Since 2006, Meramec Adventure Ranch has provided wilderness and adventure-based therapeutic experiences for children and families in need. Whether it’s taking at-risk youth on an intense mountain hike or traversing the rope’s course, the therapists and guides at Meramec Adventure Ranch are dedicated to using the healing and restorative power of nature and outdoor challenges to bring healing, connection and purpose to some of the most vulnerable children in Missouri. 

Here at KVC Missouri, we know we all need connection, and that’s exactly what is fostered at Meramec Adventure Ranch. Explore what makes Meramec Adventure Ranch a place of transformation. 

What is Meramec Adventure Ranch?

Meramec Adventure Ranch is an outdoor adventure therapy camp combining on-site and mobile programs for therapeutic wilderness experiences across 1200 acres in Steelville. Retired military veteran Brett Bailey joined KVC Missouri to found this incredible adventure therapy camp nearly two decades ago. He has transformed what was once a horse ranch into one of the country’s most extensive adventure bases.

The ranch offers many exciting activities, including ropes courses, mud courses, climbing walls, horseback riding, primitive skills development, mountain biking and even white water kayaking! 

But Bailey will be the first to tell you that whether it’s a booking for a leadership retreat or a summer camp for at-risk youth, the adventurous amenities are simply tools for something greater.

Brett Bailey, Director of Meramec Adventure Ranch

“We use everything not as an event in itself, but as a catalyst for growth of efficacy, connection and purpose,” says Bailey.

Benefits of Outdoor Adventure Therapy

Everyone has some level of trauma in their past, leading to perceptions of helplessness, isolation and loss of purpose. Especially for those who experienced severe trauma at vulnerable ages, it’s natural to get stuck, feeling change isn’t possible. But that doesn’t mean the desire to change isn’t there. “I’ve never met a kid that didn’t want to change and heal and grow and hope,” says Bailey, “But I meet kids every single day who don’t believe that change is possible and, more importantly, that they don’t deserve it.”

Outdoor adventure therapy directly combats these negative perceptions by redeeming past trauma, developing self-efficacy, building relationships and encouraging campers to get out of their comfort zones in unique and challenging ways.

Redeem Past Trauma

One of the goals of Meramec Adventure Ranch is to help change the ways children and youth look at themselves and their personal history. This focus on redemption is key. “The trauma that these kids have suffered will never be good,” clarifies Bailey, “but it can be purposeful.” Redemption means helping individuals to not view themselves as complicit in the trauma of their past. Whether that be abuse or neglect or some other experience outside of their control—but see themselves as resilient survivors. As Bailey explains, “They start to see that their stories that they thought counted them out are the very things that they can use to impact the world in ways that no one else can.”

Develop Self-Efficacy

Bailey emphasizes an important distinction between self-esteem and self-efficacy. Meramec Adventure Ranch encourages youth to focus not on a broad feeling of positivity about one’s self, but on tangible and specific beliefs of personal value and ability. “Rather than overarching judgments of self-worth, it’s this very defined cognitive evaluation of capability,” says Bailey.

The beauty of self-efficacy is that it can transfer from context to context. An adolescent who doesn’t give up and completes the ropes course can take that personal efficacy into adulthood. They can see themselves as someone who doesn’t quit even when a situation is difficult or frustrating.

Build Trust and Relationships

A lot of the activities at Meramec Adventure Ranch involve working in groups, making it a great experience for bonding and trust-building! Campers develop camaraderie in all different contexts, whether on mountaintops or in rivers. They learn the importance of relying on others and what traits to look for in people they put their trust in.

These trusting relationships are developed between campers as well as with the adult staff who guide campers through different adventures and experiences. “What we hear more than anything else is that what makes us unique is not the crazy cool courses or the amazing activities or anything like that,” says Bailey. “It is the people who work here. It’s our guides who serve and sacrifice and live right alongside these campers through it all.”

Get Out of the Comfort Zone

Nothing breaks a person out of their comfort zone like a challenging wilderness adventure. This feeling of being off-balance is vital for helping at-risk youth to revisit the ways they act and react. The brain is naturally adaptable and capable of rewiring itself with new experiences. Getting out of your comfort zone is a great foundation for change. It can encourage your brain to shift responses from negative to positive.

While we provide many opportunities for this, we never ask campers to do it alone. “We won’t ever ask a kid to do something that we’re not doing alongside them,” says Bailey.

Who Does Meramec Adventure Ranch Serve?

