Where we Started (and Who We Are)

The people who were initially attracted to the prospect of creating a new way of engaging youth in their own learning process already had a background in Ropes Course training and simulation gaming. The Adventure Training Partners  (ATP) had constructed a Ropes course at Econiche House In-the-Gatineau, and were training various government and private industry groups. Among their clients was the national junior biathlon team - who took to the training like a fish to water. This seemed unusual, as learning theorists had predicted in the literature that anyone under thirty would not be able to switch to discovery learning from their everyday learning by rote. 

There is a vast literature on Ropes Course learning which demonstrated that exposure to inherent (but unmanifest) skill areas were well served by Ropes Course events, and that these areas tended to lay dormant if the person were not exposed to hands-on experience. Further to this, skills learned in this way are well retained - always of interest to educators..

Challenge and adventure activities not only involve the participants at the highest level of learning technique, they also address a concern frequently encountered in education - that different individuals can learn best in different ways. While there are a variety of different learning techniques, at least seven distinct methods have been isolated: linguistic and word related teaching, logical and mathematical structures, spatial or geometrical recognition, kinesthetic or body-related awareness, musical awareness, self knowledge, and the perception of others. Each of the activities or exercises used in challenge learning utilizes one or more of these methods.

Take for instance the skill of perceiving others accurately. As much as this can be presented as classroom learning, it is mere information until one actually has to bring it into play. Some people acquire it naturally as part of their early personality development, while others access it, if at all, only through decades of not even realizing that they are missing out on it. Then, on the Ropes Course, there is a need to see what other members of one's team are thinking and feeling in order to accomplish the challenge, and one's attention becomes rivetted here. 

A typical example of this is the NITRO SWING, which is widely used by Ropes Course educators. A team of 8-10 persons is perched on a 4' x 4' platform - which represents a sinking island. They are given a bucket brimming with water, which represents nitroglycerine. Thirty feet away is an identical platform. In between, and out of everyone's reach, hangs a rope. The challenge is to get the whole team and the nitro off the sinking island to safety in 20 minutes. Anyone who touches the ground (which represents pirrhana- infested water) is dead. If they spill the "nitro" everyone dies. It is very possible to get everyone across if one accounts for differences in skill, strength and courage. Different people will need different degrees of help in getting across. Ample time for planning an assessing each other's capacities is available, but will they use it? If this is their first event, probably not. If it is their third event, and they have seen the value of checking their current reality before leaping, probably yes!

Simulation Gaming

In the paragraph above the word represents was italicized. By using a fantasy scenario on the Nitro Swing, the participants are freed of self-consciousness. Instead of being John, the lawyer, John becomes (represents himself as) Chief Thundermug, allowing him to experiment with skills that John, the lawyer, knows he doesn't have. This is how simulation gaming began.

Some twenty years ago, a group of trainers began to construct elaborate mythical scenarios which fit with the training they wanted to impart. If courage was sought, a courage- based myth was added to the challenges. The creation of simulations has greatly added to the learning available. In our Young Canadian Leadership Challenge, we added elements of the 13th century Knights Templar lore, and later elements of J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Thus it becomes useful to have things represent other things, if one is to extract as much learning as possible from the event. We could use any myth, and are attached to none. It simply needs to somehow fit with the challenges offered, and to appeal to the specific audience in attendance. 

These were the background skills we brought to the creation of our program. Later we began to bring in the work of others, who were beginning to report their sweeping successes with youth, and to revolutionize the way we introduce them to themselves at higher levels of complexity. Please check out BACKGROUND INFORMATION in the left hand column for more on the place where we started.
 

Who are we?

Leaders-of-Tomorrow Institute is a partnership group of individual consultants, each with a long and diverse history in the field of social engineering. We bring diversity to the new field of “positive youth development” along with the requisite skills and experience to evolve programs which are truly new and effective. We run leadership and teambuilding programs at Econiche House In-the-Gatineau, and The Young Canadian Leadership Challenge as a non-profit organization:

YCLC Canada Inc.
 
 
 

Dr. Brian C. Bailey M.D. has been engaged in social engineering for 30+ years in the field of medicine, designing educational programs within the field of medicine and  group training. He has been Chief of Medical Staff of two hospitals in Smiths Falls , Ontario, Chief Investigator for the Medical Review Committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and a psychotherapist in Ottawa since 1979. He designed and created Econiche House in-the-Gatineau. Brian has created successful educational programs, The Experience of Excellence,  Creative Interactions, and The Experience of Excellence For Youth and authored a book, Stress Management For Senior Managers for Revenue Canada as a senior consultant.
 

Ken Victor M.A. is President of his own company, The Edgework, and travels across North America presenting his own and others teambuilding programs to senior managers. He is former National Program Director for Outward Bound and created many of the programs which distinguishes that organization. Ken has worked in the prison system as youth educator/teacher, and everywhere he has gone, he has been a designer of  new programs. Ken is also a writer, having been published in  The Globe & Mail. 
 

