2024 Wilderness Risk Management Conference

​Preconference workshop | no additional fee | walk-ins welcome​​​
Attend this free preconference workshop! Casual, fun, and interactive precursor to the WRMC where we will set the foundation for terms, concepts, and create common language that will help participants comprehend and thrive in later conference sessions. No preregistration is required.

In our programs and our workplaces, generative conflict can be an opportunity for your group to build trust, and create a culture of safety and risk awareness that is imperative to our risk management goals. When do you hold more power? When do you hold less? And how does this show up when conflict arises on our programs or between our staff? In this workshop we will review how power dynamics show up in our conflict responses, explore compassionate listening skills, and learn foundational tools for conflict transformation. All of this contributes to a culture of trust and empowers participants to engage in socially risky conversations. Participants will learn their own conflict styles and be able to recognize the conflict styles of others, as well as leave the workshop with tools to discuss power and conflict in their own organizations.

Traveling as a visibly marginalized group poses inherent risks to programs and participants. With 25+ years of experience traveling in predominantly white outdoor spaces as People of Color, City Kids continues to develop a holistic approach to reducing the risk of emotional or physical harm to participants and staff through program design, staff training, incident mitigation and response. This presentation aims to provide a framework and replicable tools for other organizations

Over the past season, we've embraced technology to enhance our programs, introducing a digital adaptive medical form that adjusts questions based on user responses, integrates doctor approvals, and converts submissions into both an office and field form. We've also developed an open-source AI bot to efficiently organize program groups based on criteria like cabin assignments, age breakdown, and student rooming preferences. Currently, we're developing another AI engine to review medical and participant documents against our Essential Eligibility Criteria (EEC), aiming to streamline processes and improve accuracy.

This workshop will highlight the pros and cons of current wilderness therapy (WT) program models. It will address the concept of totalistic youth programming and the critiques of the “troubled teen industry” by highlighting client rights and client voice. The workshop presenters bring perspectives of WT clients, field staff, clinicians, and researchers. Together, the facilitators hope to promote a safe and open space for dialogue to better establish a trauma-responsive WT intervention model. The larger context of mental health treatment in the US will be highlighted as a limitation but with a focus on how both wilderness and adventure therapy practitioners can embrace more of a human rights perspective, bringing in some of the work of the recent work done by the ATIC Ethics Committee, as well as the revisions being made to the OBH Accreditation Standards re: involuntary treatment and transport.

Since 2019, there have been regular WRMC presentations and pre-conference sessions devoted to the principles of Safety II (or Safety Differently), but until now, we have talked more about the theory than the practice. This session will provide a very brief introduction to the concepts behind Safety II, but primarily focus on practical applications and lessons learned by programs that are implementing a Safety II approach. We will use case studies, practical examples of success stories, share pitfalls to avoid, and offer action steps for participants to apply Safety II concepts to their own organization. Participants will also be invited to recognize how they may already have many components of a Safety II approach existing within their current policies, practices, or organizational culture - even if they aren't calling it that (yet).

In this workshop, you will learn the steps you can take as an individual or organization to create more inclusive and accessible space for the Deaf community in the outdoors with technology and communication access. Participants will learn about risk management from Deaf lenses in the outdoors along with some data gathered from the community. We also will be covering different technological advantages that can benefit Deaf people in the outdoors.

Annually, your organization enters a wide range of relationships for services and products. You have a contract that reflects accurately what you have to pay (or be paid), a description of the services or products that will be provided, and a time-frame or duration of the services provided. What else is there and what’s the deal with all of those other terms and conditions you never talked or even thought about? In addition to the essential terms, a primary purpose of any contract is to spell-out risk allocation, or put another way: “who is responsible for the ‘what ifs.’” This presentation will review the important risk allocation terms to ensure that the most significant parts of the relationship have been considered and align with what you thought you were agreeing to.

In the realm of risk management, our approach to a given situation varies depending on whether we are vacationing with friends, operating within the confines of our professional roles, or collaborating with a professional partner. In the context of outdoor or experiential education, risk can be particularly valuable as it presents opportunities for students to challenge their assumptions and develop essential problem-solving skills. It is through navigating the inherent risks in the learning process that students foster resilience, creativity, and adaptability. These varying perspectives illuminate the complex dynamics and trade-offs inherent in effective risk management. This workshop explores how we define a shared organizational understanding of risk tolerance as it pertains to student learning and the student experience, and offers tools for how we communicate a unified vision of risk appetite to our staff. We will share a risk continuum that can be applied personally and organizationally, and offer a framework for undertaking an organizational assessment of acceptable risk. Additionally, we will provide tools to support and train staff in upholding organizational risk thresholds that may differ greatly from their own personal risk tolerance.