Written by Wood Creek Academy
At-risk children thrive from attending a therapeutic boot camp. These camps can be structured in several different ways. Some of them are wilderness-based boot camps where juveniles go out outdoors expeditions and adventures as a way to connect with other people and with nature. Parents can also choose to send their kids to military boot camp for teenagers, which are structured more like military boot camps and are meant to drive home the concepts of personal responsibility and community.
The National Institute of Justice published a study on the effectiveness of programs for troubled youth. What they found is that boot camp programs can be very effective in helping children with discipline issues get back on track. Some of the findings:
- Children in boot camp programmed said that they feel more positive about their surroundings than those in traditional juvenile corrections programs. Boot camp residents did not feel like they were in danger while attending the camp. Instead, they were more likely to feel that they were in an environment where they could grow and flourish.
- Similarly, boot camp staff members were more likely to say that they were working in caring and nurturing environment than staff in traditional juvenile detention facilities. They also reported that it was a more just environment that was also safe.
- Juvenile boot camp participants were more physically active and left camp in better condition than regular juvenile detention facility participants. One of the key tenets of boot camps is that the rigors of physical activity can help to hone a person’s mind as well as their body and that a person needs to be disciplined in all aspects of their lives in order to succeed.
Most importantly, boot camps were shown to be more effective in impacting the behaviors of at-risk youths than regular juvenile facilities. Subjects in the study who attended juvenile boot camps were better prepared for life back in the “real world” than their counterparts in juvenile detention. A large reason for this is that juvenile boot camps gave attendees more therapeutic programming to help them remain focused and under control after leaving the camp.
Much of this has to do with the additional structure and control that comes from a boot camp environment. Instead of having kids essentially be on their own and spending most of their time doing whatever they want — or nothing — juveniles at boot camps are forced to engage in routine activities or else face punishment. Over time, engaging in these activities helps kids to understand the value of connecting with others and how applying discipline to their lives can help them in the long run.
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Wood Creek Academy is a therapeutic boarding school located in rural Montana. Designed for young men ages 13 to 18, the program fosters teamwork and responsibility in an outdoor environment.