One of the goals of Youth Connections is to provide youth with opportunities to build skills based on their personal goals through exploration within their community and alongside their peers.
Those who participate in our program have identified goals such as: building community awareness, developing social skills, learning how to make small financial transactions, building independent living skills, and just generally participating in activities that are typical for youth their age to be doing during the summer months. For many of the youth, the most fun adventures are had during our day trips.
On our first day trip out of town this summer, we visited Camp Kintail. Although our day started out with lots of rain, we spent our morning indoors making a fire, cooking and eating bannock, and making some beaded salamanders. We were hopeful that the rain would clear up so that we could get outside, but, as Callum said: “It’s not that bad if we get to eat Bannock and chocolate chips all morning.”
We were lucky that the rain cleared up for the afternoon, and we got to go down a giant slide, try archery, and tackle the high ropes. David was glad he got to go down the “coolest slide ever!”
When we tried archery, there were many shouts of “I was SO close to hitting the target” and after a few practice rounds, we heard lots of “I did it!” All of the youth were so proud of themselves for hitting the targets. We also saw so many brave youth make it to the top of the high ropes, and despite some concerns from the top, everyone made it back down safely! While waiting for their rides at the end of the day, there were lots of positive comments from the youth (“this trip was awesome,” and “I can’t wait to try more activities the next time I come!”). Many thanks to Camp Kintail for hosting our group and showing everyone such a great time!
On our second day trip, we travelled to Goderich to visit the Huron Historic Gaol and Museum. Here, the youth were able to learn all about how the jail functioned, and got to see all of the different rooms and equipment that were in a jail.
There were lots of comments from the group as we explored such as “this is so cool” - Teegan and “come look at these!” - Ryan. At the museum, we got to see and learn about lots of older farm machinery, trains, army machinery and equipment, and took a trip back in time to see what stores and different community buildings looked like.
Caty told us it was “so cool to be able to sit in a real train!” After all of our learning, we took a trip over to Little Bowl and tried bowling. Ryan was so proud of himself for getting multiple strikes, especially when Caty and Teegan cheered him on! When the youth were asked what their favourite part about the day was, they unanimously replied: “All of it!”
We are looking forward to many more day trips and adventures to come this summer!