IN A CRISIS? Text LEV to 741741 to connect with Crisis Text Line
Project Extreme uses a combination of experiential and intellectual learning opportunities to provide the social, educational, and emotional support that our teens in need require and benefit from.
Each of the programs in the Project Extreme portfolio has been designed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals to ensure maximum therapeutic, fun, social, and positive outcomes. Project Extreme’s programs undergo continuous evaluation and assessment in an effort to constantly provide the most effective, unique, and relevant programming for teens today.
A strengths-based perspective is essential in working and connecting with teens. Research has supported the idea that recognizing a teen’s strength contributes to building self-esteem resulting in positive thoughts regarding his or her own feelings of self worth. It is through positive reinforcement, such as congratulating a teen after completing a difficult outdoor task on a Camp Extreme trip or recognizing acts of kindness done to others, that lays the building blocks to creating a trusting relationship with the teen. A strengths-based perspective coupled with other supportive measures provides the solid foundation of Project Extreme’s successful model.
The second core principal, skills building, contributes greatly to the teens’ abilities to learn how to cope, communicate, and function in their everyday life with peers and family by integrating life learnable lessons, enhancing the teens’ basic communication skills. This is including fostering appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication styles within a framework of fun activities. During processing sessions that occur on a daily basis during the summer programs, the teens slowly begin to integrate what they are being taught in this safe environment that will generalize to their everyday lives.
The third, a one on one participant/counselor ratio, is essential to the success of our program. On a daily basis, teens may experience anxieties, pressures, and feelings of loneliness. Having the opportunity to reach out to that one person- their counselor, with whom the teen has formed a close and trusting relationship- can be the single tool in preventing the teen from making inappropriate and at times risky decisions.
The fourth core principal constitutes real, meaningful, and long term follow up and is reflected by the requirement that counselors sign a social contract to maintain contact with the teen throughout adolescence and into adulthood. This long-term commitment sends a loud and clear message to the teens and their families that Project Extreme is not a short term band-aid, but rather a longer term lifetime support.
Camp Extreme Boys and Camp Extreme Girls are therapeutic adventure programs. The program includes a multitude of invigorating activities such as camping, white water rafting, mountain biking and more. Click here to learn more about Camp Extreme.
Project Extreme’s Weekend Retreats offer teens recreational resources such as skiing and snowboarding, along with behavioral skills to negotiate day-to-day challenges. The occasion is also used as an opportunity to review the progress made by participating teenagers and provide them with sustained guidance
Miryam’s House, now in its eighth year, is a transitional living shelter for young women 18 years and older. Miryam’s House offers a safe and growth oriented home for those seeking additional encouragement, life skills support, and healthy communication skills
By pairing teen participants with experienced mentors, Project Extreme ensures that the progress made by at-risk youth during our other programs will not fade or diminish. Mentors sign a social contract stating that they are responsible to maintain contact with participants on a weekly basis and continue leading them along the path to success.
Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, providing access to support and information via a medium people already use and trust: text. The process is very easy, all you have to do is text LEV to 741741 to get connected.
Project Extreme’s Crisis Intervention Helpline is to connect the right people with the right resources. From confused parents to troubled teenagers, the professionals manning the Helpline offer callers practical advise, valuable resources, and everlasting hope. Call 516-612-3922
