Adventure & Team Building

Take a look at our offerings

• Urban Expeditions

  On NYC Outward Bound Schools’ Urban Expeditions students travel NYC streets and neighborhoods to discover the richness and diversity of our city.

  

  Urban Expeditions

  On NYC Outward Bound Schools’ Urban Expeditions students travel NYC streets and neighborhoods to discover firsthand the forces that shape our city.

  

  

  

  Students engage with people, food, places, and activities that may be very different from their own experience. Community service learning, leadership development and adventure activities are interwoven throughout.

  During their Urban Expeditions, students learn to appreciate diversity and the value of service, participate in a service learning project, and take away other important lessons and skills that they can apply in their classroom.

  For more information about Urban Expeditions, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can demonstrate leadership and self-reliance.
  • I can participate in activities that are out of my “comfort zone.”
  • I can take initiative to complete tasks without being asked, and helping others in my group.
  • I can safely navigate through NYC by using subway and street maps.
  • I can be respectful and appreciative of other people’s culture and experiences.
• Team Building

  Whether the focus of the day is community, confidence, or leadership, our team building activities provide excellent tools to challenge all participants, and enable them to reflect and learn.

  

  Team Building

  Whether the focus of the day is developing community, confidence, and/or leadership, our team building activities provide excellent tools to challenge all participants, and enable them to reflect and learn. Team Building can also be used to establish a collaborative classroom environment. The activities encourage participants to work together to achieve a common goal and to use new, unfamiliar, and effective modes of behavior and communication in order to succeed. Through thoughtful facilitation, our instructors enable participants to analyze their customary role in the group, take risks, try new ideas, learn new skills, and develop a community of high-performing learners. These programs typically take place at a school, park, or our Long Island City headquarters.

  

  

  

  For more information about Team Building, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can offer my own ideas and listen to the ideas of others.
  • I can strengthen my communication skills by observing other styles of communication
  • I can share and practice leadership and followership.
• Backpacking

  Strapping it all on your back and setting out into the wilderness is a dramatic change of pace for most students, especially those living in New York City.

  

  Backpacking

  Strapping it all on your back and setting out into the wilderness is a dramatic change of pace for most students, especially those living in New York City. Students are taught to pitch tarps, cook meals, read topographic maps, purify water, build fires, navigate, and keep themselves and each other safe. Through these activities, students build self-reliance, community, self-confidence, and trust.

  

  

  

  For more information about Backpacking, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can be a good team member.
  • I can explain and practice Leave No Trace principles.
  • I can set goals for myself.
  • I can reflect on my experiences and apply what I have learned.
• Train-the-Trainer

  With our Train-the-Trainer program, your teachers will learn how to lead experiential learning activities, and be able to bring that expertise back to your school.

  

  Train-the-Trainer

  With our Train-the-Trainer program, your teachers will learn how to lead experiential learning activities, and be able to bring that expertise back to your school. These workshops delve into structured group activities, experiential learning theory, sequencing, needs assessment, program planning, framing, and debriefing. They include the essential resources that enable your staff to put these skills into practice immediately.

  

  For more information about Train-the-Trainer programs, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can demonstrate “reading the group” and adjust energy levels as needed.
  • I can safely lead a group through several low challenge activities.
  • I understand key elements of facilitation, as well as my own facilitation style.
  • I can give and receive feedback.
• Paired Youth-Adult Programs

  These unique courses bring together students and adults for shared adventure and learning that breaks down age, racial, and cultural barriers.

  

  Paired Youth-Adult Programs

  These unique courses bring together students and adults for shared adventure and learning that breaks down age, racial, and cultural barriers. Teachers, parents, or corporate volunteers are paired with middle and high school students for a special NYC-based learning experience that may include adventure activities, cultural exploration, and service learning. The courses are facilitated to create dialogue and understanding between the youth and adult participants, who will come to see each other as valuable resources and teachers.

  

  

  

  For more information about Paired Youth- Adult Courses, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can try new challenges and expand my “comfort zone”.
  • I can be respectful and appreciative of other people’s culture and experiences.
  • I can communicate effectively by offering my own ideas and listening to the ideas of others.
  • I can reflect on my experiences apply what I have learned.
• Adventure Retreats

  Retreats help groups recognize and discuss pertinent issues, explore challenges, set goals, and give one another meaningful feedback.

