Explore Our Programs
Youth Adventures: Taking place in the great outdoors, these range from a day trip to state parks to a week in the backcountry in our treasured National Parks. Most adventures begin with pre-trip training classes – our staff will come to your location and facilitate topics including wilderness survival, backcountry skills, equipment, environmental stewardship, team building and leadership skills. After we’re prepared, we’ll head out onto our great adventure together!
School Adventures: We provide meaningful learning experiences for elementary, middle and high school students through experiential education outdoors! Offerings range from once-a-year team building at your school, to grade-based progressions that include cabin camping, adventure day camps, tent camping excursions and wilderness backpacking treks with whitewater rafting! Partnerships can begin with a teacher, social worker, counselor or administrator.
How do I get my kids outside with Camptown?
Most Camptown adventures are arranged in partnership with schools and community-based organizations. We provide a menu of adventure options to choose from based on the desired outcomes of our partners. Camptown can provide everything from skilled outdoor guides, adventure gear, trainings, transportation and food or, a la carte services if preferred. And, we’ll handle all of the logistics and planning if you’d like! To learn more about what’s possible and explore a partnership, check out our programs above!
Looking to sign up a child in your life? We also provide occasional series of open-to-the-public workshops and training opportunities including Open Climb sessions in our indoor bouldering gym. For middle and high school students, our Youth Leaders program is available for parents or caregivers to recommend individuals.
Camptown adventures take place primarily on public lands throughout the United States such as state parks, state forests, national parks, national forests, rivers, and occasionally on private properties. Our staff have experience in hundreds of outdoor locations in Central Indiana and far beyond, including dozens of wilderness locations that have been vetted for youth experiential learning. While we are not a camp, we can arrange the use of cabin-style camping experiences in addition to primitive tent camping.
If you’d like to arrange an adventure, contact us at programs@camptown.org. We instill effective leadership and teamwork skills, healthy interdependence, a vision expanded beyond current life circumstances, responsibility, respect for others, self-confidence, environmental awareness and stewardship.
Safety & Prevention
During a Camptown adventure, participants are led by trained outdoor guides. All Camptown staff are certified Wilderness First Aid and CPR at minimum; many are Wilderness First Responders as well. We are also all trained in Leave No Trace Principles, including principle one: plan ahead and prepare. Our training helps reduce risks of participation in outdoor adventures.
Participants are encouraged to take part in beneficial activities in which the risk of an accident may be greater than in their normal daily life. In the outdoors, it is these challenges that give students the opportunity to acquire important life skills. Outdoor challenges may include extreme weather, difficult trails, canoeing, climbing, swimming, rafting, biking and dealing with nature’s unexpected circumstances.
Reasonable risk taking is an integral part of the experiential learning process. Consequently, prevention and safety are Camptown’s top priority. Safety involves not only overt precautions to prevent accidents, but also preparation for the unknown of each adventure. Each Camptown participant will be informed of the nature and scope of risk involved in an activity. Participation in each activity is encouraged, but completely voluntary.
Safety is paramount on Camptown adventures. We do expect that students will come prepared to participate, work as a team, do their best and follow our Standards of Behavior. We cannot sacrifice safety or program quality for a student who is not willing to follow our guidelines. Students who do not follow the Standards of Behavior may be sent home at the expense of their parents.