The Fundacion Social, a grassroots organization in Colombia, uses profits from its 14 companies to fund community self-help initiatives aimed at eliminating poverty. Social programs focus on community integration, microbusinesses, recycling, education, and communication. The organization seeks to eliminate structural poverty and is currently…

The Citizens' Campaign Against Hunger and Poverty and For Life is a nongovernmental organization in Brazil that recruited and organized more than three million volunteers to distribute food baskets, support gardening and water projects, provide basic health care, create jobs, assist homeless children, and encourage local and state governments to…

Overviews articles in this issue that focus on the current status of adventure therapy and describe efforts aimed at defining a framework for conceptualizing adventure therapy. Notes changes in the field, including introduction of state laws requiring licensure of programs, the drive for program accreditation, and growing training opportunities in…

A solution-focused therapeutic approach to processing adventure experiences shifts the focus of debriefing sessions from problem to solution, helps clients recognize exceptions to their problem behavior, and sensitizes clients to seeking positive behaviors versus avoiding negative ones. Techniques include clients' rating of their own abilities on…

Hypnotic language can increase the transference of learning from an adventure activity to a therapeutic goal by absorbing the client in the experience, ratifying that absorption, and eliciting the client's resources to address problematic situations. Provides examples of using this approach in adventure therapy to enhance a client's experience and…

Ninety-eight adventure therapy professionals analyzed a proposed definition of emotional safety and rated 26 factors hypothesized to affect an individual's level of emotional safety during adventure activities. Factors were related to specific techniques used by instructors, instructor skills and abilities, the physical environment, and group…

Group leaders who offer affirmations to participants in outdoor education encourage healthy relationships and group cohesion and increase individuals' self-esteem. Personal affirming includes actions and statements that make participants feel comfortable in their environment, support capable work, and encourage behavior change in a supportive and…

Discusses how experiential education can address the developmental needs of gay and lesbian youth; describes a successful Outward Bound program developed for gay and lesbian youth; and explores reasons why educators and program administrators must be proactive in developing programs for this specialized population. (LP)

Stresses the need for documenting the application and outcomes of specific adventure activities with specific client groups and documenting critical therapeutic/clinical incidents in adventure therapy programs. Overviews current trends in documentation of therapeutic adventure programs and provides recommendations from the medical and mental…

Outdoor experiential program providers must be aware of certain issues in order to reduce or eliminate liability claims against their organization and employees. These include liability insurance, liability education, risk control, and record keeping. Recommends that all outdoor program providers provide risk management training to employees and…

A study comparing the influence of the belayor on the development of trust between rock-climbing partners in a corporate adventure training program found that permitting clients to belay each other greatly enhanced the development of trust, as opposed to employing specialized technicians or facilitators for belaying. (LP)

Describes the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP), a four-year program of problem-based mathematics that integrates algebra, geometry, and trigonometry with additional topics, such as probability and statistics, and uses calculator and computer technology to enhance student understanding. (MKR)

The University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) courses for the first two years of high school integrate geometry and algebra, incorporate applications as a motivation for learning new content, and use technology as a vehicle for discovery and exploration of mathematical topics and to perform algorithmic tasks. (31 references) (MKR)

Computer-Intensive Algebra (CIA) focuses on the use of technology to help develop a rich understanding of fundamental algebraic concepts in real-world settings using computing tools for easy access to numerical, graphical, and symbolic representations of mathematical ideas. (MKR)

The College Preparatory Mathematics: Change from Within Project (CPM) was created to develop a rich, integrated mathematics curriculum, based on the best current wisdom of how people learn and the mathematics needed in an era of computers, and involving teachers in materials development. (MKR)