Take a Hike Merritt
In partnership with SD 58 and based at the Community Learning Centre in Merritt.
Opened in 2024 and serves up to 20 youth. For intake information, please contact Adriane Mouland, Principal, at amouland@365.sd58.bc.ca or 250-378-5131 (available September – June).
Applicants will be interviewed and notified of their status. Upon acceptance to the program, youth must sign a medical clearance form before attending classes.
Take a Hike empowers vulnerable youth through a full-time mental health and emotional well-being program embedded in an alternate education classroom. Over the past 25 years, Take a Hike has supported over 1,000 youth, to change the trajectory of their lives.
Take a Hike partnered with School District 58 in September 2024 to open the Merritt program at the Community Learning Centre. Together, we engage up to 20 youth per school year by combining high quality education with intentional, continuous clinical counselling, community initiatives, and land-based learning. We empower youth with the skills and resilience they need to graduate high school, build healthy relationships, and achieve success – however they define it.
The pandemic intensified mental health challenges for youth everywhere, and nowhere more so than in the Interior, where the health authority reports almost double the rate of youth suicides compared to the provincial rate. As the youth mental health crisis continues to grow across Canada, the demand for Take a Hike’s transformative program is rising. Take a Hike demonstrates the powerful combination of mental health supports and land-based learning, as youth report a greater sense of purpose, community and self-awareness, and are more likely to graduate high school.
While in the Take a Hike program:
100%
graduation Rate in the Merritt Program in 2024
99%
reported having safety in expressing their feelings at Take a Hike
96%
of youth reported learning skills and knowledge to be successful in the workplace
Youth in the Merritt program regularly explore nature and engage in community building opportunities that the area offers, such as local hikes, scavenger hunts, and sessions on camping trips and wilderness first-aid. These activities allow the youth to connect with their surroundings and meaningfully support each other when overcoming challenges. They also encourage youth to develop new skills, relationships, and levels of resilience that help them to graduate high school. Last year, out of all the youth able to graduate, every single one did! To celebrate, the team hosted a special lunch and created personalized certificates and statues for each graduating youth, presented in a mini Oscars-style ceremony. It was a wonderful way to honor just how far each youth has come.
