This study explored how learning experiences offered through outdoor experiential education programs, particularly the youth care farm approach, "may or may not enhance young peoples' ability to recognize and then utilize available resources for personal growth, protection and health promotion." The study used a strength-based approach to understand how environmental and experiential learning could positively influence outcomes among severely troubled youth, rather than a more traditional deficiency-based approach, which suggests that there is something wrong with the young person that is a problem to be solved.
Drawing on the theoretical foundation of a "salutogenic" approach, the authors looked for results that could positively contribute to one's health, including mental health attributes associated with what is referred to as "sense of coherence," including "comprehensibility," "manageability," and "meaningfulness."
This study investigated 11 youth from the ages of 16-23 with severe social and mental health problems in the Netherlands (2 female, 9 male; no data were collected relating to race or ethnicity) who were participants in a care farm program. Care farms are described as "a growing movement that combines agricultural production with healthy, social and educational services." Care farms are typically designed such that the troubled youth live on the farm along with the resident family. They tend to be prescribed as an alternative to other approaches when nothing else seems to have worked in positive ways for the youth involved.
The program under investigation for this study included two days of wilderness or "survival" expeditions followed by six months of living and working on a farm as part of the therapeutic approach. The goal of the program was to enhance functioning in work, free time, and academic settings with the intent to contribute to increased success in life. Study results indicate that the care farm approach did positively contribute to the youth's health and well-being, including their personal development and feelings that life can be meaningful and manageable.
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