“I liked watching my students be challenged, frustrated, and then come together to collaborate and succeed.”
Safety at the Blairstown Campus
Our number one priority is the physical and emotional safety of participants, chaperones, and facilitators. Our facilitators use various techniques to teach and maintain emotional safety within a group while being role models for respect, compassion, and tolerance to maximize each individual’s learning potential.
Challenge by Choice
The Princeton-Blairstown Center’s activities accommodate all levels of challenge so participants are engaged and participate to their fullest potential. We call this Challenge by Choice. Participants often experience mental, emotional, and/or physical challenges which are integral to experiential education. However, participants should feel free to make their own decisions about how they will meet these challenges. The Center does not encourage any form of unhealthy pressure from participants or chaperones. Facilitators work with each group so that participants learn techniques to encourage and support each other and the group as a whole.
Full-Value Contract
The Full-Value Contract is a tool used to establish the group goals and is unique to each group and their needs. This tool can also be implemented beyond the Blairstown Campus and is effective in the classroom or workplace.
A sample of the goals in a Full-Value Contract are to:
Be physically and emotionally safe;
Fully participate to your potential (Challenge by Choice);
Work together to achieve individual and group goals;
Listen; and
Communicate respectfully.
Facilitators
Blairstown Campus facilitators have the equipment, training, and good judgment to facilitate activities safely. Our facilitators participate in an intensive multi-week training program that provides them with the facilitation and technical skills required for the position. With the help of chaperones and other adult group members, facilitators teach ways of keeping everyone physically and emotionally safe throughout the adventure course activities. A group's progression determines the level of challenge offered. Most of our facilitators are certified by the Association for Challenge Course Technology, and are Wilderness First Responders.
