Outdoor Field Guide

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Full time | 8 days on/6 days off | $153-260/day | Benefits

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With the wilderness as our catalyst, we reveal potential, inspire hope, and heal families. We believe it. We live it.

This is our mission statement. The field guide is the person who sees our students every day and directly facilitates the healing process. As a Field Guide, you will get to know our students and deliver the best program possible to them. This includes creating a safe, healthy, and supervised environment, mentoring, and working as a team. Teach students how to create their own bowdrill fire set and build the group's shelters from tarps, visit petroglyphs and ghost towns, peak mountains, and watch herds of mustang as the sun rises.

As our Field Guide, you will work 8 day shifts in the backcountry in a small group of at-risk teenagers with 1-4 other guides. We have two types of groups that you will work with:

• ThreePeaks: Groups that live at a basecamp and learn the skills for wilderness camping. The students join an existing group that stays in yurts and has access to a shower and bath house. These groups will do day hikes and other adventure activities, such as riding mountain biking, walking slack lines, snowshoeing, and more.

• RedCliff: Expedition groups which live primitively and nomadically. Our students join an existing group when they are admitted and stay in the backcountry while they complete our program (length of stay is, on average, two and a half months). We do not have a set route or designated campsites; our groups practice low-impact principles as they continually hike and set up camp in our field of over 400 square miles.

What makes wilderness therapy so effective?

1. Wilderness therapy occurs within the context of healthy relationships, in small groups where social influence and feedback can be given and received.
2. Wilderness therapy involves the entire family in the treatment process, not just the adolescent.
3. Wilderness therapy provides a novel and challenging environment that empowers.
4. Wilderness therapy requires skill mastery through an experiential curriculum and primitive living
5. Wilderness therapy uses an Integrated Care approach to assess and treat the adolescent as a whole person.
6. Wilderness therapy provides clinical interventions that are evidenced-based and culturally sensitive, and employs progress monitoring to accomplish treatment goals. 
7. Wilderness therapy uses ceremony and ritual to promote change and internalize growth. 

Our students struggle with a variety of mental, behavioral, and substance abuse disorders and may have failed to thrive in previous treatment settings. We are often the last hope to the families who turn to us to help their son or daughter. Working with families in crisis can be very difficult, but nothing is more rewarding than seeing pain and suffering slowly replaced by genuine change and healing through the shared experiences provided by wilderness.

Help heal families and save lives while sharing your passion for the outdoors.

Become a part of the RedCliff and ThreePeaks team.

Responsibilities

• Field Guides work 8 consecutive days in the backcountry with struggling teenagers (i.e. hike almost daily, no cell service, etc.)
• Ensure the supervision and safety of students
• Mentor students in primitive and outdoor skills
• Assist students in their curriculum work
• Share appreciation and knowledge of nature and the outdoors
• Lead students through experiential activities
• Facilitate group discussions
• Create a safe environment for students to process their emotions
• De-escalate and manage crises within group
• Provide support, direction, and feedback to coworkers during shifts
• Creatively, collaboratively, and safely address challenges and obstacles of the backcountry
• Carry essential gear such as 1st Aid kit, radio, and SPOT device
• Follow all company policies and procedures
• Follow all local, state, and federal rules, regulations, and laws
• Remember to have fun--we are working with kids!