As the founder of Wild Craft Play 'sCool, doing this work for 20 years, we recognize that Covid has had a huge tole on all of us, and that we are beginning to re-set.
One thing I don't know if everyone realizes, that as resilient as children are, they have been hit with the experience of Covid hard, and if we aren't offering a therapeutic place for them to make sense of the world, to physically release the trauma of their experience through play and time in Nature, then we need to re-consider how we show up for them.
In 2004, I started SoLe Adventure to help youth at risk as their "Fun Facilitator" that was my whole job, to do teambuilding and leadership skill development for youth ages 15 to 30 who had fallen through the "cracks" and play with them outside. I was 23 at the time, and I came to understand that after 3 years in the field doing this work, I wanted to work with younger children, to prevent the things that I had witnessed...
Hard knock youth fresh out of juvenile detention, being hookers on the street, abducted, muscles in their legs so messed up they couldn't walk from all the heroine they were injecting, can't hold down a job because of PTSD, FASD, Addictions, homelessness. This work felt like a last resort to get them clean and off the streets.
At the end of every day I had my own 1 hour counselling session just to cope with what I held... I used to sleep 14 hour nights just to show up for these youth.
I wanted to create a world where children could escape form reality and develop life skills through play, actively in Nature... like a video game.
I don't think people realize what it takes behind the scenes to do this good work; the communications, marketing, fundraising, resource maintenance and management, skills and training, writing reports, phone calls, being a confident and competent guide who can manage social and emotional behaviors, who navigates the nuances with parents and children, community development, connection to the land and people.
You can't throw a newbie into doing this type of work.
It also requires funds. Here is our Club Profit and Loss statement from 2023.
Written by founder Jamie Black, MA, BI
Jan 23, 2024
We ask you, will you contribute so that we can continue to do this good work?
~~~
We call what we do a movement, fostering trust through choice and learning as a community of practice. By clicking this link, you are requesting information about our community of practice and support, and the possibility of becoming a patron.