SOP MANUAL SAMPLE STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Statement of Philosophy

‘Outdoor Recreation Activities’ provide an education process that enables an individual to develop self-reliance, cooperativeness and self-confidence. Participants must first develop stamina and individual skills necessary to safely and successfully participate as a full member of a team engaged in challenging out trips. Staff and Outdoor Recreation Centers ensure that the out trips are positive experiences and that participants are given the opportunity to enjoy the outdoor experience. Staff is expected to motivate and lead - and treat community members in a positive and respectful manner. Change in the participants should come from within the individual as a response to success rather than as a reaction to external pressures applied in a context of failure. Once individuals have developed basic competencies that enable them to take care of and be responsible for themselves they can then begin to learn their roles and responsibilities as part of a group. They learn that an individual can accomplish more through cooperative effort in concert with the goals of others. The experience of succeeding, possibly new for the participant, can develop self confidence that can fuel the fires within that help the participant keep trying to succeed even in the face of adverse conditions or seemingly overwhelming odds against them.
Within this training and experience the participants will be taught problem solving, decision-making and will develop an awareness of their relationship to their environment. Program staff helps them learn to apply these techniques to everyday situations challenging community members in today's high paced wareverchanging environment, including urban settings.

Personal growth in response to outdoors and wilderness activities however, must always be considered secondary to personal safety. Staff and Outdoor Recreation Centers are responsible for providing program activities that facilitate personal growth and maturity while maintaining high standards of safety and personal conduct. Staff must always recognize that these military members must be treated with respect and dignity with the same rights as anyone else. Staffs in outdoor adventure programs are skilled leaders who can motivate these participants and be positive role models without using humiliating methods or undue application of the power differential.

The purpose of this manual is to clarify and give guidance to those providing the programs by setting policies, safety standards and risk assessment guidelines which can work in concert with good judgment to prevent loss of life, disabling injury, or serious illness as a result of participating in a outdoor and wilderness activities.