Midnight Mountain Life Skills Training Center “provides a safe environment for young people to develop the skills necessary for success in today’s world.” This “family-style outdoor training center” is “designed to assist young persons to transition into responsible adulthood.” It combines “outdoor adventure with a simple and responsible lifestyle in a quiet setting within a small peer community.”
Various aspects of the Life Skills Training include: “effective communication skills, techniques to deal with self-sabotage, consistent work ethics, independent living skills, job and college preparedness, conflict resolution training, physical fitness training, and a workable plan for the future.” As part of the process of acquiring these life skills, various values are promoted, which include: “honesty, responsibility, holistic health, integrity, and accountability.” Additional parent support that consists of “weekly consultations, on-site parent/child workshops and recommended information for specific parenting needs, is also included as part of the services of the training center.
This program is developed and operated by Kim and Randy Krohn, who believe that “nowhere in today’s society are the essential lessons for life more real than in Nature.” Randy has worked for twenty years as a mental health professional in the areas of chemical dependency, sexual assault, domestic violence, and developmental disabilities, in both in–patient and out-patient traditional settings. He also has facilitated wilderness canoe trips for a transitional group home for young adults. Randy and Kim also developed a ropes program for “Youth at Risk, as part of a USDA grant that was administered by Washington State University’s experiential program, in which they worked with over 350 youth groups and trained over 100 adults to work with youth. Their grown son, Josh, a certified teacher and his wife, Tanis, a youth development program specialist, who have spent the past 12 years working in outdoor experiential education, also are part of the program staff at Midnight Mountain.
The six-week Adventure Semester, is scheduled throughout the year. This co-ed program is limited to ten students who are between the ages of 18 and 24. It is designed to “provide students the opportunity to gain the basic life skills necessary to meet the challenges presented by college, employment, and personal relationships.” In this “outdoor classroom,” seasonal excursions include: a ropes course, rock climbing, backpacking, mountain biking, canoeing, ski touring, winter camping and snowshoeing.
This program is developed and operated by Kim and Randy Krohn, who believe that “nowhere in today’s society are the essential lessons for life more real than in Nature.” Randy has worked as a mental health professional in a traditional setting for twenty years, and his wife Kim has “worked with Washington State University’s experiential program. They are joined by their grown son, Josh, and his wife, Tanis, both of whom have spent the past 12 years in the field of outdoor experiential education. Tanis is a certified teacher, while Josh is a youth development program specialist.”