Programs
Arab and Jewish youth in Negev Desert, Outward Bound Israel, 2007.
Outward Bound programs are intensive experiences that, through carefully structured shared challenges and teambuilding exercises in new environments, allow participants to discover and develop qualities of leadership, compassion, trust, camaraderie and cooperation in themselves and in others.
Outward Bound Peacebuilding programs build on the traditional Outward Bound principles and methodology and are designed to enable diverse groups to build trust, establish constructive relationships and engage in meaningful dialogue. Outward Bound Peacebuilding programs are purposefully structured to create and accelerate processes of genuine communication and connection that may otherwise take years to establish or, absent of intervention, not occur at all.
Please see Model Program for more details on Peacebuilding program design and structure.
All Outward Bound courses adhere to the following principles:
Adventure and Challenge—Participants are impelled into experiences that are physically, mentally and emotionally challenging. The experiences encourage participants to push self-imposed limits and move beyond their comfort zones, facilitating new ways of thinking about themselves and others.
Learning through Experience—The program is an educational process based on action and reflection. Participants learn about themselves and others by experiencing personal and team challenges, successes and failures. Opportunities are provided for practice of leadership and for acting as a member of a cohesive team. All activities are carefully designed, structured and reflected upon to promote learning that can be transferred to participants’ everyday personal and professional lives.
Character Development—Programs develop mind, body and spirit. Key areas of development are: Self-knowledge, Craftsmanship, Tenacity, Physical fitness, Teamwork, Leadership, Self-Reliance, Acceptance of Responsibility, Ability to transcend self-imposed limits.
- Self Development—increase self awareness, self confidence and motivation, promote a recognition of personal potential, and an understanding and assumption of personal responsibility.
- Social Development—increase social awareness and communication skills, and improve understanding of how to create effective relationships and experience success as a member of a team.
- Compassion and Service —develop compassion, responsibility and integrity. Programs are an active expression of the value Outward Bound places on a recognition of our common humanity and respect for our diversity. Compassionate behaviors and a service ethic to others and to one’s community are acted upon in multiple ways throughout a program including a service project.
Social and Environmental Responsibility—Strengthened the connection between humanity and the environment through education about and experience of the natural world, resulting in choices and actions that have a positive impact on society and the environment.
Safety—Outward Bound ensures that course participants are physically and emotionally safe at all times. Outward Bound has rigorous and comprehensive safety systems, practices and reviews that include committees, independent experts and regular oversight by Outward Bound International. Highly trained instructors facilitate programs.
Outward Bound Peacebuilding programs are designed with these additional specific goals—
To:
- Inspire in individuals a sense of possibility and a belief in their own worth and potential to make a better future for themselves, their community and their country.
- Assist individuals in pre- and post- conflict situations to discover inner resources and develop leadership skills that will make them effective members of society and advocates for peace.
- Create a space and context in which differences may be acknowledged and respected, relationships with the "other" built, and difficult issues discussed in a safe and supported environment.
- Build a sense of personal and social responsibility and promote the engagement of individuals in civil society.
- Develop and sustain popular support for peace and coexistence in regions threatened by or recovering from violent conflict.
- Contribute to the overall success of other peacebuilding and nation-building programs working in the same environment and with the same populations.
- Advance the cause of peace.