Fieldtrip to Utah

‘Yes, we can Change!’ - Fieldtrip to Utah,

Our fieldtrip with Dutch educators was a big success. In the historic week of the election of Obama as the new president of the US, we were the guests of two of the best facilities for ‘troubled teens’ in Utah. As far as we know there are no such programs, far away from civilisation, anywhere in Europe.
We visited the Diamond Ranch Academy (www.diamondranchacademy.com) and the wilderness program of RedCliff Ascent (www.redcliffascent.com) both for two days. Then we spent three days in Zion National Park to translate our experiences into our own situation in the VIC Workhomes in Holland (www.asvz.nl) . With a new vision on leadership and cooperation we returned home, eager and ready to improve our own work. Perhaps some form of sharing of knowledge with our colleagues in Utah will be possible in the coming years.

Both the Therapeutic School and the Wilderness Program are good examples of passionate professionalism. The people behind it work from their heart and from a clearly defined vision and intention. Their programs are well structured, beginning at a ‘homeless stage’ and ending in ‘graduation’, where the students are reunited with their parents (see their own videos). Both have chosen a psychological model for their therapeutic work. The DRA works with the ColorCode of Taylor Hartman (www.colorcode.com). RedCliff Ascent with the well known Transactional Analysis model (www.itaa-net.org). They are ‘in the business’ for more than ten years and they are very proud of their work and their results. The state of Utah has defined a strict set of rules and their inspectors inform themselves well on what is happening in the field. Both are members of the National Association for Therapeutic Schools and Programs (www.natsap.com), that has formulated the groundrules for this kind of work and organises conferences twice a year.

As all the different facilities in Utah work on a profit basis, there is much competition in this business. That’s why they are interested in getting their name on the top ten list of programs for troubled teens. Independent Educational Consultants in the US advise parents on which facilities seem to be the best to help their children to cope with their specific troubles. These consultants also are paid on a profit base. That’s one of the limitations of this system: only rich parents can afford these facilities. Generally the program at the Diamond Ranch Academy takes ten months (costs: $ 65.000,-) and at the RedCliff Ascent three months ($ 42.000,-). Most people have to make loans for this amount of money. As banks have become more critical for giving loans, this might become a problem for the business.

Sodalis Trainingen is interested in bringing people together that might be interested in setting up this kind of work in Europe. RedCliff Ascent would be more than willing to share their experiences and they invite other groups to come and see how it works at their location. Dutch television has already shown some of their work, although RedCliff Ascent was not so happy with the strong emphasis on the more spectacular and emotional aspects. For excellent articles on the results of wilderness programs see www.wilderdom.com van James Neill and www.wildernesstherapy.org .


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