Are you a carer for youth at risk aged 15 to 18?
Interested in a nine day intervention in the bush?
A Champ Camp could be your answer!
The purpose of a Champ Camp is to ‘shape a happy future’.

A young doctor treating the Bush Venture Managing Director said “You probably do not remember me, but I came on one of your camps ten years ago – it was the best bit of real education I got during all my years at school and uni! It inspired me to be where I am today.”

A youth at risk who had been on a camp came back for a visit months later and informed his mentors that he had told his girlfriend that he would not return to her until she gave up drugs as nothing was going to drag him down again to the misery that he had experienced before.

A youth who had been to a Champ Camp, and returned to a reunion two months later, shared that he had come off the psychiatric register two weeks earlier and had a good job - all due to the Champ Camp. He now wants to return as a leader.

A young ex SAS officer who had served in Afghanistan visited a Camp and noted that he had come a long way from that student on a Year 10 camp who was convinced that he could not succeed.

What is a ‘Champ Camp’?

Aim

The aim is to ‘shape a happy future’.

Methodology

General Outline: A Champ Camp will be conducted over nine days of concentrated training in the wilderness in three overlapping phases:

• Phase 1- Operation BRUMBIE. The bush craft phase creating skills to meet physiological, safety, and relationship needs. This includes navigation and adventure.
• Phase 2 – Operation MATILDA. The expedition phase that presents challenge and team work while enhancing self confidence and oneness with nature
• Phase 3 - Operation DRAGON. The self developmental phase involving a solo and strategies to look at reactive and proactive behaviours. This leads to the development of strategies for confronting the ‘real world’ while shaping a happy future. This can be seen as an introduction to rites of passage.

Achieving the Aim - Outcomes

Achieving the Aim - Outcomes

• Courage (from the Latin ‘cor agere’ ‘to come from the heart’ meaning to be life centred life giving – our core value).
• Honour (self respect, respect of others and of the environment).
• Service (protecting and providing vs. attacking and taking).

Courage, Honour, and Service are central to a ‘gentle man/woman’.

Introduction to Ability Outcomes (Based on Information).

• Safety and basic first aid.
• Bush craft.
• Self knowledge and goal setting and planning.
• Solving problems, building a team, and managing a task

Why a Venture to the Bush

Bush Venture conducts activities in the bush using Australian pioneer style camping methods. The bush provides a great contrast to the disorder in the normal urban habitat. Total order is at the heart of the bush reality and this includes tenderness and beauty. It also includes death and pain. It is a place where opposites co-exist and, therefore, give meaning to one another. Thus in the bush are the clues for the process of ‘getting ourselves together’. Competence in being one with Nature is the key because it is only when a person is stripped of the props to the ego that he or she can see the truth within.

The Main Sponsor of Champ Camps for Youth at Risk - ‘Vitae’

• ‘Vitae’ is a Latin word and means ‘for life’ and the concept of the organisation is centred on life and being life giving.
• Vitae came about because of a concern over the despair (without hope) symptoms seen in Australian youth in suicide, substance abuse, violence and crime. These symptoms are seen to be ‘death centred’ rather than life centred.
• The concept of Vitae has grown up from the founders’ 20 years of experience in bush based interventions.
• Vitae is sponsoring youth at risk onto ‘Champ Camps’ conducted by Bush Venture. (See http://www.vitae.org.au )

The Service Provider – Bush Venture Pty Ltd

In 1975, the founders, John and Micheline Guy, were alarmed at the statistics of suicide, drug abuse and crime surrounding young people in particular and the Australian public in general. These symptoms spoke of a level of despair that seemed to have no place in Australia. This caused them to research and to formulate a plan for the conduct of training to develop self-knowledge, self-reliance and self-esteem through competence in being one with the bush. In 1985, Bush Venture was formed. (See www.bushventure.com.au )

John's focus is based on over forty years of practical and professional experience. He is a public speaker, lecturer, facilitator of experiential training in the outdoors and author and he has developed some unique and empowering techniques for personal development. He has a degree from the University of Adelaide majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. He has postgraduate qualifications in leadership. He has spent extensive periods working and studying in other countries living with other cultures and speaking other languages in such places as PNG, Vietnam (with the SAS), Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cyprus, U.K. (leading Gurkha soldiers), Denmark, Pakistan (North West Frontier) and Nepal.

Who Can Apply?

Any welfare organisation, family, or school etc that has a role in caring for a youth at risk of suicide, substance abuse, violence or crime may apply for a place on a Champ Camp.

Administration Requirements

Applicants or their sponsors must be able to arrange travel from their home to the nominated assembly area on a Saturday morning and from there home again at the end on a Sunday morning.

Safety

Bush Venture offers proven procedures and safety assets, and conducts the camp 45 minutes from a hospital.

Dates

The dates in 2008 are:

10:00 Saturday to 10:00 Sunday 3 to 11 May – Champ Camp
10:00 Saturday to 14:00 Sunday 7 to 8 June –Follow up for participants on previous camp
10:00 Saturday to 10:00 Sunday 5 to 13 July – Champ Camp
10:00 Saturday to 14:00 Sunday 9 to 10 August - Follow up for participants on previous camp
10:00 Saturday to 10:00 Sunday 11 to 19 October – Champ Camp
10:00 Saturday to 14:00 Sunday 8 to 9 November - Follow up for participants on previous camp

Costs of the Program

Self Funding Participants. Young people, either at their own expense or through non Vitae sponsorship, can be selected for participation in the Champ Camp at a cost of $1,500. The same selection process applies.

Financial Sponsorship. Vitae will offer bursaries to cover the full cost of the Champ Camp for young people who otherwise could not participate. This does not include cost of return travel to the Champ Camp assembly area. Vitae appeals for parents, agencies, youth organisations and schools that are in a position to partly sponsor applicants, to please make a contribution towards a Vitae Bursary. The application form for a whole or part bursary can be gained from http://www.vitae.org.au.

Staffing

Staff are of the highest calibre and have a special combination of practical skills and expertise necessary for conducting the Champ Camp. Staff display a deep commitment to young people. They have special training and genuine understanding of the environment. Staff are trained and have demonstrated a personal commitment to work of this kind. Participant supervision and safety management are paramount considerations. Both male and female staff are present on each Champ Camp.

How to Apply

You can get the referral forms on http://www.vitae.org.au

What Happens after Acceptance on a Camp?

We will be in touch to give you the address of an assembly area. We will then meet you there on day one and again on the last day for return. We will bus the participants to the training area.

How Do I Find Out More?

Please do not hesitate to contact me, Click on my bio link and click contact. (To contact you must have a free registration account from this site)
Or on http://www.bushventure.com.au