All kids have a wealth of possibilities, and are the world’s most valuable resources. Our programs help kids see their value and use these possibilities so they can be their best.

In PA Kids programs:

- kids are given responsibility and so become responsible
- kids are respected and expected to give respect and so become respectful
- kids help themselves and each other and so feel powerful and helpful
- kids are given trust and so become trusting and trustworthy
- kids are challenged to grow in a holistic way and so they grow
(how they act, how they treat others, how they do in school, how they take care of themselves)
- kids are valued and so they feel valuable
- kids are given power and so they feel empowered

Project Adventure Kids (501c3 non-profit) has been around since 1981 and currently has five programs for troubled or at risk youth. It is located on a unique campus setting in the Covington area, with a lake (great for fishing), football/soccer field, and lots of woods to go hiking and camping. At the present time, there are around 80 boys and 20 girls from the ages of 12 to 21 years old. The kids live in 14 group homes in the nearby community. About 90% of the kids have been placed in the program by the Department of Family and Children Services.

About 20% of the kids have earned the opportunity to attend public high school. The rest of the kids attend classes in the mornings at the PA Kids accredited school on campus year round. In the afternoons, the kids are divided into therapy groups: Choices, Legacy, the Independent Living Program, Challenge and the Transitional Assessment Center (TAC). Challenge and TAC are located on our Milledgeville campus. Dividing the kids into groups helps to individualize their problems and better address their needs. Many youth who graduate from Choices, Legacy, or Challenge go on to our Independent Living Program as they do not have a home to go to, their families do not want them, or their home is not a safe place for them.

What makes Project Adventure Kids so successful year after year is the combination of a family setting, a caring team of adults, and a non-restraint group process that empowers kids to communicate honestly, make decisions and take responsibility for themselves and their peers.

Group Therapy gives the kids the opportunity to have a voice and learn to be responsible for their actions. By practicing the Group process, kids are learning communication and confrontation skills that will transfer to the larger issues or with issues in other parts of their lives and they begin to learn more about the need to listen. They also learn that certain behaviors always support or detract the group norms, and that the group as a whole, not simply the staff members will react positively or negatively to those behaviors, and that it is important to communicate feelings in a way that simply states the feeling and does not attack another.

Project Adventure Kids also uses adventure therapy to help the kids challenge themselves, set and attain goals and experience, appreciate and replicate their own skills, and talents. The ropes course challenge helps the kids to face their problems, walk through them and get past the shame associated with their problems. The high and low ropes course empowers the kids to realize the importance of team building, planning, communication skills, leadership development, group-decision making, development of trust, problem-solving, positive risk-taking, and self-confidence.