Nancy Bailey M.B.A. is Executive Director of Econiche House In-the-Gatineau, a successful conference centre north of Ottawa. She has created networked computer systems for a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. She wrote her masters thesis on teambuilding and self-directed work teams. Nancy was instrumental, as a volunteer in 1995 in creating  an annual fundraising event for The Ottawa Boys & Girls’ Club which raises $20,000 each year for the Club in just one evening. Nancy  was honoured for her efforts by the Club as a Citizen Builder in 1996.
 

Manou Sokpor was a participant in our first program at age 19 after emigrating to Canada from Africa. He distinguished himself as a leader at that event. He has used what he learned in the ensuing years while working at the Canadian Mint, and is preparing to return to school at Police College. He loves working with and assisting people. Manou attended our September 2004 event as a volunteer, and assumed responsibility for large parts of the program. He will be a Facilitator Course candidate and a contributor to future programs. 
 
 

Sylvia Trottier is Director of Re-education and Retraining for Social Services in Welland Ontario, a program which gets undertrained adults back into the workforce, a fluently bilingual teacher and program creator for adults wanting to gain or regain soft and hard workplace skills after being out of the work force. She was our first young women's program Event Leader and is active in program development and leadership.
 

William Hurford B.Sc. is a planner and organizer whose long-standing career in high technology, as a program developer (Nortel Networks) and troubleshooter for both hardware and software programs and systems has enabled him to design and document the complex logistics of our project. His background of logistics development has been instrumental in developing our program logistics so that the program can presented anywhere in Canada and under any weather conditions (summer or winter). 
 

Denis Desharnais is a bilingual trainer-educator with Delta Synergy Corp., working largely in the health field, and an independent english-french translator in the field of health education, a certified Ropes Course Instructor and founder of the training organization, Adventure Training Partners (ATP). He is now a partner in the adult training (teambuilding) project at Econiche House In-the-Gatineau, a long term student and teacher of the Enneagram Personality system and a certified trainer in the Hurley-Donson Enneagram Training Method. He completed a ten year stint a Big Brother and is now a informal big brother with a daughter of his own.
 

Natalie Fraser-Purdy (mother, wife and Concordia graduate) has been teaching and creating all her life. For ten years her career has been in teaching, writing, directing and performing in the performing arts for and with people of all ages. Natalie is committed to the YCLC as an advocate of youth everywhere. She is a counselor, team builder and facilitator and has gone into all of the local school boards teaching courses she designed in effective communication, anger management, meditation, school spirit and community creative projects. Natalie has also worked with teachers to bring drama, play and creativity into all subjects in the classroom where language, race, religion, diversity of learning levels, and special needs make teaching a challenge. Through the community she teaches social and political theater for youth and for may years has been using writing, drama, music and dance to help facilitate an outreach program she works for.
 

Bart Bakker M.B.A., has directed several large education-related programs around the world, taking organizations from the earliest idea stage to full operation. Bart has been involved with the YCLC since its inception in 1999. A man of many talents and interests, Bart works as a trainer, project consultant (recently with The Mission in Ottawa), designer and project manager both independently and as a part of the Econiche House in-the-Gatineau adult training project. He has spearheaded a learning centre development project, the OíBrien House Restoration Project at Meech Lake in the Gatineau Park, is a Big Brother and father of two young children.
 
 

Mathias Fruhwirth P. Eng. is a systems engineer seconded to the federal government who is a Director of Pace 2000, a charitable organization which develops programs which twins senior citizens with broadband technology. He is a technical wizard in the field of broadband communications and a developer of a hands-on communication program for seniors and youth. Mathias developed the Dark Knight character in the YCLC drama from his extensive familiarity with the J.R. Tolkien work and has participated imaginatively in design of various aspects of the myth aspect of the YCLC.
 
 

Jen Reoch is a psychology student at McGill University - where she intends to study Medicine. She first joined the YCLC training staff in 2002 as a sixteen year old, where she distinguished herself in catching on quickly to what was needed to run a YCLC. She is an avid snowboarder, first aider, lifeguard and has worked her way through the camp training process to become a youth camp counsellor, most recently at Camp Wabikon. She has passed the Facilitator Certification Course, and is our youngest full-fledged trainer.
 

Vesna Scott is a retired radiation biochemist with Agriculture Canada, mother of two, and an active trainer , teaching Technologies for Creating - the work of Boston's Robert Fritz. She has taught the course to over 2000 students, including students in her native Croatia, where she visits frequently. She trained with the Landmark organization, with Ken Wapnick's Course In Miracles group. Vesna is the holder of big vision, and as the oldest member of our team is often ready to give the youngest a run for her money. 

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