ANASAZI, The Making of a Walking
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Year the initative began (yyyy)
1988
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Project URL (include http://)
http://www.anasazi.org/video.html
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Low self-value and stability leads to risky choices
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Create stability and safety without condescension or judgment
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
When there is discord among the family, young men, their communities and society, in general suffer. Healing hearts in family relationships provides young men with the support they need and the freedom necessary to realize their potential.
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence.
ANASAZI is a nonprofit/unique wilderness therapy program which facilitates the healing of family relationships and allows young men (and young women) to realize their potential.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community?
For 20 years, ANASAZI has used its unique and well-tested philosophy--the ANASAZI Way--to help heal and strengthen family relationships. The ANASAZI Way employs a gentle, non-confrontational method of walking in the wilderness with an innovative leadership curriculum and evidence-based psychotherapy. Families are drawn to ANASAZI because its way is not contrived but allows young men and families to listen to their hearts and awaken their potential for greatness. Because the family unit is the most important entity of society, ANASAZI has, in its business of healing families, also created stronger communities and a healthier society. Its reputation along with the power of its methodology puts ANASAZI in a unique position to expand its programs and services to address the growing and diverse needs of more communities and cultures. ANASAZI has begun to share its methodology internationally and continues to explore ways to allow more families to experience the powerful change of heart that ANASAZI programs can so beautifully facilitate.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work?
ANASAZI is a nationally licensed/certified intervention resource for young people and their caring families. When a young man arrives at ANASAZI, he is transported to the wilderness to spend 42 days learning from ANASAZI's curriculum, working with a licensed therapist, and realizing his potential for greatness by becoming self-reliant in nature. During this time, the young man's parents attend office-based seminars which allow them to reflect on their own contributions to the family discord and make resolutions for change.
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond?
ANASAZI seeks to expand its programs and services to reach more families who are in desperate need of healing. Increasing the organization's scholarship fund (via donations and grants) will enable more families to benefit from an ANASAZI experience. ANASAZI also seeks to expand its community initiatives such as "Take the Time to Talk," a 2005 Emmy-nominated drug-abuse prevention campaign which teaches parents how and when to talk with their children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol (while increasing the influence they have in their children's lives). Future community initiatives will use this model and leverage ANASAZI's unique philosophy to combat other issues facing young people and their families. As we research other cultures, ANASAZI seeks to develop community initiatives which will benefit families worldwide. ANASAZI also seeks to build a physical facility which will provide additional services for wilderness participants who might benefit from longer-term assistance.
What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea?
The ANASAZI Way is unlike the traditional approaches to helping struggling young people, so the more exposure it receives, the more influential it will become. ANASAZI seeks to increase its visibility by working with local courts to certify its program as a viable option for the rehabilitation of their youth offenders. ANASAZI seeks the partnership of corporations and individuals who understand the importance of a strong family unit as it relates to the community and society as a whole. ANASAZI also seeks educational and governmental partners who understand and may help to promote the profound social and economic benefits of campaigns like "Take the Time to Talk." ANASAZI continually seeks grants and donations to increase our scholarship fund, to offset operational expenses, and to underwrite the development of new ANASAZI programs, including shorter wilderness excursions designed for parent-child duos, corporate/leadership outings, and programs for premarital/newlywed couples.
Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels.
When a young man can heal his troubled heart and regain focus and direction, he will begin to contribute immeasurably to his community.
What impact has your work achieved to date?
Because the ANASAZI principles are so powerful and ageless, the changes made by ANASAZI parents and children are not limited to their six week experience on the trail. These principles have proved to be the catalyst for positive change throughout these participants' lives. Since its inception in 1988, over four thousand families have been able to heal their troubled relationships through the ANASAZI wilderness experience. In 1990, ANASAZI partnered with The Arbinger Institute which effectively teaches individuals how to recognize their own contributions to the greater problem and methods by which they can instead contribute to the solution. Hundreds of TrailWalkers (counselors who work with the youth in the wilderness) have found life-changing peace and direction. In recent years, ANASAZI produced "Take the Time to Talk," an Emmy-nominated drug awareness campaign which taught families throughout Arizona simple and powerful ways parents can communicate with their children to increase their positive influence in their childrens' lives concerning drug and alcohol abuse.
Number of individuals served
Over four thousand families have experienced ANASAZI through the wilderness experience. Thousands more siblings and relatives have also been served by the principles shared through these experiences. Hundreds of TrailWalkers have found direction and purpose for their lives through their experience as counselors on the trail. ANASAZI's drug awareness campaign, "Take the Time to Talk" reached more than a million residents in central Arizona. By employing the unique ANASAZI methodology, this multimedia campaign teaches parents to effectively communicate with their children in a positive, non-confrontational and influential way. These principles with remain with these parents as they raise their subsequent children.