Meramec Adventure Ranch was developed as a KVC program for children and youth in residential treatment programs. But our campers come from all walks of life! Meramec Adventure Ranch campers typically range from 6 to 21 years of age. However, campers may be older when coming in as an outside group from a college or corporate retreat. Here are the many faces of Meramec Adventure Ranch campers:

Youth in Residential Treatment Programs

While there are hundreds of wilderness and adventure therapy programs out there for adolescent treatment, the majority of these are very expensive. They could require parents to pay as much as $750 a day to send their children to the program! Meramec Adventure Ranch is one of the last therapeutic adventure and wilderness programs left in the entire country for children in state care who don’t have an adult caregiver capable of funding the program.

“Our heart is with kids in residential treatment because they’re the kids that so much of the world has given up on and wants to forget about,” says Bailey. It’s not uncommon for children in state care to experience a lot of instability. The average number of placements for children in out-of-home care settings is 4.3. Furthermore, when a youth has reached the level of residential treatment they can experience 15 or more placements before aging out of the system. Bailey shared that one camper who stayed with them at the ranch over the holidays was in her 34th placement! Meramec Adventure Ranch aims to be more than just another placement. We strive to be an opportunity for something different that inspires hope and possibility.

Foster Care Children and Families

Nine years ago, Meramec Adventure Ranch hosted sibling weekends for children in foster care. Children in foster care often end up in different foster homes than their siblings, especially for larger sibling groups. These weekends provided a chance for these siblings to reconnect and restore relationships after not having seen each other for months or even years.

Starting next month, Meramec Adventure Ranch will be reintroducing these sibling camps along with a new weekend retreat for foster families! The foster family weekends will be both for foster families to grow relationships and build trust as well as opportunities for respite care. Program dates will be rolled out through case workers to families who may be interested.

Others We Serve

Not all of our campers come directly from KVC programs. We also provide intercept programs for at-risk students in our local school systems, camps for children on the autism spectrum and even camps for wounded veterans and their families to rebuild and strengthen relationships.

Funding Meramec Adventure Ranch Through Outside Groups

A lot of the campers come from KVC programs or other nonprofit organizations that provide a free experience to those in need. Additionally, Meramec Adventure Ranch curates programs for outside groups whose bookings help fund the camp for others! The outdoor therapeutic experiences at Meramec Adventure Ranch are transformative and healing for everyone, not just those in at-risk situations. “We all have had hurt and harm in our past,” says Bailey, and the kind of therapeutic wilderness adventures campers have at the ranch can aid in healing that you didn’t even know you needed!

Outside groups have come to Meramec Adventure Ranch looking for leadership development, personal growth, communication skills and cultivating a vision. It’s all about building camaraderie and deepening relationships. In the words of KVC, we all need connection!

Every program for an outside group is uniquely customized based on the objectives and goals of that group. “Our staff takes activities and makes them intentional like no other place can, because our kids have trained us well!” says Bailey.

Learn more about booking a weekend at Meramec Adventure Ranch for your organization and how your booking doesn’t just empower your group but helps fund opportunities for at-risk youth as well.

Snapshot of Success: From Meramec Adventure Ranch to Adulthood

There are so many stories of healing and success among the many campers who come to Meramec Adventure Ranch every year, but this is one of Bailey’s personal favorites. This camper came to Meramec Adventure Ranch from the St. James residential treatment campus, where he was taken after DSS found out he had been kept in a dog cage for two years. “All he knew in his life was failure,” says Bailey. “He had plenty of evidence to convince himself that all he did was fail.”

This young man learned how to ride a bike during the summer at Meramec Adventure Ranch and went from brand-new cyclist to joining the 150-mile mountain bike trip that fall. Bailey remembers how it took less than a hundred yards for this young man to quit. The rest of the group encouraged him to keep going, and he did. He wanted to give up every quarter mile. But despite these moments of discouragement, he made it through the entire trip! After that initial trip, he ended up going on three more trips, making him the record-holder for most miles of mountain biking among any Meramec Adventure Ranch camper.

“He replaced ‘I am weak and helpless’ with ‘I am courageous and stick with it no matter what,’” says Bailey with pride. And that resilience has served him well. Today, this camper is now an adult with a stable job and has even come back to the ranch many times to make sure his record still stands. He even joined the group for a day on a recent bike trip because he wanted to talk to the new campers about not giving up and show them that it’s possible to do what he did.

Help Bring Trauma-Informed Outdoor Adventures to At-Risk Youth

While a lot of what we do at Meramec Adventure Ranch is funded through for-profit organizations, it’s also made possible by generous donations from individuals who believe in our mission! If 2700 people were willing to donate just one dollar a day, it would fund the entire Meramec Adventure Ranch program for a year!

Make a donation on the Meramec Adventure Ranch website, either recurring, as a one-time gift or to fund a camper in need.