The Apache Rescue Team.

Experiments in using outdoor education to affect juvenile development and deter crime abound. Most of these outdoor adventure programs use a setting of developed challenges and perceived risk situations in order to create a life-changing experience. However, these "adventures" remain contrived events and require significant interpretive skills to connect with reality. In contrast, the Apache Rescue Team provides a framework for success in situations of real-life significance. The team is an experiential education program that trains at-risk and probationary youth to respond to technical and medical search and rescue (SAR) situations. Team members, aged 12 and up, are trained in basic first aid, survival, and technical rope rescue techniques. As experience allows, members complete emergency medical technician, advanced technical rescue, and command training as well. The local school allows participants to make up academic work missed because of rescues, and the program provides after-school tutoring. The team makes itself available to all primary agencies organizing SAR responses that the team could respond to. High-profile activity in National Parks boosts participant self-esteem and increases awareness of occupational opportunities. This approach breaks new ground in long-term youth treatment and educational opportunities by challenging professional stereotypes. The team has met with success both in its goals for juvenile crime prevention and in providing first-class search and rescue services. (Author/SV)