Our Vision
Connecting Veterans
We aim to connect Veterans to themselves, to each other and to their environment, through adventure in their local communities.
We engage with both physical and reflective adventure for Veterans as a means to explore situations that have real consequence in order to draw out our authentic selves. The process of adventure is used as a means of integration by turning events into valuable experience.
Principles of VCR
- To accept ourselves and others in an inclusive group process
- To build an inspiring, diverse and growing community that supports connection through adventure
- To maintain a curious, open mind and heart for self-development
- To develop social, intellectual and emotional courage
- To cultivate humility as a means of creating a safe space to explore challenges of daily life
- To uphold values of kindness and compassion coupled with honesty, integrity, vulnerability, and inclusiveness with a non-judgmental attitude
- To build trust through intrinsic and extrinsic processes of harvesting truth, which supports awareness and personal responsibility
Our philosophy is that adventure activities can be a compelling gateway to development for Veterans for three reasons: First, they provide an opportunity to connect to nature, which has been scientifically proven to be healing. Secondly, participants have the opportunity to connect with themselves through activities that compel them to be in their bodies. And third, adventure provides an opportunity to connect with others in situations that have real consequence, like their service, but in ways that fundamentally help them recalibrate individually and as a community. Individual and group learning is facilitated through organic reflection and discussion, which has the potential to help Veterans metabolize events during service into valuable experience.