Empowering Chicago Youth Through Life-Changing Outdoor Adventures
Chicago Adventure Therapy (CAT) works with Chicago youth in the outdoors. We get youth outside of their comfort zones by going kayaking, climbing, camping, or just taking in nature. These life-changing adventures build confidence, leadership, and authentic community across multiple barriers that usually divide people. Chicago youth face overwhelming challenges every day. CAT works with young people who are gang-involved, experiencing homelessness or unstable housing, receiving or in need of mental health treatment, experiencing poverty, exiting or in the state foster-care system, experiencing or at risk of interpersonal or community violence, as well as youth who identify as LGBTQ or who are refugees from war-torn countries. CAT's goal is to help young people make a lasting positive impact on their communities and become healthy adults by teaching effective social skills and strong leadership skills, increasing participants’ sense of possibility, and fostering a sense of empowerment and personal responsibility.
