Life Adventure Center of Versailles, Kentucky

At the Life Adventure Center in Versailles, children and adults who have faced disadvantages of poverty or trauma find new hope and learn how resilient they really are.

Tim McGill, executive director of the center, talked with Kentucky Life host Doug Flynn about the center, which offers outdoor adventures to a variety of populations in need, including military veterans, teens from the inner city, and victims of human trafficking.

“What we do is we use different outdoor adventures to help people with three things, basically: communication skills, leadership, and most importantly, resilience. How do you bounce back from that kind of trauma, how do you build that sense of confidence before and after some difficult circumstances?” he asks.

On a 570-acre wooded tract in Woodford County, the center offers a challenge course including a 40-foot climbing wall, outdoor adventures like canoeing and climbing in the Red River Gorge, and horsemanship.

“We also have a really unique program called vaulting, which is actually gymnastics on horseback,” he told Flynn. “And believe it or not, we can even get somebody like you or one of the kids from the inner city of Lexington, getting on back of a horse, a moving horse, and doing gymnastics moves, within just a half an hour.

“The point of that is not necessarily to teach horsemanship. It’s about, ‘Wow, look at these wonderful things that you can do.’ And how can you overcome some other things in your life. We translate that all back to their life.”

This segment is part of Kentucky Life episode #2106, which originally aired on February 6, 2016. Watch the full episode.