TEACHING Self-Esteem!
We don’t HOPE they get it,
We actually TEACH IT!
A Youth Empowerment Camp in Colorado
Our Summer Camp boasts a coveted US Sailing nationally award winning curriculum. We use sailing as the medium through which we offer inspiration and empowerment.
Our carefully crafted curriculum is aimed directly and intentionally at changing negative self-defeating thought patterns and beliefs of limitation to an empowering mindset of “Enoughness,” and possibility!
We teach the basics of sailing, through a US Sailing Certified Instructor. We cover capsize recovery, parts of the boat, skippering, crewing, knots, tacking, points of sail …and then some! Then we discuss applying those lessons to life!
Self-Esteem is a SKILL, which can be learned, and with teen culture today, we MUST be teaching!
We do just that!
ABLE to Sail uses that pesky “no-wind” time to empower our youth by using the metaphors of sailing to change the negative mental chatter that causes depression, anxiety, excessive ‘screen-time,’ and ultimately leads teens to participate in high-risk behaviors like Drugs, Alcohol, Self-Harm. Isolationism, and Suicidal Ideations.
Based on pre- and post- surveys, our sailors report a 246% increase in pride, self-esteem, and belief in their place in the world.
We use every lesson in sailing as a metaphor and teachable moment, to address…
- Avoiding Negative Thinking
- Feelings of not belonging
- Coping with being bullied
- Feelings of inadequacy
- Thoughts that lead to Depression
- Coping with Anxiety
- Letting Go of Mistakes
- Celebrating Diversity
- The use of drugs & alcohol
- Emphasizing the “SELF,” in Self-Esteem
Our Award Winning Curriculum
In tandem with teaching sailing, we take every lesson about sailing and, bookending each day, discuss how, if applied to life, we can create an amazing life. Following is a good representation of most of those metaphors. We delve deeply into the process of recognizing limiting beliefs, identifying where they came from, and then focus on creating empowering beliefs instead. For a belief, namely one of inadequacy in all its forms, is merely a thought that we have “thought” 100,000x and never questioned if it were actually true. And so we question them, challenging the basis of self-negating thought patterns – all through the lessons in sailing!
- Pretend You’re Brave – Fear is just a thought!
- Capsize Recovery- Emotional Self-Recovery – If you get knocked down, get back up and move on!
- NOT sailing is part of SAILING, thus NOT Getting it is part of GETTING IT!
- Stay Out of the No Butt Zone –“I’d try out for choir, but…”
- Steering Left to go Right (???) – Accepting new ways of thinking
- Tiller Toward Trouble – Saying ‘No,’ steering away from a disaster
- Little Changes make a Big Difference – Doing something different
- Tacking – When you have to Work for it and don’t just get what you want when you want it, because you want it!
- In IRONS! Taking what’s not yours, you will end up “in irons” everytime!
- REACH!!! Stretch yourself – Go for everything!
- Looking FORWARD! Letting Go of the Past
- Practice in the Calm to Survive the Storm
- Sailing SOLO – What do YOU think you did well today? Discovering the “Self” in Self-esteem
- And ABOVE ALL…DON’T ABANDON SHIP!!!
Tremendous gratitude for our Sponsors, all overflowing, with a heart for our community, a heart for kids…and then some!
ABLE to Sail sessions are easy to access from
- Longmont
- Boulder
- Broomfield
- Louisville
- Lafayette
- Erie
- Loveland
- Fort Collins
- Mead
- Firestone/Frederick