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Program Overview Ridge Creek offers a short-term (26-day), clinically integrated, outdoor leadership program that combines intense therapeutic work with wilderness training and adventure. Ridge Creek is both a cognitive-based therapeutic intervention and an outdoor leadership development program. A structured sequential therapeutic model is utilized that allows for in depth clinical assessment, treatment customization, and discharge recommendations. The therapeutic components are facilitated by full-time, Master’s level counselors who are either clinically licensed or receive formal clinical supervision on a weekly basis. Students and their counselors remain together for the entire length of the program in order to develop deep levels of safety and trust within the group. Essential to the effectiveness of the Ridge Creek program is the seamless integration of the therapeutic and the outdoor leadership curricula. Counseling staff members are immediately available to the field sites and they work together with the wilderness instructors to develop and coordinate individualized plans as required for specific students Challenges and
Teamwork
At Ridge Creek, we challenge students with activities
that stretch their perceived limits of physical endurance, and take
students out of their comfort zones through courses in field skills,
mountaineering, map-reading, land navigation, physical fitness and
environmental science, as well as medical and leadership training.
Physical deprivation is never used. Through these challenges, we develop
teamwork and camaraderie among the students, an enhanced self concept and
foster individual leadership skills. At the end of each day, students are
exhausted but have a sense of accomplishment. We counsel students on their
attitude, behavioral impact on the group, understanding their fears and
impulsive, reckless behavior. At the end of the 26-day program, students
are aware of their previous destructive behavior and want to make an
effort to improve their lives. With learning personal responsibility they
have an increased sense of self-confidence, have befriended their fellow
students, and have a sense of achievement. They return home with great
memories of what they have accomplished at Ridge Creek. Who is this program for? Ridge Creek students represent a broad spectrum of adolescent struggles, ranging from those simply needing to re-focus to those experiencing significant behavioral difficulties. The majority of our students exhibit behaviors that fit the profile of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, though they do not have to be diagnosed as such. Ridge Creek students may struggle with issues of authority and adolescent adjustment. They may exhibit a pattern of negative of negative, hostile, and oppositional defiant behavior. These students lose their temper, argue, actively defy or refuse to comply with adults’ rules or requests. They will deliberately ignore people, blame others for their mistakes or misbehavior, are touchy and easily annoyed by others. They also may appear angry, resentful, spiteful, or vindictive. These behaviors significantly impair social, academic or occupational functioning.
Ridge Creek Program Goals
Curriculum The curriculum includes leadership, environmental instruction, primitive camping skills, mountaineering, topographic map reading and wilderness navigation, medical training to include basic first aid and CPR, physical endurance and muscular development, and daily therapeutic counseling. A Parent Workshop is offered at the conclusion of the program to provide parents with advice and information on how to parent their difficult teens. Upon completion, a student receives a total of 2.0 academic credits for Environmental Science, Mental/Social Health, and Introductory Outdoor Education and a certificate of completion of volunteer service work in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Over half of the student's time is spent in Ridge Creek's surrounding wilderness in the Chattahoochee National Forest of the Blue Ridge mountains. When not in the field, there are modern, but simple facilities that include open bay sleeping areas, restrooms, storage for personal items, and a dining area for meals when not in the field. When your child arrives at Ridge Creek, we ask that he/she arrive with only the clothes on their back. Ridge Creek provides everything from toothbrush to socks and shoes, from shampoo to backpacks. Anything that your child brings will be bagged up and locked away for the duration of the program. We encourage you to keep things simple and not pack a thing! Cost
Of Program
Ridge Creek is a short-term to moderate length program depending on the needs of the child. The initial four week includes group, individual, and family counseling as well as all new gear which the student takes with them when they leave. Students may stay past the initial four weeks in order to continue their therapeutic and academic work until it is time for them to return home or to their next placement.
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