Adventure with Purpose: Supporting Youth Through Experiential Learning

In this episode, host Sherry Bagley talks with Caitlin McCormick Small, Executive Director and CEO of Project Adventure, and Laura MacDonald, Education & Training Senior Consultant, about their paths into experiential education and the organization’s evolving work. They reflect on Project Adventure’s origins in 1970s Massachusetts as an early leader in challenge course programming and discuss how the organization has refined its focus in recent years. Caitlin and Laura highlight three key areas of Project Adventure’s work today: school- and youth-centered experiential programming, challenge course design and training across the Northeast, and organizational development for nonprofits. They also discuss a renewed therapeutic adventure model launched during the pandemic through a partnership with Gloucester High School, pairing a Project Adventure facilitator with a clinician to lead activity-based support groups that build belonging, mindfulness, and social-emotional skills. Now in its fourth year, the program has expanded to multiple schools, including multilingual welcome programs, with support from the Tower Foundation. Project Adventure is also collecting data from the initiative with hopes of publishing findings that contribute to the field of experiential education.   It's in the Experience is produced by Association Briefings.