RECENTLY returned from Australia is 32-year- old probation officer, Kate Blake, who has participated in adventure therapy projects in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.

Kate, who qualified last December and started work in the Plymouth and West Devon area in January, travelled to Australia under a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship.

Having previously worked with vulnerable young people in a variety of projects — including Kilworthy, Churchtown Farm and a drug rehabilitation centre in London — Kate has always had an interest in projects which use adventure or challenge as part of their programme.

She said the fellowship was a 'fantastic opportunity' to visit such projects to take a closer look at the rationale for this approach and examine the effectiveness of the programmes in achieving behavioural and motivational changes.

Kate chose Australia as she felt it had more cultural similarities with this country than the United States. 'The way their criminal justice system works, their attitudes and the way charities are run are all similar,' said Kate. It has also established itself as a world leader in adventure therapy.

There were two main kinds of project — one journey-based and one camp-based. 'The journey project in Melbourne — aimed at drug and alcohol users — involved 12 days travelling from A to B on foot, by kayak or skiing across the mountains. The aim was to make it a personal journey as well as a literal path. Beforehand there was a week of preparation and afterwards one of reflecting on the highs and lows and looking to the future,' said Kate. 'The young people come away thinking "maybe I can" in relation to giving up drugs or alcohol.'

At the camp-based project in Queensland, aimed mostly at young offenders, they travelled for sixteen hours — half of it through the bush — before arriving at the campsite in the dark. 'Everyone was given a sleeping bag and told to go to bed, but one youngster hadn't seen one before and couldn't work out how to get into it. Unfortunately he didn't ask for help.'

The young people were given the task of erecting fencing, starting from scratch by splitting tree trunks to make the posts, but not with any expectation that they would ever need to do this again. 'It was offered as a catalyst for change,' said Kate.

Not all those taking part were young offenders. Some were just unsure of what to do and wanted to see what was important to them. 'The process focused on what they were good at and helped them look at themselves in a different context,' Kate explained. The youngsters also learned to take responsibility for their actions.

The final three days of the Queensland project were spent in a very secluded Aboriginal area with important burial sites. One of the leaders talked about 'The Dreaming' and 'A Passage of Rights' — the latter about the transition into adult life. '15-25 year olds are at a crossroads between childhood and adulthood, and perhaps this is something we have lost in our society. We can learn from other cultures in the way they treat this transition,' said Kate, who said learning about the Aboriginal culture had been 'a very powerful thing' for her.

The challenges on the projects are mostly mental, with perceived risk — such as being terrified of spiders and snakes or of the dark and having to sleep on the ground.

'The authoritarian dynamics of the classroom are missing — it is learning through experience,' Kate emphasised.

There were different approaches to how the projects were run. In Queensland participants were not told what they were doing next in an effort to get them to 'experience the moment and relish it', but Kate found instead that on the whole they felt very tired, hungry and powerless. In contrast, the Melbourne group made their own decisions.

A criticism of similar schemes has been that vulnerable young people have been sent off for a very powerful experience and then returned to the place which was linked to their difficulties without any follow-up, but this was provided on most projects.

The Tasmanian project — which was funded entirely by the state — was very good at evaluating its success and had shown a reduction in the level of hopelessness and an increase in self-esteem through participants achieving something beyond their comfort zone.

Kate is now very keen to explore the opportunities for this kind of work in the South West and to talk to people who work with youth in the area. She aims to maintain links with the international community — mainly Europe and Australia — and has had the privilege of being invited back to Australia to speak at a conference on 'Wilderness therapy' in Melbourne next year.

l Pictured left splitting a trunk to make posts to form fencing and above posing for the camera are some of the Queensland group .

l The Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships offer four to eight weeks experience overseas. More details are available on 0207 584 9315 or at http://www.wcmt.org.uk">www.wcmt.org.uk.