Abundant Life Academy Challenge Camp

Program Description

The ALA Challenge Camp is designed for students 12 to 17 years old.  The ALA Challenge Camp is an early-intervention program presented as a “wake up call”, attempting to stop the downward spiral of the once promising teen.  The typical Challenge Camp student is a good kid, has been raised in the Church, knows right from wrong, and has tremendous potential.  He/she is currently unmotivated, angry, defiant, and/or is in rebellion against parental authority.  The typical Challenge Camp family is confused as to why their child is spinning out of control.  They know something is wrong, and everything they have tried has not worked.  This family has determined that they need outside help from professionals who work with troubled teens.

The ALA Challenge Camp is an intense and highly structured 52-hour leadership camp: implementing such tools as calisthenics, high adventure ropes courses, teamwork initiatives, and work projects.  This segment of the program is very disciplined, as the students quickly understand that they are not in control of their lives (in need of intervention), and they have been making bad choices.  The students come to understand that they have been undermining their every effort to gain independence and are losing the control of their liberty.  Highly trained staff challenge the camper in all aspects of their life (emotionally, physically, and spiritually).

Additionally, the Challenge Camp experience includes “Debriefings” and “Leadership Classes”.  Debriefings and Classes are experiential, a “time-out” from the physical demands of the camp, where the staff and students discuss the in-depth experience of each event, and relate to how it applies to life and liberty.  This is where the staff transforms from “disciplinarian” to trusted “mentor”.  The staff open up about themselves, becoming transparent and vulnerable, relating to the students how they ventured down the same dead end road when they were teens.  The success behind the Challenge Camp hinges on the staff becoming trusted mentors.  Our staff lead, guide, instruct, and mentor.  But before they can have a positive impact on the student they have to become “real”.  It is during the debriefings and classes where the student starts to breakdown their hard exterior and become willing to open up, to grow, and to reclaim their destiny.

Along with the “Debriefings” and “Classes”, the Abundant Life Academy Challenge Camp Staff will present breakout sessions throughout the 3 days of the challenge camp.  These breakout sessions are designed to help the student to become more emotionally mature, and build powerful and effective relationships.  These breakout sessions are informative and life changing.  They help the student to better understand themselves and others.  They reveal the best parts of the student’s personality, providing encouragement and hope.  In addition, the student starts to understand “why they do the things they do”, in hopes of taking charge and becoming responsible for all their actions.

Breakout sessions includes topics such as “Personalities Insight’s” DISC Assessment, “6 Second’s” Emotional Intelligence, and the “Arbinger Institute’s” Leadership and Self-Deception (Choice Theory).  Each student, upon entering the Challenge Camp program will be given a personality assessment (personality temperaments, strengths, and weaknesses).  The results will be discussed during the first breakout session.  Furthermore, through the breakout session’s students will come to understand exactly what “Emotional Intelligence” means (know yourself, choose yourself, give yourself).  Moreover, students will learn that their everyday choices determine their level of freedom and liberty.  During these segments students will get their first taste of how to properly relate to others by understanding how to effectively communicate and get their immediate needs met without destroying their future.

During the 3-day Challenge Camp our goal is to give our students a “wake up call”.  We also want to simultaneously give them hope.  Essentially, it is time to get their life back under control before serious consequences take away all options.  We want to encourage them to get the most out of life now, without giving up their hopes and dreams for the future.  We hope that each student will learn to work together with others, and to effectively deal with frustration and adversity.  We hope to help each student to develop analytical thinking skills and to learn to problem solve without losing their cool. Moreover, we hope to teach our students the power behind submission to authority.

Through these events our students will build confidence by accomplishing more than they ever thought they could.  We hope to undermine the “selfish” and “self-centered” attitudes of our students by teaching them how and why they should serve others.  Our hope is that the Abundant Life Academy Challenge Camp will help the student to recognize negative attitudes and self-defeating beliefs (thinking errors and victimization).  Finally, we hope that our students will be able to immediately apply what they have learned and begin to restore their relationships with their family. 

We believe that the Abundant Life Academy Challenge Camp experience will compel the student to seek continued emotional growth… to become life long learns.  Our goal is to lead the student to believe that it is not too late, and that they can re-start their lives now by taking responsibility for how they have negatively impacted those that love them the most… their family!

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