A new adventure club for teenage boys, a unit of parents, teachers, coaches and more that work together to form the adventurous community that is “TheArmy”.

Society, for all its grandeur and etiquette, is not without its faults. Sometimes its conducive to an individual's growth, other times, well, it is not. For all their successes, schools, private or public, are seriously inept when attempting to deal with the heart of a man. The system takes priority over the individual. This, along with many a socio-economical factor coupled with personal issues, births frustration in so many a youth that it shakes their foundations and leaves them hanging – alone and desperate. We don't hear them after a while. We don't see them after a while. Perhaps because even we gave up a long time ago. As this was the reason for the inception of Outventure, thus it will also be for 'TheArmy'. A place, a world where the very nature of a boy can be nurtured, honed, given free reign to, and taught. Outside, outdoors, at gym, on sportsfields. Therefore, the need and want has risen to create a community that searches out these ideals, does them already and knows how to impart them.

Table of Contents:
1. Purpose
2. Objective
3. Vision and Mission
4. Phases
5. Business Plan
6. Sustainability
7. Credibility and Integrity
8. Checks and Balances (Quality Control)
9. Networking with other Organisations
10. Target Market
11. Financial Input
12. Marketing
13. Logistics
14. Analysing our place in the bigger picture

1. Purpose
Unfortunately not all kids have role models in their lives that they can look up to, learn from, aspire and model to further their quest through life. When kids do not have these positive role models, we see the effects manifest in various ways, including serious rebellion, intimidation, destructive gangsterism, crime, murder, rape, withdrawal, suicide attempts, behaviour-altering substance use and abuse, etc.

Many institutions currently exist, dealing with the results (fruits) of the above, yet few really address the underlying (root) causes and where it stems from. The effectiveness of the counselling room and support groups cannot be negated, yet these are often not effective in identifying with and getting through to teenagers striving to be vibey and one of the ‘In Crowd’.

Outventure has been reaching the ‘In Crowd’ in the young adult audience for over 5 years. We have learnt, through experience, that nature, the outdoors and campfires create a much more relaxed and natural environment where young vibey guys open up easier and share what’s on their hearts, without experiencing it as weird, intrusive, fabricated or making them seem less “cool”.

2. Objective
Instead of pushing teenagers and troubled young guys, we aim to provide opportunities for guys to open up, face their fears, share the stuff that is holding them back, and grow together amongst a group of their peers.

We would like to distinguish ourselves in the sense that, where most healing philosophies focus on what has to be overcome and changed, we believe that one can more effectively remove something bad and overcome it by replacing it with a better alternative. By being aware of a negative and then focusing on something more positive, the negative automatically gets left behind. It stems from the wisdom that one cannot remove darkness by trying to remove darkness, but rather by bringing light into the darkness ... that darkness in itself, is not a definable entity, but rather the absence of light.

Due to the nature of the typical teenager archetype (my parents don’t understand me or what I’m going through), adults are usually not the best people to get through to them. Teenagers are often more likely to identify with, approach and listen to their peers. Hence we aim to cultivate a group of teenagers that can be the ‘links’ between troubled teenagers and adults who can facilitate their breakthrough.

We first need to build a strong bond with leading teenagers that are perceived by their teenaged peers as “the mean mother#%^$”, without being bad guys. The cool guys that always know how to roll with the punches in any situation and come out tops. We’ve seen that those members of society always exist that are winners, yet has the passion and heart to assist those around them in overcoming barriers in their lives.

3. Vision and Mission
We believe our original vision for Outventure is a good start for TheArmy and can evolve over time to encompass all that is required. For now, we stick with “A select group, enjoying adventures together, while adding value to each others lives”.

Our select group will be a combination of sorted and troubled teenagers, the adventures will be all kinds of activities that stay true to the impulsive and challenging nature of adventure, yet keep it in a controlled, enriching environment and as safe as possible. Adding value will be both the main focus of the initiative as well as the ultimate goal.

Our mission is to find, understand and combine the best practices from around the world for turning boys into successful men of valour that can play major parts in an uncertain world.

