True North Expeditions is an innovative adventure program designed to work with struggling adolescents in the Adelaide area. The upcoming two week expedition in the Flinders Ranges will begin on 11 March 2013 for students, aged 13 to 18, struggling with behavioural and emotional issues. Enrolment is open.

Social worker and director of True North Expeditions, Will Dobud, belives that adolescents benefit from experiences that increase self-esteem, awareness and sense of worth. His experience in working with problematic issues in the family has sent him all over the world guiding these adventure programs to help young people become more successful at home.

True North Expeditions’ specialises in students that are dealing with issues that complicate life for the family and performance in school. Students that complete the 14 day program will be prepared to return home motivated to make positive changes. The staff will continue supporting each family after the expedition.

During the final two days of the expedition, each student’s family will join the young person to work with one of the counselors to create a plan of action for a successful return home. This also provides time for each young person to show their family what an amazing experience they have had and begin to rebuild the chemisty that makes for a peaceful home.

Contact Details:
Will Dobud
will@truenorthexpeditions.com.au
Phone: 0477 161 768
Fax: 8271 5599

http://www.truenorthexpeditions.com.au

As our adventure therapy program is growing and we meet with schools to help them with their students that are struggling, we are innovating new creative ideas to grow our organisation and work with as many young people as possible. After travelling to Port Lincoln and swimming with great white sharks, sea lions, and adventuring around South Australia, we realized the potential for programs over the school holidays dedicated to leadership and adventure, that all young people can take part in with no clinical criteria.

During the time I spent working with Potomac Pathways, an aftercare and follow up program for young people that have graduated from residential/wilderness programs, we worked only a short distance from an outdoor adventure company called Calleva. Calleva inspired me every time we worked together. They had a summer camp that worked with thousands of kids, provided outdoor education workshops for schools, and had their own sustainable facilities. More importantly, their programs were aimed at fostering leadership and group participation skills through experienced outdoor guides and experiential adventures. I learned a lot from watching Calleva staff work with young people and the way they ran their organisation with pride and integrity.

As we have sat in meetings planning our school holiday programs, we've taken a bit of Calleva's view on adventure. We are going to fill a week long session with as many engaging adventure activities as possible. As we plan it we're looking to offer rock climbing, kayaking with dolphins and shipwrecks at Garden Island, mountain biking in the Adelaide Hills, an overnight in the southern Flinders Ranges, surfing, high and low ropes course initiatives, and adventure caving all while holding the True North Expeditions' values and mission of empowering young people to become aware of their own strengths and resources that are readily available for use.

We're scheduling out this program and will offer a week long session twice over the next school holidays in April. We will offer a program for younger kids 9-12 and to those enrolled in high school. We are so excited about this new aspect of our program and believe that it's an honest and true sidekick to our already growing adventure therapy programs.

Check out the video we made after taking a small group diving with Sharks and Sea Lions in Port Adelaide. Incredible!!