PARTNERING WITH VIENNA HIGH SCHOOL TO PILOT FOUR AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS
By Evan Coulson, Adventure & Group Services Director
Camp Ondessonk has been serving the developmental needs of young people since 1959. As an institution rooted in the Catholic faith, Ondessonk values growth as well as a commitment to service and the common good. In this spirit, Camp Ondessonk is partnering with Vienna High School to pilot a community schooling approach to addressing the region’s limited post-COVID support systems by providing positive youth development opportunities for highschool-aged-youth who call our region home.
A Community Schooling model rethinks traditional approaches to public education by providing students with innovative learning experiences which bring educators, families, and community partners together in a place-based approach that focuses on collaboration, enrichment, wellness, and leadership development. Positive Youth Development approaches seek to prepare students to meet the challenges of adolescence through a series of structured, progressive experiences that can help them obtain social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and ethical competencies.
Camp Ondessonk’s Afterschool Leadership Program provides Vienna High School (VHS) students with experiences aimed at developing resilient young people who display confidence in their strengths and competence in tasks such as character-based decision-making and collaboration. Upon successful completion of the program, VHS students can join Camp Ondessonk’s Future Outdoor Educators’ Club where they will serve as program aids for Ondessonk’s Afterschool Camp. These students will help meet critical community needs such as improved access to after-school childcare while also having an opportunity to develop skills such as public speaking, risk management, decision-making, conflict management, and peer leadership.
VHS students will also have the opportunity to participate in Camp Ondessonk’s VHS Equestrian Club or VHS Outdoor Adventure Club. The Outdoor Adventure Club, a wellness program associated with the southernmost Illinois Coalition for Outdoor Recreation and Education (C.O.R.E.) aims to develop a heightened sense of place within the region, to enhance physical and mental wellbeing, as well as to develop students’ outdoor skills and stewardship behaviors. The Equestrian Club aims to develop within students, empathy, compassion, care for others, and a commitment to high quality and detail-oriented work.
Camp Ondessonk programs can teach what matters most. In implementing these programs, Vienna High School students will grow through hands-on leadership and professional development experiences that can serve as restorative outlets for developing post-COVID resiliency, emphasize positive connections to their community, enhance their ability to be productive, contributing members of their community, and aid them in becoming more effective at tasks and services that promote a common good.
Click here to learn more about Camp Ondessonk’s Outdoor Education and Afterschool Programs