So pleased to spend time with my colleagues in Australia; from the OBA social pasted below:
This week at Outward Bound Australia we held a morning breakfast session with safety and culture expert, Jeff Jackson, Ph.D. from Algonquin College in Canada. Jeff shared with us the learnings from a number of tragic incidents in Canada's outdoor education history, many of which are still influencing the way outdoor education is run in his country. The key learnings include:
1. What is you Risk Tolerance, how is it defined, and does everyone know what it is?
2. Do you get real parental consent for outdoor programs? Especially with more migrant families and English as a second language, does everyone understand what your program will entail?
3. Is their Risk Creep in your programs? Do your teachers or field staff push the boundaries beyond the capabilities of your students?
4. Are you running an outdoor education program or a high risk adventure program? Can you define the difference?
5. Do you have a key person dependency in your system?
6. Does everyone at your school/organisation know what is happening on your outdoor education program, or do you operate in a silo?