Out & About Partners: City of Lafayette’s Peer Empowerment Program

Out & About Partners:
City of Lafayette’s Peer Empowerment Program

During the last week of June, Out & About’s Therapeutic Recreation (TR) team was asked to partner with the City of Lafayette’s Peer Empowerment Program. The program is for middle and high school students who are looking to advance their leadership skills during the summer break from school. It is funded by the Lafayette Public Tax Levy, as part of an effort to increase the number of positive programs available to youths in the community. The program also involves collaboration with the University of Colorado Boulder Public Achievement Program, headed by Elaina Verveer.

Out & About’s Therapeutic Recreation Specialists were excited to partner with the program and led an afternoon of teambuilding and group initiatives. “As is always the case in Therapeutic Recreation, we wanted the afternoon to include games that got everyone involved, but also really wanted the kids to have a chance to practice their problem solving, communication and leadership skills,” said Lisa Bargatze. Lisa and Beth Gessert, along with their interns, Maggie Evans and Kenneth Wing, led several initiatives including Giant, Wizard, Elf (an active version of Paper-Rock-Scissors), and a Tower Building “contest” that really highlighted the students’ creativity and teamwork skills. Beth said, “It was fun to challenge ourselves to plan activities and work with a different population than we typically do at Out & About. We got to stretch our TR muscles!”