In our Outventure man building project (for more info, see article on our website), we have been looking at various cultures and groups around the world that put in conscious effort to turn boys into men and have been learning from these. We soon realised that all of these groups have good and bad in their approaches and all have their successes, failures and challenges. Some of the efforts we’ve been looking at are those of:

* The Greek and Roman culture, subsequently flowing into the fraternal culture
* Jewish traditions and celebrations
* Global and typical army, naval and air force methodology
* Boy scouts and similar initiative teachings
* Practices used in secondary and tertiary institutions around the world
* Native American traditions and rituals
* Native African initiation rites and traditions, specifically those of the Xhosa & Zulu nations

Again we emphasise that, none of these are without their respective negative associations and many of them have, from time-to-time, diverted from the initial vision.

4. Phases
In order to ensure that this initiative is sustainable and is performing at its optimum during every moment of its life, a phased approach is most feasible.

Putting timelines to phases is difficult and might be unwise, since jumping to a next phase based on set timelines might influence the sustainability of the next phase.

Thus it is more realistic to rather put a set of guidelines in place as to when the initiative should step up to the next phase.

These guidelines can most likely be determined by looking at relevant questions to ask in order to ascertain on which phase the initiative should focus on at any point in time.

Relevant questions would include:

* How well is the current phase achieving its objectives?
* What is required to move to the next phase?
* How much of those requirements are in place already?
* What additional resources do we need to get this infrastructure in place?
* What will we need to maintain the next phase’s infrastructure?
* How do we measure where we are in this phase and when we should go to the next?
* Can we sustain the next level?

With these questions in mind, we believe the following phases will be condusive to build the project step-by-step in order to fulfill the bigger vision:

* Phase 1 - Adventure Club
* Phase 2 - Protégés
* Phase 3 - Fully-fledged

4.1. Phase 1 - Adventure Club
(Based on the Outventure Model)
TheArmy is founded by the same members who founded Outventure in February 2005. The success stories and lessons learnt can easily be duplicated for a younger audience, of which some will eventually become part of the shapers required in further phases.

For phase 1 then, the same vision will apply as the rest of Outventure ...

“A select group, enjoying adventures together, while adding value to each others lives.”

4.1.1. Event types
Weekend and longer adventures Similar to Outventure events and also including an important factor, which is father & son camps
Day events Similar to current Outventure events, but also including building excercises for following phases
Midweek social events Similar to current Outventure events
Weekly club sport events

The current Outventure model has only recently introduced this event type and so far it seems to be working.

Sport (e.g. Volleyball, tapping into third quarter rugby 7s, which various schools don't usually cover, etc.)

Gym

Combat (sparring, JKD, etc.)

4.1.2. Membership costs
Initially there will be no joining or club fees, similar to the Outventure model. After the 3 month trial period, approximately R100 per month will be charged per member, which will start paving the rest of the way forward.

4.1.3. Mutual protection
Since TheArmy is dealing with an audience under 21, it is important for us to have the necessary protection in place against this initiative or any of its members, so that, should any accidents happen, all parties are released of liability.

4.1.4. Key players
We would like to have a core team of 10 people to oversee the initiative.

The following people will initially be targeted for these roles:

* School teachers (founding member being one of them)
* Psychologists and other emotional healers
* Parents (especially dads)
* Community leaders, including grandfathers and uncles
* Older siblings with the passion for the cause
* Pelinduna Adventures owner (Outventure member)
* Conner from Sandton Fire brigade (medic, firefighter and event facilitator)
* Paul Rothman (facilitator of warrior training)
* Owner of “tough love” South Africa
* Owner of MKP South Africa
* Headmaster of Damelin secondary school in Randburg (Outventure member)
* Personal trainers and training facilitators (various Outventure members)
* Body Info owner (directory for self-help and improvement facilitation)
* Outventure man (PR, marketing and frontrunner)

4.1.5. Rough planning timeline
Sat 13 June – Johan & Jakes meet with Dewald from Pelinduna Adventures

Fri 19 June – Key players' meeting

Weekend of 4-6 September – Dad & son weekend (probably at Pelinduna).

