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About Clients Our Mission Staff News PA Programs Overview Accreditations & Partners Social & Emotional Learning SEL PD for Educators SEL Programs for Students SEL School-Wide Consulting Mindfulness Training Programs Youth College & University Professional Development Professional Team Building Virtual Learning Workshops Challenge Course Design & Installation Recent Course Work Design & Installation Inspections & Repairs Element Gallery Store Store Use bullets​ t o page through quotes Contact Us Call Us 978.524.4554 1597332348000 Learning Through Adventure Letter from a trainer: This past winter and spring, retired Project Adventure (PA) Executive Director, Dick Prouty and Icollaborated on a writing project with our partners at the Cambridge Institute for Brazilian Studies (CIBS) and Dominique Bernard, a PA collaborator in France. Dominique, a man with deep expertise in positive youth development and experiential education, recently stepped back from on-the-ground international NGO work to launch the educational e-magazine, ‘Cooperative Approaches’. Published every two months by an international and multidisciplinary editorial team, Cooperative Approaches aims to promote dialogue, experiential learning, and cooperation in five key areas: youth education, adult education, organizational management, social action, and civic engagement. It is circulated widely and bi-monthly in 4 languages. The 6th edition titled ‘Learning through Adventure’, is dedicated to Project Adventure. It captures key moments in PA history, our highly inclusive methods for group development, and global reach. There are also stories and images of innovative programming within the US and globally. The closing commentary by our new executive director, Caitlin Small deftly fits all those full experiences into this present moment in time. Read the full text in English, French, Spanish, or Italian along with journal overview and subscription information. Please take a look and dig in. Our intentions are that it sparks curiosity,demonstrates the depth and wide adaptability of our methods, and inspires. Feel free to comment, share widely, and print if like me you can only stare so long into a screen. In the spirit of Adventure,Larry Childs, PA Senior Trainer & Consultant 1588909263000 Project Adventure Appoints New Executive Director Transitioning Leadership to Move Project Adventure's Work Forward BEVERLY, Mass., May 8, 2020 – Project Adventure (PA) announces the appointment of Caitlin McCormick Small as Executive Director to lead the experiential learning organization’s activities to empower and strengthen schools and communities. Caitlin joined PA in June 2019 as Director of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), continuing PA’s foundational work and offering an engaging and practical approach to the teaching and learning of SEL skills and programming for whole school communities. Prior to PA, she spent six years as a trainer, manager, and coach of training and curriculum at The PEAR Institute of McLean and Harvard. Caitlin succeeds Richard Ross who had been PA’s Executive Director since 2015. “Richard was instrumental in stabilizing PA’s finances and returning the organization to break-even performance over the past five years. His unique combination of financial, administrative, and leadership skills established a solid foundation on which to build,” says Christopher Weld, Chair of the PA Board of Directors. Mr. Weld continues: “We are excited to have Caitlin Small lead PA in the next phase of our evolution. She has proven leadership skills and will guide our strategic vision for PA to be the leading consulting and training organization for adventure education, specializing in social and emotional learning.” Caitlin’s educational background includes a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College (Presidential Scholar); an MA in English from Bar-Ilan University, Israel; and an M.Ed. in Education Transformation from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has also earned a certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Tufts University and the Institute of Nonprofit Practice (INP). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PA is staying in contact with clients to understand their needs and plans, and is offering many of its most popular workshops online starting in the summer of 2020. We look forward to reopening our full line of services and programs when it is safe and appropriate to do so. ABOUT PROJECT ADVENTUREProject Adventure is an innovative non-profit teaching organization and a respected leader in experiential programming offering a wide range of programs as well as challenge course design and installation. Since 1971, Project Adventure has created and facilitated shared learning experiences that empower individuals to be responsible leaders and strengthen their communities. For more information, visit www.pa.org. 1587601393000 Letting Go & Moving On in the time of Pandemic 22 April 2020 What unusual times we are living through. Just when I thought I had wired professional norms for doing business and managing positive relationships, everything changed! We are all having to grieve the loss of a known harbor and to contend with the unsettled feeling of being unmoored. As my colleagues have been discussing, however, we do not have to be sea-sick for long. We just have to seek guidance from our Full Value Commitment together. Like a solid Emergency Action Plan, our Full Value Commitment is constructed and refined during times of relative comfort so that it can provide guidance with our decision-making when we are adrift. Of the six Project Adventure Full Values, I have been thinking most recently about the tenant, “Let go and move on.” In particular, how this value relates to Challenge by Choice. Over the years I have had a few incidents that have really put me out of my comfort zone. I’m not talking about any of the big wall or high altitude mountain climbing experiences I’ve been privileged to complete even when there has been plenty of hurt and mayhem around. No, I’m talking about karaoke, or...acting on a stage. It has always been odd to me that I am very comfortable talking in front of large groups, but give me a script and ask me to act, sing, or dance, and the sweat starts to drip! Over the years I have chosen (yes, Challenge by Choice) to actively avoid such situations, even when goaded to “step out of your Comfort Zone, Austin.” At this point, my reticence has been almost pathological. Ironically, I have been married for more than 30 years to a person who excels in these environments. My partner has been performing and teaching performing arts to hundreds of students throughout our life together. It has always amazed me that her students have blossomed in ways that are so surprising and profound.Over the years we have talked about the similarity between performance art and adventure outcomes. Both allow the performer to experience intense emotions and discover a new sense of self. Both take intense focus, courage, and surrender of the known. Both are active and encourage reflection. And both most often require strong partnerships. Recently, we have both struggled to find ways to bring our active learning professions into the online world. I guess I should not have been surprised the other day when she said she needed a partner for one of her early filming attempts for a lesson plan for her students. Being confined to the house, I was in no position to refuse. I did, however, hem and haw, and ask for an overabundance of information about the scene to be filmed, despite the fact that I was a bit player. I fidgeted endlessly with camera position and fretted about what I would say. Towards the end of my perseverating my partner reminded me that this was improvisation, there was no script, and this was supposed to be fun. Just “LET GO!” I can’t count the number of times I have heard myself say those words to students on the rope...