Boredom on the weekends is definitely worse in the winter when we are cooped up, but we do offer ski/ snowboarding club, snow shoeing, crafts, use of our indoor athletic facilities and indoor climbing wall. In the summer we send kids outside a lot and try to have a lot of organized sports and activities. As I'm sure you know, it can be difficult to get teens excited about participating in group events- many complain and perfer to do their own thing. Once they are pushed to try something new, they often love it. So it's a bit of a push pull. If we had more money or bigger vans, we could get more kids off campus, volunteering, visiting museums and other cultural spots, bring more varied performers to ASR, etc.
We have not had a kid try to run away in at least 6 months. We are taking much "softer" kids than we did a few year back, and they are generally more compliant and less out of control. So they are more apt to talk things through with staff instead of trying to run. We do not confront as hard as we used to. We give kids more healthy outlets for their frustration than we used to.
I would say that most kids adapt well to our environment and are happy on a daily basis. I often see kids laughing and participating in fun events, yet then go into a phone call with their parents and talk about how much they hate ASR. I wish I had a videotape to show the parents that life at ASR is a pretty fun, very safe place. Once kids make it thru the halfway point, they usually can admit that they are making great friendships and love most of the staff. Of course, there are always a couple kids who cannot adapt and are abnormally unhappy at ASR, and usually they move onto other places before long.