Community impact
It is difficult to measure the impact ANASAZI has had on the communities it has served. Because its participants have come from all over the United States, many communities have felt and are experiencing the impact of ANASAZI. When individual hearts are healed, they are able to stop draining the community and its resources and begin contributing to its successful operation. When a whole family is healed, communities are strengthened. The local community surrounding ANASAZI has been positively impacted by ANASAZI and its programs. A direct recipient of its drug awareness and parent communication campaign, residents of Maricopa County were exposed to the ANASAZI Way and its unique methodology via television, in schools and through local parent programs. Because of their proximity, thousands of Maricopa County residents have participated in ANASAZI's wilderness program either as parents, children or counselors on the trail.
Society at large
ANASAZI was featured in 2005 on the A&E network's "Intervention" television program, where millions of Americans learned of the unique form of rehabilitation offered at ANASAZI. Also featured in a nine-part series on Britain's Channel Four, the ANASAZI experience has been revealed to an international audience. As the number of people helped by ANASAZI increases and its unique and gentle approach to change is broadcast through media, ANASAZI will have an increasingly powerful societal effect.
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why?
Independent research on ANASAZI's outcomes is conducted through the University of Minnesota, Brigham Young University and the Outdoor Behavioral Health Care Research Cooperative. Research shows that less than ten percent of ANASAZI's youth participants enter a subsequent inpatient treatment program. Additionally, more than 56 percent of the students who come to ANASAZI with a drug abuse issue completely abstain from drug use after leaving ANASAZI.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication?
ANASAZI behavioral healthcare programs are financed through program fees and with the help of the generous individuals and organizations contributing to our scholarship, endowment, and general funds. ANASAZI recently received a grant to update "Take the Time to Talk" program materials. Currently, efforts are being made to procure funds to further expand this campaign to address issues beyond drug and alcohol abuse. ANASAZI seeks investors to expand its treatment and build a physical educational facility to provide additional care for students who would benefit from long term assistance.
Provide information on your current finances and organization:
ANASAZI's annual budget is $3.2 million. ANASAZI's annual revenue is $3.5 million. $750,000 of revenue is procured from donations and the remaining revenue is generated through program fees. ANASAZI employes seventeen full-time staff, 35-90 part-time staff (depending on the season) and up to 25 volunteers annually.
Who are your potential partners and allies?
ANASAZI seeks to partner with any individual, foundation, corporation or entity that shares ANASAZI convictions of the importance of family. Potentially, ANASAZI would like to partner with those with wealth and widespread influence among youth. For example, this year, ANASAZI is seeking donations to our scholarship fund from local sports teams. We seek donations in money or in kind from any organization who can help offset our everyday operational costs, which increase annually with growing regulations and requirements.
Who are your potential investors?
The list of potential investors is always increasing as research and development regarding new programs and services expands. As ANASAZI contemplates future construction of a physical facility to expand our services, our investors will look different than those who currently invest by contributing to the scholarship fund. Past participants of ANASAZI serve us well by introducing us to individuals and corporations who are potential financial investors for our program.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
In 1968, Larry Olsen and Ezekiel Sanchez pioneered the wilderness philosophy at Brigham Young University. It soon became obvious to many that a sojourn in the wilderness could impact lives for good. The partners received many well-intentioned offers from experts in psychology, sociology, psychiatry, juvenile justice, family counseling, education, youth leaders, and other professionals, to analyze and offer suggestions on how to enhance what we were doing. In an attempt to understand and improve the process, they sifted through, by trial and error, many ideas. They learned that whenever they adopted what they came to call "contrived" experiences, the overall impact often diminished for the participants. Ultimately, when they founded ANASAZI Foundation, they opted in favor of the original, down-to-earth walking daily in - and with - the simple realities of nature. This program became known as The Making of a Walking. "At ANASAZI, the children come first. Staff comes second. To free themselves from worldly cares, Ezekiel counsels his staff to "drop their burdens at the gate" and tend to the needs of the YoungWalkers on the trail. We strive to remind ourselves that the ANASAZI Way is not to change the behavior of the YoungWalker or the Parents, but to provide opportunities for the heart to be touched, so the change can come willingly from the "one who stands within." Then the Change of Heart, like clear water, will flow without compulsion." --The One Who Stands Within by "Good Buffalo Eagle," Ezekiel C. Sanchez
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
It is the mission of ANASAZI Foundation to prepare parents and children to turn their hearts to one another and walk in harmony in the wilderness of the world. The ANASAZI way is a way of being and doing that sees greatness in each YoungWalker and regards them as a person of infinite worth and potential. It is a way that is respectful of each YoungWalker's ability to choose poorly or greatly.
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