and evidence-based theory of change, developed over almost twenty years of youth success.
our impact
What your support makes possible.
Over the past twenty years the Take a Hike program has supported hundreds of youth to transform their lives.
At Take a Hike, youth go through a process of gaining self-understanding and come to see the need for personal change. This leads to incredible growth:
Engagement
Youth are re-engaged in school and community. Most youth double their pre-program school attendance levels, and on average our youth spend 60 hours per year volunteering at a local organization.
Academic Success
On average, 90% of Take a Hike youth graduate from high school. In 2019 the number was as high as 97%, compared with provincial graduation rates of 84%.
Resilience
Youth develop social and emotional skills, and improve physical and mental well-being. This supports them to overcome barriers to personal and academic success, and become resilient individuals who can navigate the challenges of young adulthood, build healthy relationships, and pursue their goals.
Our alumni success stories show the lasting impact of these skills and experiences well beyond graduation.
scaling
Since the first program opened in 2000, Take a Hike has grown into five school districts across BC, continuing to expand each year to meet the needs of more vulnerable youth.
Because of our youth's success, we set an ambitious ten-year vision of scaling this proven and successful approach to alternate education so every school district in British Columbia with a need, desire and capacity can access the program. Find out more about our scaling strategy here.
Take a Hike Foundation works in partnership with local school districts and communities to offer the program. School districts provide everything they would normally provide for an alternate program and the Foundation layers in elements beyond the capacity of the public education system, including full-time clinical counsellors, adventure based learning and experiences, a meal program, and more. Communities build awareness, provide volunteers essential to program operations, and raise funds on a best-effort basis. Find out more about the new program development process here.
Ready to get started?
Contact us at expansion@takeahikefoundation.org
