YOUR ADVENTURE AWAITS
Our
Story
Summer 2020: Community Youth Concepts launches the Stowe Heights Challenge Course.
​
Summer 2020: Despite COVID-19 challenges and repairs from the August 10th derecho, Stowe Heights serves five groups in its opening year with the support of community sponsors.
​
June 2021: The grand opening celebration takes place, marking the culmination of efforts from community partners who made the resource possible.
​
Since June 2021: Stowe Heights has evolved, offering experiential programs for groups aged 10 and up.
Get to Know Us
The Stowe Heights Challenge Course is managed and staffed by Community Youth Concepts (CYC), a community-driven organization providing volunteer service opportunities and career-based mentoring to Iowa youth and adult participants.
​
Community Youth Concepts was founded in 2008 with the vision of an Iowa where all youth have access to high-quality opportunities that prepare them for success in school, work, and life.
​
To accomplish this vision, CYC engages in two core strategies comprising their mission: offer high-quality youth development programming and provide coaching, training, and technical assistance to youth and youth-serving professionals.
What is a challenge course?
A challenge course is a combination of mental and physical challenges requiring groups to work as a team to accomplish goals. Through a series of fun and unusual activities, participants learn valuable information about themselves, each other, and the group as a unit. By removing people from their usual environment and placing them in a new, unique setting, a challenge-course experience fosters shared learning, openness, and cooperation.
"We have been using the ropes course and portable challenge for the past 8 years to help develop relationships among our incoming 6th graders. Through the experience, CYC provides, our students are able to build off a common experience to make their transition from separate elementary schools to a single middle school much smoother."
Abby Schueller
Urbandale Middle School and Movin' On Up collaborator