  

  Adventure Retreats

  Adventure Retreats help groups recognize and discuss pertinent issues, explore challenges, set goals, and give one another meaningful feedback. NYC Outward Bound Schools’ retreats include components such as high and low challenge courses, hiking, large group games, and orienteering. We deliver these programs at several different facilities in upstate New York and New Jersey. The accommodations are simple and rustic, and the time away in a natural setting enhances focus and reflection. Retreats typically take place over several days.

  

  

  

  For more information about Retreats, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can offer my own ideas and listen to the ideas of others.
  • I can develop trust with my peers.
  • I can reflect on my experiences and apply what I have learned.
• Climbing

  Through balancing on steep faces, pulling through overhangs, or belaying the rope for a partner, climbing teaches the importance of focus, commitment, tenacity, and trust.

  

  Climbing

  Through balancing on steep faces, pulling through overhangs, or belaying the rope for a partner, climbing teaches the importance of focus, commitment, tenacity, and trust. Students learn knots, rope systems, belaying, and movement techniques so that they can rely on their own skills and those of their partners. They are also taught to support and encourage each other so that each is able to put forth his or her best effort. Participants may also complete a dramatic rappel from the top of the cliff face that offers lessons in commitment and builds self-reliance as each participant controls the descent down the rock face.

  

  

  

  NYC Outward Bound Schools offers two places to climb in NYC:

  60′ Wall at HQ in Long Island City
  Visit our headquarters in Long Island City, Queens to climb the tallest wall in NYC. While the view at the top offers elevated trains and buildings instead of trees and peaks, the rush of seeing the world from above without having the hit an elevator button, is still magnificent. The relatively compact width of our HQ wall easily creates a sense community no matter the climbers’ experience level. Five climbers can ascend at once, with multiple route options.

  Alpine Tower Climbing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn
  Utilizing Outward Bound’s 55-foot Alpine Climbing Tower, NYC Outward Bound Schools offers participants a truly unique urban experience in Gateway National Recreation Area, which straddles the Brooklyn and Queens border. Climbing on the tower offers an appropriate physical and mental challenge for participants of every age and physical ability. It builds confidence, perseverance, compassion and trust. After being taught to keep each other safe with a belay system, students are encouraged and supported to climb as high up on the tower as they can possibly go.

  For more information about Climbing, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Typical Learning Targets

  • I can offer my own ideas and listen to the ideas of others.
  • I can be more trusting of my peers, and more trustworthy.
  • I can set goals for myself, and I can accept encouragement to go further.
  • I can reflect on my experience and apply what I have learned.
• Corporate Programs

  NYC Outward Bound Schools provides a wide range of custom designed professional programs for businesses, nonprofits, colleges, and universities.

  

  Corporate Programs

  NYC Outward Bound Schools provides a wide range of custom designed professional programs for corporations, businesses and graduate schools.

  

  For more than thirty years, NYC Outward Bound School has inspired character, a sense of community, and commitment to a positive culture through active learning or simulated experiences using adventure and team building programs, both in wilderness and urban settings.

  These programs can be conducted at conference and retreat centers, hotels, local parks, the client’s premises or at our own facility in Long Island City. We offer these programs year-round and tailor them for content and length to meet our clients’ needs. Participants are usually grouped in Crews of 12 to 15, facilitated by two Instructors.

  Learning by doing is at the heart of Outward Bound’s approach to leadership development and team building. Our action-based corporate programs create positive, lasting change in the work or school environment through innovative programs that enhance the effectiveness of individuals, groups and organizations.

  For more information about creating a custom Corporate Programs, please complete this form and we will contact you shortly!

  Activities include

  Corporate Social Responsibility

  • Custom Paired Youth-Adult team experiences
  • Community Service or Volunteering with Community-Based
  • Organizations

  Cultivating Leaders & Teams through Simulated Experiences

  • Bridge-Building Simulation
  • Catapult-Building Simulation
  • Build-a-Company Simulation

  Cultivating Leaders & Teams through Adventure Experiences

  • Outdoor Climbing Wall
  • Alpine Tower Climbing
  • High & Low Ropes Course Challenge
  • Hiking (in Urban or Wilderness environment)

  and so much more.

  To learn more about corporate engagement opportunities, click here.