Rite of Passage

Being a youth care worker isn't just a job, it's a passion, a mission, and a calling. The people who work in this industry, like Jerry from Pearl Haven, know they are making an impact by waking up everyday to go to work. For Jerry, working as a coach counselor at Pearl Haven has been a blessing. Gaining the opportunity to work with youth has taught many valuable lessons, particularly that being a positive role model for young people can not only be rewarding, but also incredibly powerful for the kids he is working with. Jerry has emphasized that being a positive and consistent role model for the girls at Pearl Haven is a driving force for him to show the girls what a healthy and positive caring adult can look like which is so necessary to the success and healthy lifestyle the girls at Pearl Haven can lead after exiting the program. Are you a passionate youth advocate? We have job openings across 18 different states and 60+ programs, find out where you can make a difference: https://lnkd.in/gNV2eej. #Employeespotlight #Youthservices #youthcare #Youthempowerment #Positiverolemodels #Healthylifestyle #Youthcareworkers #WeareROP

Very proud of what my dad dave mcguire has set up in his lifetime. Many, including myself, can only dream about being able to change so many lives as he did so far and still is doing. Rite of Passage is before my time but I remember the beginning of The McGuire Programme - Beyond Stuttering during my youth in The Netherlands.

Meet Dave McGuire: The founder of Rite of Passage and next up on our Impactful Individual List. Read more about his story below! In the early 1980's Dave McGuire-- a psychiatric technician at the time-- noticed a lack of effectiveness of the conventional treatment, which included seclusion and psychotropic medication that the kids were receiving at the hospital he worked at. He believed that a strengths-based approach, that included physical activity and positive socialization, could be a better alternative. This is how Rite of Passage was born. Rite of Passage and Dave's vision began out of a small group home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where the kids participated in a form of group therapy that included a lot of tennis, so it was only appropriate that the house took the name "Wimbledon House." While the program first focused on tennis, it eventually expanded to include skiing and bike racing which taught kids to appreciate and take care of the high-quality items translating into taking care of their own selves and finding positive and caring friendships and relationships that would benefit them. After founding Rite of Passage, McGuire founded The McGuire Programme - Beyond Stuttering in 1994 which is still on a mission to help people overcome their stutter in programs across the world. We are thankful for Dave's passion for helping others and the impact that passion has helped us make on the lives of nearly 70,000 kids since he founded the program 40 years ago. Thank you Dave, and congratulations on the wonderful work you continue to do each day to help others! #impactfulindividual #WeareROP #Founder #missiondriven #makeadifference

I am happy to share that we are growing at Rite of Passage and hiring for a Social Media and Communications Intern! I'm super excited to be adding to our team and finding someone who is passionate about social media, digital marketing, and communications. This role is perfect for someone still studying and getting their degree or someone who has recently graduated and is looking for a way to get their feet wet with a variety of exciting projects. Oh plus, you get to work with me, yay you! If you are passionate about mission driven work, marketing as a whole, and improving the lives of youth, take a look at the job description below! 🤗 https://lnkd.in/gj-9h4M5

Athletics have been a large part of Rite of Passage's treatment programs from the day we began 40 years ago. Starting with tennis, then moving to cycling, and doing any sport you could possibly think of in between it all, the question then becomes, why do we do this? What is the purpose? We dive into all that and more in our most recent blog post linked below! Check it out and let us know what you think about how outdoor activities and athletics can help heal. https://lnkd.in/d5UWVjd3 #Healingthroughathletics #WeareROP #Therapy #MentalHealth #BehavioralHealth #Athletics #Blog

4th of July is always a special time at ROP programs. It is a time to spend time with each other, celebrate in style, and of course, watch some fireworks. Our programs across the country did just that yesterday, celebrating Independence Day with traditional cookout foods, water games and activities, and some amazing fireworks shows put on by the local communities in our areas. From all of us at Rite of Passage, we hope you enjoyed a wonderful day of celebration with family and friends yesterday, and continue to have a wonderful holiday weekend!

We are heading on tour! We are so excited to officially announce that our Tour de Youth-- a cross-country expedition and bike ride-- will be kicking off this summer. This cross-country cycling tour will be led by Greg Townsend (the inspiration behind the Hard Miles Movie) and will lead 10 Rite of Passage students across the country on a transformative bike ride. We are thrilled to be announcing this tour to celebrate the Hard Miles Film, our 40 years of improving the lives of youth, and another great ride that will impact the lives of the kiddos who get to be a part of it. The tour will begin in California and will ride across the country, stopping at multiple program locations along the way to celebrate with our program staff, the kids, local community members and bike enthusiasts. We are excited not only to celebrate the many accomplishments that have happened this year , but also to be up to many more top secret and extra-special things that we are so excited to share with you all shortly! There is so much more exciting news coming your way about this tour and we hope you will follow along to support our kids as they take this daunting yet exciting journey across the country on two wheels. Keep up with us on Instagram and Facebook through the link below! https://lnkd.in/g_Q3aHpg #Cycling #WeareROP #HardMiles #Healingthroughathletics #Youthempowerment #Crosscountrycycling

