ompetent technical, facilitation and safety skills are located at the foundation of your Challenge Course program. Our goal in our training course is to teach your facilitators the skills necessary to feel comfortable and capable when using your challenge course, and to be confident when guiding participants through the activities. Our Trainings are designed to give the new facilitator the skills necessary to effectively lead participants, including those with different physical, emotional and mental abilities, through challenge course experiences.
Northeast Adventure recognizes that as programs develop, there are specific skills and program management issues that must be addressed on an individual basis. Custom trainings can be designed to meet a variety of needs for all levels and types of programs including:
 Low and High Elements Skills Trainings
Games and Initiatives
Advanced Facilitation and Presentation Skills
Rescue/Aid Assist Training
Certification and Skills Testing
Design or Review for Program Management / Operations
Accessibility Awareness and Management Workshops
Through interviewing and assessing your needs, we can design custom trainings that will support and enhance your program's growth.
Low and High Elements Skills Trainings
The Low Elements Skills Training focuses on introduction, warm-up, icebreaker and cooperative games, as well as facilitation skills including setup, presentation, framing and spotting, and safety procedures. High Element Skills Training includes equipment use and inspection, knot tying, element setup and self-belay climbing, belaying, and element use. Also covered are the latest industry standards relating to technical and course safety.
Development of consistent "Local Operating Procedures" can be added as a key aspect of this training for new sites and is a needed addition for sites currently managing a challenge course program but not using a Safety or Policies & Procedures manual.
Games and Initiatives
Entire program curriculums can be designed using just games and initiatives by the most creative facilitators. Participants learn activities that use the simplest of props or no props at all in order to bring groups together for experiential learning or just plain fun. Icebreaker, warm-up, and cooperative games of all types are covered for a variety of populations and group sizes. Enough to fill days of programming.
Advanced Facilitation and Presentation Skills
Working with a variety of populations requires facilitators to be versed in a wide range of facilitation and presentation skills. Properly reading a group as it moves through its developmental cycle as well as choosing, properly framing and presenting challenge activities is critical to safe and effective programming.
Participants learn how to properly assess a group as it moves through its stages of learning and to choose activities that are appropriate for the group.
Rescue / Aid Assist Training
Rescue/Aid Assist Training is critical in order for facilitators to manage participants through high element courses. The majority of incidents that occur on a high elements course do not require extensive amounts of equipment or skills to remedy the situation. Facilitators will learn how to assess their course for potential incidents, and bring together the needed people and equipment for the specific procedures associated with helping participants who need assistance. Rescue trainings can take from 2 to 3 days depending on the elements covered and number of facilitators attending.
Certification and Skills Testing
Verifying staff competency and skills is an important aspect of managing risk for all program managers. Our Certification and Skills Testing program is designed for program managers and facilitators to verify that they have the proper skills necessary to guide participants on their course. This is conducted through practical and written testing. Participants will be required to demonstrate competence in all technical skills covered in the training and pass a written test presented at the end of the session. Upon passing both the practical and written tests, participants will receive certificates verifying their skill levels. Their records will be kept on file at Northeast Adventure for future reference. Certification can last from one to two years depending on number of facilitation days per year.
Design or Review for Program Management / Operations
Program managers face many issues when managing successful challenge course programs. Issues such as staffing, record keeping, managing forms, risk management policies, local operating procedures and course repairs are all critical for effective course operation. We can work with any new or existing program to make sure that all management issues are covered properly.
Accessibility Awareness and Management Workshops
Working with a population with diverse abilities can be one of the most challenging and fulfilling aspects of any challenge course program. Although our Skills Trainings include basic facilitation skills for using elements with diverse populations, this workshop focuses on the specific issues associated with managing a program which regularly works with varying physical, emotional or mental abilities of participants. Areas such as course access, assessing participants' skill levels, local, state and federal ADA laws and compliance regulations, medical support and assessment, as well as staffing and program design are covered.
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