Kids To The Country

Plenty’s Kids To The Country (KTC) program offers at-risk urban kids the opportunity to get out of the city and their troubled situations to develop a connection to nature through hands-on experience.  KTC takes place on 1750 acres of woods, fields and streams 80 miles south of Nashville on Tennessee’s Highland Rim. The land belongs to a 50 year-old intentional community called The Farm, where KTC has operated since 1986.

KTC kids come from homeless shelters, refugee centers, and low-income neighborhoods. More than 8500 children have participated since the program began in Tennessee.

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A KTC craft-making session next to the “swimming hole,” a pond with a sandy beach, which is a favorite spot for the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids To The Country provides the opportunity for kids to:

  • experience a multicultural environment
  • build a sense of community and positive self-esteem
  • learn nonviolent conflict resolution skills
  • develop healthful relationships
  • expand their world view
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The Farm has lots of safe places to ride bikes.

KTC structures activities to form lasting feelings of accomplishment and self-worth in each child. The nature school curriculum helps every youngster develop an experiential connection to the rhythms of nature, the animals, and the woods!

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Swimming lessons in the “swimming hole.”

Many former KTC kids return to become counselors in training. The first week of KTC is always set aside for our counselor training, and includes a day for the younger kids to come and interact with the counselor trainees.

Many of the youngsters we get to know live with the daily threat of random violence. One expressed  “I bet there’s no shoot-outs here like there are in my neighborhood.” In recent times we’ve seen the unthinkable happen in our schools and in our cities. We know that ignoring the needs of children in our communities ultimately affects us all.

To find out how you can sponsor a child or participate in the Kids To The Country program, please email us, Mary Ellen Bowen, MSc, Director, kidstothecountry@gmail.com, or write to: KTC, 425 Farm Road, Suite 3, Summertown, TN 38483. Donations to KTC are tax-deductible and always greatly appreciated!

Kids To The Country is an outdoor, experiential, education program (not camp). For more information about Kids To The Country please visit us and like us on Facebook here.