This week, we are highlighting F. "Jerry" Adamek, an individual who has been a loyal ROP supporter for over 20 years and helped us make a difference in the lives of thousands of youth. Now he is taking a spot on our Impactful Individuals list. Jerry Adamek began his career working with at-risk youth in the 1960's as a high school teacher, coach and counselor before he began working for the Colorado Division of Youth Services, a career in which he worked for 31 years. Beginning as a regional administrator and eventually taking his place as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Human Services in 1991. During his time as director, Adamek spearheaded the concept of gender-specific programs in Colorado, one of which was Ridge View Academy-- a program Rite of Passage proudly operated for 20 years. Not only was Mr. Adamek a reliable and engaging partner in our efforts to improve lives during his time as Director, he was also a strong advocate of the program after his retirement, serving as an RVA board member and even overseeing construction during the startup phases of RVA. The vision for Ridge View Academy was a dual effort but truly driven by Adamek in his ideology to "take the money for locks and fences and buy computers and whiteboards," to achieve a model that supports the education, normalized activities, and therapy for the students we served to promote rehabilitation. While there were many accomplishments over the years, during his 31-year career at Colorado DHS, Adamek reflected to say that working with ROP to fulfill this vision [Ridge View Academy] was the highlight of his career. In 2023, Mr. Adamek was recognized with Rite of Passage's Lifetime Achievement award and got the opportunity to view the film inspired by the program he dedicated so much time to. This year, he was highlighted in our Magazine for the amazing work he has done in his lifetime for the betterment of the youth services industry and all the kids he has helped during his time in the industry. Additionally, Adamek remains an active member of the community driven to help kids as a part of the National Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, the American Corrections Association, and a variety of state committees and boards. We are eternally grateful for Adamek's engagement and involvement with our kids, our programs, and our organization as a whole, as well as his lifetime's work to improve the overall welfare of the kids in Colorado in the youth services system. His work is something that will live on and continue to impact the lives of many for years to come. We are thankful that he has chosen to spend even a small amount of time working with us to improve the lives of youth. Read more about Jerry and his story in our 2024 magazine! https://lnkd.in/gjP_zGAr #40yearsofimpact #makeadifference #Community #Education #JuvenileJustice

We have made it to National Parks Conservation Association Magazine! Riding a bike to the Grand Canyon is no small feat, but the payoff is amazing when you reach the end. The filming of this movie has been a wild ride for all, and fits a similar description: not a small job but greatly rewarding at the end. This article describes all of the hard days, great times, and emotions that ran wild while filming and we are thrilled to share it with you all! Make sure to check out the article at the link below for some more Hard Miles tidbits and sneak peeks on what Greg has up his sleeve for the future of our cycling adventures! https://lnkd.in/g9Xf2_Wu #GrandCanyon #cycling #HardMiles #Youthempowerment #Youthservices

Next up on our impactful Individual list is Ike Shipman, a strong mission-driven individual and long-time staff member and director at ROP. Ike has been in the youth services industry since the 90's and working with ROP for nearly two decades. The reason he stayed: the mission of himself and the organization overlap in its entirety. Ike began as a Program Director for our Sycamore Canyon Academy, and he ran the program successfully for nearly 16 years until he recently became the Regional Director of our programs in the Midwest where he continues to drive our mission forward on a wider level. When looking back on his time at ROP, Ike has reflected on the many images he has in his head of kids and staff learning together and laughing together. One of the moments he cherishes the most is getting his hall of kids fresh haircuts. Some of the kids were against it until Ike said that he would be the first up in the makeshift barber chair, allowing the kids a chance to cut his hair. By the end of the day not only did everyone, including Ike, have fresh haircuts but they were also working together as a group. In his 17 years at ROP, Ike described his time as 'defined by the moments of the kids'. Ike isn't in a lot of pictures but instead takes the pictures for the kids to look back on. He has taken one of your youth to meet his own kid for the first time, he has taken groups of kids out on various adventures, and so much more. He holds those moments more dearly than anytime that he has been in a picture himself. You can find some of those treasured moments below. The dedication ROP has to helping kids is the same passion Ike moves through every day with and we are honored that this is the place he has chosen to dedicate his time to. Each and every day that our kids have Ike around is a day we are thankful for because we know that Ike's dedication to the kids we serve is the same kind of care he brings to his own family.