5. Business Plan
TBA (Member CVs, financial forecast, registration and accreditation plans, etc.)

6. Sustainability
Since we don’t foresee the need to turn our world’s teenagers into good society role models soon declining, it is important that we keep this initiative sustainable and effective.

Sustainability is important for us on a number of areas:

* Finances
* Methodology
* Management team
* Infrastructure
* Success rate
* Support structure and sponsors

It is also important for us that the teenagers in the program develop a heart for the initiative. Firstly to make them feel part of something worthy and, secondly to keep them committed to the cause, even when they've parted from it. Furthermore it is also important that they are committed to the sustainability of the initiative and doing their part to keep costs to a minimum.

Although we do not believe in child labour, we do believe that helping to build something physically has a number of benefits:
1. Feeling part of it
2. Building team spirit and camaraderie
3. Making a person proud of what they've built
4. Instilling a sense of ownership
5. Causing the person to want to care for it and protect it

Therefore we would like to involve the teenagers in building up the foundation for the further phases and growing items that can assist in making the initiative sustainable.

For the first phase, we were thinking about setting up green houses and planting vegetables in them that has a reasonable lifespan and can be sold to local green grocers and other shops as an income for the initiative.

Tomatoes and pumpkins are generally easy to grow and can be done in such a way that the tomatoes hang from the top of the greenhouse and the pumpkins grow from the bottom, maximising space.

In phase one, the teenagers can utilise a day during the weekend to build the required structures, plant and maintain the greenhouse. As phases go on, this will become a more involved process.

Once this project has been stabilised, the next project can be to start building base-camp, with wooden cabins (almost ZoZo-like) that will eventually be linked together with a common living and eating area in the middle.

Where possible, we'd like to get woodwork, metalwork and other teachers teaching these skills involved to train the teenagers and also get companies manufacturing these involved to oversee it as part of their corporate responsibility and giving back to the community.

We also foresee, that the eventual base camp will require security and for this purpose we will also get alternating day and night teams to do work around base camp and assist in standing guard.

Due to the risks involved in linking a monetary value to rewarding teenagers for initiative and good performance, we'd rather do rewards in terms of benefits such as freedoms and value adds (E.G. don't have to stand guard this week or can choose what he gets involved with this week, etc.)

7. Credibility and Integrity
Time and time again, history has shown that not everyone agrees with what leaders around them do. Our aim is not to be popular with everyone, but we believe that, through sound principles, unwavering values, proper protocol and always having checks and balances by industry leaders in place, we will maintain credibility and not compromise on our integrity.

8. Checks and Balances (Quality Control)
Due to the nature of this initiative and the fact that we are dealing with teenagers and parents’ children, we always want to ensure that we remain transparent and have the necessary audits, checks and balances in place, whether it be in our finances, methods, business partners, etc.

9. Networking with other Organisations

* Schools
* Psychologists and other emotional healers
* Community forums
* Paul Rothman’s warrior project
* Boys’ Town
* Mankind Project and their warrior weekends
* ToughLove South Africa
* South African Defence Force
* South African Police
* Andrew’s healing directory network
* Pelinduna Adventures.

10. Target Market

* Local schools (phase 1 onwards)
* Kids and young people from SA (phase 1 onwards)
* International market (phase 2 onwards)
* Psychologist referrals (phase 2 onwards)
* Court assessments and assignments (once phase 3 is established)
* Juvenile delinquents (once phase 3 is established).

11. Financial Input

* Parents, schools and possibly government
* Sponsors
* Medical aid accreditation
* SA Government judicial accreditation
* Accreditation by international organisations (U.N, other NGOs, World Bank, etc.)
* Nelson Mandela Trust, Oprah and other children funds/trusts.

12. Marketing
TBA

13. Logistics
(More intended for phase 3)

* Accommodation
* Food
* Day-to-day running of the venue
* Schooling

14. Analysing our place in the bigger picture
TBA - SWOT analysis, etc.