Finding your path in life is hard. This 'adult field trip' is meant to help

Cole Flanagan says he can't stop talking about his experience in the Canadian Rockies earlier this summer — and it wasn't just about having mountain adventures.

It also included learning about issues including climate change, mental health and reconciliation.

"It was very heavy at times," said the 21-year-old from southern Ontario.

"There was a lot of emotions. There was a lot of people going through some pretty challenging life situations, and everyone came together and shared and laughed and cried."

One of the difficult moments, he said, was a visit to a former residential school in Alberta, where survivors shared their stories and talked about intergenerational trauma.

"Being there made it so much different."

Flanagan was participating in Howl, a program that gives young people between the ages of 17 and 30 an opportunity to learn from Indigenous knowledge keepers, scientists and wellness experts. It's being offered in weeklong camps to three-month semesters in the Rockies, Maritimes and Yukon.

Adam Robb, founder and co-director, said he came up with the program during the COVID-19 pandemic after being a Calgary high school teacher for 15 years.

"I was doing online teaching from home and watching youth at home, trying to connect with them and help them through a pretty isolating time," he said.

"I had been stewing on this question of what happens to youth after they leave the doors of high school for a long time. It's a big question that we don't think about in enough detail."

In Canada, he said, high school students typically go to college or university, travel or stay home and save money.

Statistics Canada said in a May 2022 report that 12.5 per cent of those who later enrolled in a post-secondary institution took a gap year.

Robb said he noticed a growing need for youth to gain some life experience before making decisions about their future.

"Never before like the last four or five years as a teacher have I had so many students come up to me worried about things like climate change, worried about big societal things like Black Lives Matter and Truth and Reconciliation," he said. "They just feel this immense anxiety over the state of things."